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Visit Nahanni from home

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Parks Canada photos Google Street View camera strapped to his back, Jeff Bolingbroke ventures around Nahanni National Park Reserve in 2016.

It isn’t hard for Jeff Bolingbroke to remember the details of a hike he took in 2016 through Nahanni National Park Reserve – he can literally retrace his footsteps, seeing the sky and water and land as they stood those very days, on Google Street View.

In fact, anyone can. Since April, on Parks Canada’s Nahanni page, viewers have been able to explore the various trails Bolingbroke took, guided by local park staff, through the park.

Google Street View camera strapped to his back, Jeff Bolingbroke ventures around Nahanni National Park Reserve in 2016. Parks Canada photo

“We are very reliant on our local staff who really are the knowledge keepers,” says Bolingbroke, speaking to News/North from Revelstoke, B.C.

Bolingbroke is a new media officer for Parks Canada, which has partnered with Google to take the Google Street View rig, which captures 360-degree imagery, through the nations parks, historic sites and marine conservation areas.

In the summer 2016, that meant Bolingbroke strapped a Google Street View rig to his back to capture the dramatic vistas Nahanni has to offer.

“It's basically a 50-pound backpack camera,” says Bolingbroke. “A lot of the weight is in the camera part above your head, so the balance is a little bit interesting.

“After a while, it just becomes like this part of you and you get used to the strangeness of the sensation.”

Leaving his guides behind here and there so they wouldn’t get caught in the 360-degree shots, Bolingbroke’s first trip to the park was one now shared with the world.

Among many other incredible locations, viewers can see full panoramic views of the Gahnîhthah (Rabbitkettle) Tufa Mounds, Glacier Lake, the Cirque of the Unclimbables, Náálácho (Virginia Falls), and several lakes up in Nááts'áhch'oh National Park Reserve, the relatively new park up at the north end of Nahanni.

“It’s amazing at every turn,” says Bolingbroke. “We only were able to go to a small number of actual locations within the giant amount of terrain that there is within the national park reserve, but all of those places were very amazing and they were also very different from each other.”

“You’ve got some of the best rock climbing around. You've got some of the greatest canyons really in the country to be rafting through. You've got just astounding mountain ranges. These beautiful lakes. And then of course there's the [Tufa Mounds].”

Now, anyone with access to the Internet can view them.

“It's professionally fulfilling because I feel like we have a real opportunity to share these really incredible places with Canadians, many of whom will be unable to actually go there for one reason or another,” says Bolingbroke.

And on a personal level?

“It was such a fantastic experience to be there and it's great to be able to have a look and kind of relive some of those moments.”