Behind the Smoking Hills is the Horton River which I canoed in 1993 (see route in red below). The river starts in a small lake and runs north through a wild canyon and then through hills and flats to Franklin Bay of the Arctic Ocean.
After the canyon the river settles to a mostly gentle flow down to the ocean through broad expanses of tundra with squirrels, caribou, wolves, grizzly bears and muskox.
The river parallels the Smoking Hills in several places allowing for close inspection of the smoke sites. The smoke occurs on both the inland and the ocean sides.
We were able to climb up to these areas which had a strong odor of sulfur.
As the river came close to Franklin Bay we climbed up to see the bay, our first view of the Arctic Ocean.
Around 1800 the Horton River meander broke through the shoreline to Franklin Bay. This rare natural phenomenon created a new delta about 60 miles south of the previous one. The Old Horton riverbed can be seen on the map.
Back to this trip on the Franklin Bay side - the weather cleared and the Smoking Hills were phenomenal.
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