Snowmobiling at Blachford Lake Lodge

Guided snowmobile trips from the lodge – from $100 per group

Rent a snowmobile ($50/hr) and choose one of the following tours led by an interpretive guide. Price pays for the guide and is per group.

Whiteman Loop Trip - 2 Hours $100

This easy route follows a series of three small lakes and bush trails joining Blachford to Long Lake and back to the lodge. Also included in this trip is a detour to the now abandoned Cadieux family cabin on the Francois river system. This is one of the very few signs of earlier habitation in the Blachford area.

Thor Lake /Great Slave Lake Excursion - 4 Hours $200

A pleasant winding trail heads from Blachford to Thor Lake - an abandoned rare earth mine. From there we head south on bush trails and join an old mine access road to the height of land overlooking the east arm of Great Slave Lake and Blanchet Island, 10 miles to the south. You wind down the trail to the metre thick ice of Great Slave Lake to view pressure ridges. Explore the shores of the East Arm and perhaps cross over the ice to Blanchet Island.

Watta Lake - 6 Hours $300

Travel the portages and lakes around Blachford, including Whiteman, Long, Watta and Hearne Lake (named after Samuel Hearne). Visit the cabin used as a fur trapping base by Henry and Mary Cadieux and their family, complete with chicken shed, tipi and warehouse. The trail runs beside open water of a narrows in the Francois River, then crosses beaver ponds to Watta Lake. Watch for signs of moose, caribou, martin, lynx, otter and wolf. Visit another trapper's cabin on Watta Lake. The open water and waterfall at the north end of Watta Lake are highlights of this trip. Then on to Hearne Lake, back toward Long Lake and the comfort of the hot tub at Blachford Lake Lodge.

Great Slave Lake - 8 Hours $400

The ultimate northern adventure covers some 90 km. Head east through the islands on Blachford Lake to a cabin built by claim stakers in the 1920s. Follow a series of winding trails and beaver ponds to an old geologist’s cabin and the remains of the "Rex Cafe”, a mining camp from the 1930s and 40s. The trail arrives at Great Slave Lake where we turn west to a sheltered bay and Destafanny Gold Mine, now abandoned. Continuing on the lake you pass over ice ridges before connecting to the Thor Lake trail, a steep hill up from the big lake, then north to the lodge.