Fort Smith sits at the northern edge of Alberta on the banks of the Slave River, just inside the Northwest Territories — and it is the administrative headquarters of Wood Buffalo National Park, Canada's largest national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. If you are heading into that vast wilderness of boreal forest, salt plains, and bison meadows, this is where you start.
The town is small — around 2,500 people — but punches well above its weight for anyone interested in northern wildlife. Wood Buffalo is home to the world's largest free-roaming bison herd, whooping cranes nesting in the wild, and the Peace-Athabasca Delta, one of the world's great freshwater deltas. The park headquarters here can set you up with maps, guided programs, and everything you need before you head in.
The Slave River rapids run right through town and are a draw in themselves. The Mountain Portage Rapids and the Rapids of the Drowned are considered among the finest whitewater in northern Canada, drawing kayakers who know what they are looking at. In summer, white pelicans congregate along the river in numbers that feel impossible this far north. A short drive south on Highway 5 brings you to the Salt Plains — a strange, almost lunar landscape of exposed saline soil where bison have grazed for centuries.