Baffin Island

Glaciers are rivers of ice. They moved slowly over this land.

They dug deep valleys. The sea filled them, making fiords.

In Auyuittuq National Park, the land is still being shaped by ice. Glaciers and permanent ice cover about 40 percent of the land, and the Penny Ice Cap alone covers about 28 percent.

Along the coast, glaciers dug their valleys so deep that the floors are below sea level. The sea flooded them, making fiords with vertical walls up to 900 meters high.

Parks Canada describes Auyuittuq's landscape as one still sculpted by ice, rock, wind and water. Glaciers and permanent ice cover about 8,470 km², or 40% of the park: the Penny Ice Cap about 28% and glacial cirques about 12%. This ice shapes the regional microclimate and the water budget of every other ecosystem in the park.

On the coast, glaciers incised valley floors below sea level, creating deep, narrow fiords with vertical walls up to 900 m; the park has about 800 km of fiord coastline. Half the park is tundra and barrens (including about 18% bare bedrock), and less than 3% is fresh water.

A big park on Baffin Island is called Auyuittuq.

In the Inuit language, that means the land that never melts.

Auyuittuq National Park covers 19,089 square kilometers on Baffin Island's Cumberland Peninsula. Its name is the Inuktitut word for 'the land that never melts'. It was chosen in 1975 in a naming competition held in the nearby communities.

The park sits almost entirely inside the Arctic Circle, between the High Arctic and Low Arctic plant zones, and it is managed together by Inuit and Parks Canada.

According to Parks Canada's 2010 management plan, the name Auyuittuq, Inuktitut for 'the land that never melts', was chosen in a February 1975 competition in the communities of Broughton Island (now Qikiqtarjuaq) and Pangnirtung. The area was protected as a national park reserve in 1976 and became a national park in 2001; it is cooperatively managed by Inuit and Parks Canada.

The park represents the Northern Davis Natural Region and straddles the Arctic Circle in a transition between High Arctic and Low Arctic vegetation zones. Greenshield Lake, its largest lake, is ringed by vegetated tundra used by many of the park's animals.

Polar bears hunt along the coast.

Whales and seals swim in the deep fiords.

Parks Canada describes Auyuittuq's fiords as rich with whales, seals and fish, and says polar bears hunt and den along the coast. Caribou and wolves roam the land.

In the park's small lakes live landlocked Arctic char, fish that are important to the nearby Inuit communities. Wildlife is most abundant in the fiords of the park's northeast corner.

Parks Canada notes that the park protects parts of the habitat needed by wide-ranging animals, including caribou, polar bears, wolves and some marine mammals. The polar bear, the Eastern High Arctic/Baffin Bay population of beluga and the narwhal had been identified by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada as species of special concern when the 2010 plan was written.

The marine part of the park is small, about 7%, but especially diverse, chiefly in the northeastern fiords. Small lakes support landlocked populations of Arctic char, an important species to the neighboring Inuit communities.

The weather can change fast, and the wind can be very strong.

Wear lots of warm clothes, and always stay with your grown-up.

Parks Canada warns that Arctic weather changes suddenly. Whiteouts can happen at any time of year, snow can fall in any month, and winds in the Akshayuk Pass have reached 175 kilometers per hour.

Cold and wind together can cause hypothermia, when the body can no longer keep itself warm. Know its signs and dress for wind chill. Parks Canada also lists river crossings and polar bears among the park's main safety concerns.

Parks Canada describes a polar marine climate with sub-freezing temperatures possible year-round; winds of 15-20 km/h are common, stronger from late summer to early winter, with extremes to 100 km/h and up to 175 km/h in the Akshayuk Pass. Travel delays of one to five days are typical, and severe frostbite and hypothermia have led to many evacuations. Its safety risk assessment identified river crossings, polar bears, weather and climbing as concerns.

Its advice: know the signs of hypothermia, account for wind chill, carry a four-season tent, and keep a flexible schedule.