» Pingo National Landmark
Just getting here is an adventure. Drive 15 hours along the Dempster from Dawson City, Yukon to Inuvik, NWT. Fill up on gas at Eagle Plains. Then fly from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk, NWT and rent a boat to get to the Pingos. Good luck!

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If you'd like to get to the Pingos, first you need to fly. Take Aklak Airlines. from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk. As you head north, the Mackenzie River Delta opens up to form a ton of small rivers and lakes. Within these areas, the Pingos live.

As you approach, the Pingos appear. Here is Splint Pingo from the air. The Arctic Ocean is in the background.

Ibyuk Pingo. Grows 2cm each year. At 160 feet, it is the 2nd highest in the world. Parks Canada doesn't allow us to climb it. Grrr... so this is the closest we got.

Tuktoyaktuk and Splint Pingo

Just getting here is an adventure.

Just getting here is an adventure.

Just getting here is an adventure.

Ibyuk on the left, Splint pingo on the right.

Soil composition.

Just getting here is an adventure.

Pomarine Skua?

Tundra swan.

Into the blue.

Ibyuk and splint pingo.

Special thanks to Arctic Nature Tours (link below) and our very cool tour guide. Take this tour!

Leaving the pingos.

» Kai's Pingo

Kai's Pingo. Here is some controversy for you. This is not in the NWT, this is in Wyoming, in Jackass Pass. Supposedly pingos don't exist in Wyoming, but I think this is a Pingo. I've heard arguments as to why it can't be a pingo, but I'm not convinced. A pingo needs a few elements: water, soil and permafrost. It can also form via methane. Someone please, enlighten me and drill a core sample here and let me know if there is any evidence of methane or permafrost.
Here are my hypotheses:
1. This is a pingo.
2. It is not from the same time period as the pingos up north. It is an ancient pingo.
3. Permafrost can exist up here (it's high in the mountains).
4. This pingo may have been sheltered by the last ice age (hence it wasn't destroyed).
5. It could be a collapsed pingo.
6. It might not be such a high pingo, because of the weight of some of the rocks that the permafrost lifted.
So, I went to this place in August 2008 and I hearby name it 'Kai's Pingo'. Even if it's not a pingo, just name it that. I want my name on something in life, I'll take this pingo.

Another angle of the pingo.

» Useful Links

Pingo National Landmark -- Parks Canada
Arctic Nature Tours
MacKenzieDelta -- hotel in Inuvik, NWT