Seal River (Manitoba)

Named for the harbour seals - normally marine creatures - that are found up to 200 km upstream from Hudson Bay - Manitoba's Seal River rushes through open spruce forest, tundra, and endless, boiling rapids. Too rugged for even the early fur traders, the river's remote vastness remains home to spectacular wildlife such as caribou, wolverine, polar bear and 3,000 beluga whales that summer in its estuary on Hudson Bay. Magnificent eskers, some over 100 km long, crisscross this pristine and powerful waterway, providing river travellers dramatic views and easy passage for the 400,000 strong Kaminuriak caribou herd. The Sayisi-Déné, descendants of the people who assisted Samuel Hearne on his historic overland trek to the Arctic coast, continue their ancestors' traditions of use and reverence for the river. One of Canada's wildest wilderness rivers.