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Wood Buffalo National Park and its Visitor Centre are accessed from Fort Smith, NT. There is access from Fort Chipewyan and Fort McMurray, AB, in the south, but only over a winter road reminiscent of those seen on the Ice Road Trucker TV show.
My DW and I visited Fort Smith and Wood Buffalo National Park two years ago. The road north through Alberta and up to Hay River, NT, is good two-lane pavement. From Hay River, south 170 miles to Fort Smith is mostly paved but there is about a 40 mile stretch that is potholed gravel with significant sections of rough washboard. Since you come out the same way you go in, you are looking at 80 miles of very bad road. Once there you can drive into the park down to Peace Point, a 75 mile (times 2) gravel road trek. AT least this road is in better condition than the road down to Fort Smith.
There is an RV park in Fort Smith.
The saddest aspect of our trip to Wood Buffalo NP is that we did not see any buffalo in the park - zero. We saw three on the road between Hay River and Fort Smith but only two were still alive. We were also told by the park rangers to report the location of any dead buffalos we saw. There numbers are down at present due to an anthrax outbreak, common to buffalo.
We did see several more buffalo further north on the way up to Yellowknife. There are anthrax free herds north of the Mackenzie River which they are trying to keep well separated from the more southerly herds.
If you choose to go north and decide to visit Yellowknife, be warned that the section of road between Edzo and Yellowknife is far worse than anything other talk about on their way north to Alaska. It took us over two hours to traverse this 60 mile stretch of extremely twisted asphalt road. I have ridden rollercoaster rides that were smoother.
We did this trip in a 43 ft DP with a Honda CR-V tow car.
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Retired and livin' the RV dream!
2005 Newmar 43 ft. MADP, Cummins ISL 400HP, 2018 Jeep Wrangler JLU Sahara
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