Coppermine River: Rocknest Lake to Kugluktuk (18 days / 400 km)

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The Coppermine River is an incredible river that starts with a large series of lakes in the Northwest Territories and empties in Kugluktuk Nunavut, in the Arctic Ocean. This 400 km trip takes you through a variety of landscapes, with crystal clear water, fun rapids, plentiful wildlife and great campsites.

We paddled the Coppermine in July 2023, and it was an incredible trip. We were a group of 6 in paddling 3 different canoes; A Nova Craft Moisie, an Esquif Canyon and an Esquif Miramichi 18, all with spraydecks. The river was record low and record warm during our time there, which made some rapids a lot less exciting, while some others more exciting or difficult depending on how you look at it. The water was around 19oC, which made for great swimming conditions, but made the fishing for lake trout and arctic char very poor.

Trip Summary

Starting Point: Rocknest Lake, NWT

Ending Point: Kugluktuk, Nu

Duration: 18 days

Difficulty: Advanced

Location: Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

“This trip ended up being extra special for our group for a few reasons. First of all, we were supposed to paddle the Broken Skull/Nahanni but were forced to find a different plan about 36 hours before our departure due to heavy smoke stopping planes from being able to fly into the park. So very quickly, we looked at other options and opted for the Coppermine.

We had found very little detailed information about the river, so we went into it pretty blind. There was less challenging whitewater than we expected, but this ended up being fine since the river was just incredibly beautiful.

The weather also had a huge impact. We were expecting colder temperatures, both for air and water. This was a record year for the region, which is obviously concerning, especially for the fish in this case, but also, we definitely couldn’t complain about doing a full arctic trip in t-shirt, shorts, barefoot and swimming every day. This also meant that we had basically no bugs, which is exceptional for an arctic trip.

Last but not least, we were incredibly lucky with our wildlife sightings. We basically saw every large mammals that the region has to offer other than a grizzly bear, which is probably a good thing and we saw one from the plane on our flight back.

This is an incredible river, but it will become very challenging to run if it drops any lower than it was. Some sections will become too dry to run. There is a federal hydro station on it, but it didn’t seem to be working for the time we were on the river, so it is challenging to actually know where the river sits at.”

​Click here to read the full trip report.​