The park is remarkable for its extensive glaciers and ice caps, desert-like conditions, and life forms that are uniquely adapted to the extreme polar environment.[10] Only about 50 people visit the park each year.[11]
Landscape
The land is dominated by rock and ice. It is a polar desert with very little annual precipitation.
Much of the highlands of the park are covered in ice caps. These ice caps, and the glaciers that descend from them, date back at least to the last episode of glaciation.
The park includes Barbeau Peak, part of the Arctic Cordillera, which at 2,616 m (8,583 ft) is the highest mountain in Nunavut.
Due to its high latitude and limited wildlife, there has never been any significant human presence within this part of Ellesmere Island. The pass from Tanquary Fiord through to Lake Hazen shows evidence of being used by Arctic people since about 5000 years ago. Tent rings and food caches show that the area was visited by pre-Dorset, Dorset and Thule people, the ancestors of modern Inuit.
Parks Canada maintains warden stations and gravel air strips at Tanquary Fiord Airport, Lake Hazen and Ward Island. Tanquary Fiord and Lake Hazen are the main access points for tourists.[13] Beyond these warden stations, there are no facilities within the park itself. Two backpacking routes are the route between Lake Hazen and Tanquary Fiord, and a loop around the Ad Astra and Viking ice caps, both approximately 100 km (62 mi).
In 2004, the park was one of nine sites added to Canada's tentative list of potential World Heritage Sites.[14]
The park was honoured on a postage stamp issued by Canada Post on January 14, 2019.[15] It was a first-class rate stamp, issued at a value of 90 cents, and part of a nine-stamp definitive (regular) set issued the same day, in a series which debuted in 2018.