Coppermine River: Rocknest Lake to Kugluktuk (18 days / 400 km)
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 are 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 Completed: July 2023
Trip Summary
Location: Northwest Territories and Nunavut.
Traditional Territory: This route takes place on the traditional territory of the Akaitcho, Tłı̨chǫ Ndè, Dënéndeh, and the Inuit Nunangat.
Maps & Resources
Guidebook: We did not find any guidebooks for this river
Map: I use the Canada Topo app for all my river trips, which is a free app (on iPhones) that uses the original topographic maps of Canada. You download the maps of your route before departing, and you can use them on your phone (or iPad) while out on your trip just like you would use a regular GPS.
Interactive Map: Click here to view and modify this route using the Route Planner
Permits and Reservations
Campsite Reservations: No reservations
Permits: No permits required
Know Before You Go
Season: We paddled this river from the 15th of July until the 31st and it seemed like a good time of the year to paddle it if you want warmer weather and fewer bugs. Most lakes that you can land on in this region won’t be free of ice until late June/early July. August can be great for the fall colours, but expect colder weather.
Cell Reception: No cell reception
Water: The water is clear for the whole trip
Wildlife: I would not consider any wildlife to be a problem on this trip, there are black and grizzly bears in the region as well as muskoxen which are known to be aggressive at times.
Waste: This is a remote route with no facilities
Outfitters & Shuttles
Outfitter: We did not use an outfitter for this trip. We drove from Whitehorse to Yellowknife with all our personal equipment.
Shuttle: We flew into Rocknest Lake with Air Tindi out of Yellowknife with a Twin Otter on floats and flew back also with Air Tindi, from the Kugluktuk Airport with a Twin Otter on wheels. The campground in Kugluktuk is a few kilometres away from the airport, but we simply asked around town for ride options and we found a nice gentleman to help us in no time.
Depending on the time you have for this trip, there are several options on places to land. There are many large lakes upstream of Rocknest, and Air Tindi also flies people directly on the river in different areas. Rocknest was perfect for us with the amount of time we had, and Air Tindi was a great company to work with.
Trip Report
Day 1: Fly from Yellowknife to Rocknest Lake
We got up early that morning from our campsite at Prelude Lake outside of Yellowknife to go load up the plane. We departed at 8:30 am and the 2-hour flight to Rocknest was pretty smooth. We landed not far from a nice beach on a point and decided to stay there for the day to sort out our gear and relax. We had just spent the last 2 days driving from Whitehorse, the weather was amazing, so a rest day here was welcomed. We did a bit of fishing with no luck and played some games on the beach while watching the smoke from the many wildfires down south roll in.
Campsite: We camped on a nice large beach at a point not too far from where the lake empties into the river.
| Total Distance | 0.3 km |
| Portaging Distance | 0 m |
| Number of Portages | 0 |
| Number of Rapids | 0 |
| Campsite Reservation | None |
Day 2: Rocknest Lake to Large Beach Campsite
On day 2, we woke up to a perfectly glassy Rocknest Lake. We had found very little information about this river and there were quite a few rapids indicated on our map, so we left with some excitement as well as a little bit of nervousness waiting to see what it was all going to look like.
The first rapid we encountered was a small class 1, but the second rapid located at 65o42.166568’ N, 114o9.530406’ W ended up being the most challenging rapid of the entire trip. This rapid was a bony class 3. After a lot of time spent scouting the rapid from both sides, we decided to run the first section before lining the last two drops due to the low water. We decided it was too risky to damage the boats while running the drops. We ran and lined on river right. There’s a nice portage trail on the right if you decide to portage these rapids.
The other rapids we encountered on that day were easy class 1 or 2 with some bony sections. None of these are pushy, and the rocks were all round boulders, making it fun to slalom your way through and not too dramatic to kiss occasionally. The biggest challenge was always to find the deepest channel to go through. The river becomes wide and braided in several areas, so pay attention to make sure you stay in the deepest channel if you don’t want to get stuck and end up dragging your boats.
Once we were passed the rapid sections, we stumbled onto a large group of muskoxen and slowly paddled passed them as they were stampeding and rounding up the calves to protect them. What a way to start the trip! We found a nice sandy camp not too far passed them.
Campsite: We found a nice beach point with good firewood supplies so decided to stay there. It was in the middle of the river in a slow-moving section that was almost like a small lake. The views were great and the steep drop at the end of the beach was great for our evening swim.
| Total Distance | 31.8 km |
| Portaging Distance | 0 m |
| Number of Portages | 0 |
| Number of Rapids | 4 |
| Campsite Reservation | None |
Editor’s Note: Given this is a northern river with continuous current, the “Number of Rapids” represents only the number of noteworthy rapids.
Day 3: Large Beach Campsite to the Nunavut Border
We woke up to another beautiful calm morning and we were excited to see what the river had in line for us, as our map was showing lots of whitewater.
As we paddled through the first rapids, we quickly realized that all the rapids indicated on our topo maps we minor, never being more than an easy class 2 and more of the same with slaloming through large boulders in shallow waters.
Even though it was still fun and kept us on edge throughout the day, we were a bit disappointed none of them were more challenging. There weren’t many great campsite possibilities along this stretch, so we ended up paddling for longer than we expected; we made it to the Nunavut border and found a nice mini beach at the end of a small set of class 1 rapids.
Campsite: Small beach on river right at the end of a small set of class 1 rapids. This looked like a great fishing spot, but we only managed to catch a few arctic graylings. This ended up being the story of our trip, most likely due to the warmer-than-usual water. This campsite was a bit tight for tent spots but was beautiful nonetheless.
| Total Distance | 40.9 km |
| Portaging Distance | 0 m |
| Number of Portages | 0 |
| Number of Rapids | 4 |
| Campsite Reservation | None |
Day 4: Nunavut Boarder to Large Beach Campsite (Camp 4)
I got up early to fish and after 2 hours spent in the water catching nothing other than a few graylings, the rest of the crew got up and we spotted a moose with her calf in the far corner of the bay downstream.
We knew today was going to be our last day for a while with whitewater, just before the Fairy Lake River comes in. We were also hoping there would be some good fishing there. Turns out it was more of the same for the rapids, nothing serious with a long class 1+ section and we found no good fishing spots.
Once passed Fairy Lake River, the Coppermine became a very slow-moving river for a long time. The weather was amazing, and in a spot where the river narrows slightly, we stumbled into an amazing large beach on river left, with some standing water pools so we decided to stop a little earlier to enjoy the area.
Campsite: This beach was amazing, especially with the standing water pools which were incredibly warm. There is a more gravelly campsite just across the river, which would be more suitable if the weather wasn’t as nice.
| Total Distance | 22.7 km |
| Portaging Distance | 0 m |
| Number of Portages | 0 |
| Number of Rapids | 1 |
| Campsite Reservation | None |
Day 5: Large Beach Campsite (Camp 4) to Gravel Bar (Camp 5)
We got up to another beautiful calm morning, which was extra nice as we knew we were in for a slow-moving day with this section. There wasn’t much to report here, but we got hit by a big thunderstorm in the afternoon which forced us to find a camp right after. Luckily for us, the rain stopped and never started again. A wolverine also surprised us as we were eating dinner, slowly making his way up a sandy cliff across the river.
Campsite: This camp was nothing too special, but it had a nice little pond just behind where sandpipers and arctic terns were feeding non-stop, which made for cool images.
| Total Distance | 34.3 km |
| Portaging Distance | 0 m |
| Number of Portages | 0 |
| Number of Rapids | 0 |
| Campsite Reservation | None |
Day 6: Gravel Bar (Camp 5) to Campsite across from Old Cabin
Another bluebird-calm morning with another slow-moving day. The calm section of the river continued all day as we snacked rafted all together while slowly drifting downstream and swimming along. We found an old cabin on river right late in the afternoon, and when going to take a look, realized that many groups used to sign their name. We did the same and paddled across the river to a large long beach and settled for the night.
Campsite: This camp was on the largest beach we camped on during the whole trip. We could have literally gone for a barefoot run for kilometres. It had a sand dune-like feature running along it at the back and a nice little creek coming in just downstream. We went down there to throw a line in and realized that there was serious quicksand. One team member got stuck to the point of needing help to dig himself out. We caught a small pike that we kept for dinner.
| Total Distance | 33 km |
| Portaging Distance | 0 m |
| Number of Portages | 0 |
| Number of Rapids | 0 |
| Campsite Reservation | None |
Day 7: Campsite across from the Old Cabin to Sandy Island Campsite
Another day, another beautiful morning ready to keep pushing down this slower section. We paddled for about 35 km before settling down on another large beach with a steep drop perfect for swimming.
Campsite: Large beach on river right. There wasn’t any wood there, so we had to go across the river to gather some. But it was another beautiful beach to enjoy on a perfect warm day. The Arctic terns were super aggressive around that area so be aware of those!
| Total Distance | 31.9 km |
| Portaging Distance | 0 m |
| Number of Portages | 0 |
| Number of Rapids | 0 |
| Campsite Reservation | None |
Day 8: Sandy Island Campsite to Hook River Campsite
We woke up to another perfect calm warm morning and we were excited as the river showed some signs of change with a few sharp bends with cliff sections. The river started flowing faster through this section, which was a nice change.
There were storms lurking all afternoon, and we reached the Hook River where we decided to set camp just passed where the small river comes in by a small gravel beach on river left with a great view downstream. The storms surrounded us all evening but never really hit us, a large caribou walked by across the river, followed by a wolf about an hour later!
Campsite: Nice camp on a grassy bench above the gravel beach on river left. This ended up being one of our most magical camp, providing an incredible sunset, with two amazing wildlife encounters.
| Total Distance | 22.1 km |
| Portaging Distance | 0 m |
| Number of Portages | 0 |
| Number of Rapids | 0 |
| Campsite Reservation | None |
Day 9: Hook River Confluence to Rocky Defile Rapids
We woke up to a grey sky for the first time on the trip. But the spirits were high as we were entering a new section of the river with more relief and some upcoming whitewater.
We reached Rocky Defile Rapids in mid-afternoon and went up to scout the rapid. We had read before the trip that this was one of the most challenging rapids we would encounter, and since it’s in a canyon, we all had a little stress coming into it. After scouting carefully, we realized that there really wasn’t much to it and ran it easily. It was at most a class 2, with only one bigger feature on river left. Keep in mind that we had record low water levels, which could explain this. We found a great camp on river right after the canyon and decided to stop for the night.
Campsite: This beautiful little beach on river right just below the canyon was gorgeous. It was a perfect site, and even provided our first cliff jumping opportunities of the trip, just behind camp. This is also where the portage trail ends. We hiked around quite a bit, and picked blueberries, which were plentiful.
| Total Distance | 32.4 km |
| Portaging Distance | 0 m |
| Number of Portages | 0 |
| Number of Rapids | 1 |
| Campsite Reservation | None |
Day 10: Rocky Defile to Sandy Beach Campsite (Camp 10)
We woke up to blue skies and took it easy cooking a moose smoked meat and cheese crepes and going for a few jumps off the cliffs before heading off on the river. Our map showed a few rapids in the coming section, but it was again some small class 1 rapids with many boulders that were easy to navigate through.
We had heard that the Kendall River was a great fishing spot for arctic char. We had little hope it would be the case with how the fishing had been, but we decided to check it out anyway. Our thoughts were sadly confirmed as we spent over an hour exploring the mouth of the Kendall with zero luck. We went on and found a nice little hidden beach in a back channel and decided to call it a day.
Campsite: Nice little beach at the end of a back channel. Nice swimming hole and we went for a little hike along the shore across the river.
| Total Distance | 18.8 km |
| Portaging Distance | 0 m |
| Number of Portages | 0 |
| Number of Rapids | 1 |
| Campsite Reservation | None |
Day 11: Sandy Beach Campsite (Camp 10) to Copper Creek Campsite
We stayed up late the previous night and had a slow morning but left with the hope of finding a good place to go for a hike in the September Mountains. We went around the large bend and made it about halfway down this long straight east-facing stretch of the river before settling onto a large gravel bar on river left just past Copper Creek. We saw a large old male muskox along the way, as well as a couple of caribou. We set up our camp and planned to go on our hike early the next morning to avoid the heat of the day.
Campsite: We camped on a large gravel bar on river left just past Copper Creek. Nothing too special about this site, but it was well-located for our hike the following morning.
| Total Distance | 24.5 km |
| Portaging Distance | 0 m |
| Number of Portages | 0 |
| Number of Rapids | 0 |
| Campsite Reservation | None |
Day 12: Copper Creek Campsite to Muskox Rapids
We started our day with a quick breakfast before heading out for a hike across the river to the top of the September Mountains ridge. It was a nice easy hike through the tundra with stunning views of the endless tundra from the top. We saw a young caribou, many birds, and our only arctic hare of the trip.
After the hike, we paddled about 35 km through this section of river where the speed picked up a bit. We stopped to fish for char at Melville Creek. Although we could see them, they simply weren’t biting, again most likely because of the warm water.
We kept on going towards Muskox Rapids. These were fun bouncy class 2 rapids that were run easily without having to scout. We found an incredible camp spot on river left at the end of the canyon before it fully opened up.
Campsite: This campsite was one of our favourites of the trip. There was a tiny beach to park the canoes on river left, and we set up camp up the cliffs. The view was amazing, the cliff swallows were flying all over and the swimming hole off the rocks was perfect.
| Total Distance | 33.4 km |
| Portaging Distance | 0 m |
| Number of Portages | 0 |
| Number of Rapids | 1 |
| Campsite Reservation | None |
Day 13: Muskox Rapids to Escape Rapids
The river really changes in this area, as you leave the forest behind and enter the tundra and the cliffs are almost always present. It had become smoky for this day, which made the scene a little eery. This was by far the day with the most whitewater on the whole trip. Everything to Sandstone Rapids was very easy class 1 to 1+, including Sandstone.
We stopped on the island at Sandstone just to check it out and realized it was a perfect cliff-jumping spot with super deep pools in the river left channel. After a fun stop, we kept on going down bouncy class 1+ rapids, which eventually turned into some good class 2 rapids.
The more challenging ones started about 5 km upstream of Escape Rapids. They are not pushy, but it is continuous class 2 with ledges that are sometimes really wide and difficult to see, so we took our time zig-zagging through this section. In the middle of that section, you’ll see a beautiful little waterfall on your right. We stopped there for a quick swim, took a few photos and kept going to Escape Rapids.
We ran the first section without scouting, then we got to a section that looked a little more challenging just before the entrance of the canyon and stopped to take a look. The river was so low that there were no options for a chicken line on the right, so we had to run the rapid in the guts in the centre, and this ended up being a fun challenging class 3. We all ran the rapid successfully and found a nice camp at the end of the canyon on river right.
Campsite: Great camp on river right just after the canyon. We decided to stay there for 2 nights since we had the time, and it was a beautiful area. Great swimming off the cliffs. There are no more trees there, but we collected a bunch of driftwood in the canyon so that we could make a nice fire.
| Total Distance | 38 km |
| Portaging Distance | 0 m |
| Number of Portages | 0 |
| Number of Rapids | 4 |
| Campsite Reservation | None |
Day 14: Rest Day at Escape Rapids (0 km)
We still had time on our trip, so we decided to take a rest day at Escape Rapids to swim, jump off the cliffs, and do a little fishing. It was another glorious day so we took it all in and relaxed.
Day 15: Escape Rapids to Bloody Falls/Kugluk (15 km)
It rained last night for the first time on the trip and we left for Bloody Falls on a grey morning. We paddled through the open landscape with beautiful cliffs on either side and small class 1 to 1+ rapids. We reached Bloody Falls early in the afternoon.
There’s a sign for the portage on river left, and we had been told that Bloody Falls was a class 5, so basically a mandatory portage. After doing the first portage trip, one of our crew members took a look down the canyon and realized that it looked totally runnable. So, we scouted properly, and in the end, we ran all three canoes down the falls with no difficulties. It was a bouncy class 3, ending with large waves which was super fun. It’s also simply a beautiful area, with large hills in the distance and a nice sharp canyon.
This is a Territorial Park, and there’s an established trail from Kugluktuk to the Falls so the locals go there a lot to fish.
Campsite: We camped in the designated area where there are picnic tables, fire pits and outhouses. We had brought some driftwood from Escape Rapids so that we could still have fires. We camped there for two nights.
| Total Distance | 16.4 km |
| Portaging Distance | 0 m |
| Number of Portages | 0 |
| Number of Rapids | 2 |
| Campsite Reservation | None |
Day 16: Rest Day at Bloody Falls/Kugluk
We spent the day relaxing and enjoying the site while chatting with the locals who came by to fish. They confirmed our thoughts about the warm water affecting the char, so they were fishing mostly for whitefish. We also decided to portage the canoes back and run the rapids another time just for fun!
We had an amazing sunset, went for a hike on the hills behind camp and saw a large wolf pass right through camp.
Day 17: Bloody Falls/Kugluk to Kugluktuk
We left early that morning to make sure we would have some time in town while things were open. We had met a nice local gentleman at the Falls who invited us in for tea on our way to town. After a quick stop at his place and some nice stories shared, we paddled into Kugluktuk on a beautiful bluebird afternoon.
The ocean there has very minimal tides, so that is not something you need to worry about, but apparently, it is known to be a very windy area. We did not encounter any strong winds but keep that in mind for your approach into town.
We walked around town, visited the beautiful cultural centre, and went for a swim in the ocean. We watched the beautiful sunset with our feet in the water on the beach.
Campsite: The campsite in town is basically a couple of large wooden platforms just passed the main townsite. There was another paddling group already camped there when we arrived which made it easy to find, but otherwise, the locals are nice and will point you in the right direction. It’s in the open and can be noisy with cars, quads, etc. Also, it is recommended to keep your belongings hidden in your tents.
| Total Distance | 20 km |
| Portaging Distance | 0 m |
| Number of Portages | 0 |
| Number of Rapids | 0 |
| Campsite Reservation | None |
Day 18: Kugluktuk to Yellowknife
We got up early in the morning after a long night getting woken up by all sorts of noise. We packed everything up and had a nice local man help us bring all our gear to the airport to pick up our flight back to Yellowknife. The 2.5-hour flight was super smooth, and it was nice to see a long section of the river from the air. We arrived in Yellowknife early in the afternoon, packed everything up and started the long drive back to our homes in Whitehorse.
Trip Video
Reflections
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 then 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.
Author Bio
Gabe grew up paddling in Abitibi, Qc and moved to the Yukon in 2008 and guided throughout the Territory for several years. In 2013, he led a 2-month canoe expedition called ‘’Paddle for the North”, to document what was happening in the Peel Watershed at the time. The documentary won several awards in film festivals including the Banff Mountain Film Fest, International Vancouver Film Fest and the Paddling Film Fest. Since then, Gabe became a biologist and now teaches field courses in the Northern Environmental Science program offered at Yukon University. The canoe is by far is preferred way to explore the north.
Instagram: @gabe_rivest
YouTube: @gabrielrivest5892