Getting to Blachford is part of the experience!
We love the scenic bush plane flight to our wilderness lodge, but first you have to get to Yellowknife.
Getting to Yellowknife
Our lodge is the only fly-in wilderness resort situated on Blachford Lake, which is a remote 17 kilometre (12 mile) lake. The lodge is a 25-minute bush plane flight from Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories and is located north of the East Arm of Great Slave Lake. Yellowknife is easily accessible with daily jet service from most major U.S. and Canadian cities, and same-day connections through Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta. Currently, the airlines flying into Yellowknife from major southern centres are: Canadian North, Air Canada, West Jet
Connecting to Blachford/Lodge Flights
When booking your flights in/out of Yellowknife, please ensure that you arrive in Yellowknife before 09:00am on the day of the charter flight departure to the lodge. Flights to/from YZF and BLL operate between 10:00am and 2:00pm MT.
Guests are limited to 50 lbs per person of luggage on the bush plane (including carry-on gear).
Please check with us prior to booking your departing flight from Yellowknife. Because at times both scheduled and charter flights may experience delays, we do not recommend booking a flight from Yellowknife prior to 5:00 pm MT.
Our flight schedule is as follows:
Tuesdays, Saturdays Yellowknife/Blachford 10:00 10:30 / 12:30 1:00
Tuesdays, Saturdays Blachford/Yellowknife 11:00 11:30 / 1:30 2:00
History of Bush Flights
Boarding a float plane for a flight to Blachford is like taking a step back into history. Bush planes and bush pilots have been flying in this area for over 80 years. There are no roads to Blachford. Flying is still the fastest and most scenic way to get around in this part of the country. You board a Twin Otter or Caravan aircraft at the historic Old Town docks in Yellowknife. You take off on Yellowknife Bay, and head cross-country to Blachford Lake, located near the East Arm of Great Slave Lake.
Your flight will take approximately 30 minutes from the time you take off in Yellowknife, to landing on Blachford Lake. Along the way you can see the vast shore of Yellowknife Bay on your right and a series of fingerlike lakes on the left – Jennejohn, Harding, Hearne, Watta and finally Blachford. See how the glaciers carved the landscape. Here and there, you can spot a small camp, a river, rapids, or a waterfall. As you travel, at about 5000 feet, you get a birds eye view of the land. Watch for moose, and bear.
The Dene, the Aboriginal people of this area, lived and hunted here for millennia. Imagine the effort it took to explore on foot in summer. In winter the frozen lakes and rivers made travel by snowmobilling possible. In the 1930s and 1940s, prospectors combed this area looking for gold. Instead they found magical wilderness, and wonderful fishing lakes with protected bays, just like your destination, Blachford Lake. You land on Blachford Lake, summer and winter, just below the main lodge.
Waiver
To complete your booking, all guests travelling must complete a liability waiver.
We require this waiver to be signed and completed upon booking.