Pingos near Tuktoyaktuk By Emma Pike – public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Tukoyaktuk, Northwest Territories – In this region you can find the world’s largest concentration of Pingos (cone-shaped hills with a core of ice). There are about 1,350 on the Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula in the western Arctic region – that’s one quarter of the world’s pingos! Some Inuit hunters have reportedly used hollowed out pingos as meat freezers.

Tukoyaktuk is on the shore of the Arctic Ocean, 137 km (82 m) north of Inuvik. In summer you can reach it by air. In the winter the communities are also connected by ice road.

From ‘Tuk’ you can go just 5 km (3 mi) west to explore the eight pingos of Pingo National Landmark, which is operated by Parks Canada. One, known as Ibyuk Pingo, is the highest pingo in the in Canada. It’s thought to be 1000 years old and towers 49 m (160 ft). Local tour operators and outfitters offer guide services to the pingo site, which usually involves travel by boat in the summer and snowmobile in the winter.