Maple Creek Library: Presentation by wilderness traveller/photographer John Dunn at the Jasper Centre

Posted on March 25, 2026 by Ryan Dahlman

By Marcus Day

Maple Creek News

On Saturday, March 7, Maple Creek Library presented an evening of adventure with wilderness photographer John Dunn. About 25 people attended the event at the Jasper Cultural & Historical Centre.

John Dunn, a wilderness traveller and photographer with a passion for the vast and rugged landscapes of the Canadian Arctic, took a 25-strong audience at the Jasper Cultural & Historical Centre on a memorable adventure.

He shared with them his journey north, retelling stories and showing images and video from his 8,000-kilometre, 400-day series of wilderness expeditions to the northern tip of Canada.

His presentation on Saturday, March 7,  started in Tofino, situated roughly on the 49th parallel that divides Canada from the US.

He took a solo kayak journey up the west coast of Vancouver Island, after which he paddled a replica Northwest canoe up the intricate Inside Passage.

After that, he and a colleague made a 1,000-kilometre crossing of the Coast Mountains from Pacific tidewater to the interior plains of British Columbia. Next, he pack-rafted 800 kilometres down the Muskwa, Fort Nelson and Liard rivers to reach the Mackenzie River at Fort Simpson.

From there he travelled from Artillery Lake in the NWT to the northern edge of contiguous North America at Bellot Strait.

Dunn was born and educated in the United Kingdom, but was always enamoured with North America’s wilderness. Instead of a picture of Raquel Welch, a poster map of Baffin Island adorned his university dorm room.

He graduated in geology from London University and worked in mineral exploration in the Australian Outback. After moving to Calgary, he became a Canadian citizen and pursued his dream of exploring and photographing the Arctic. His photographs have appeared in National Geographic.

After the illustrated talk, Violet Wong, Maple Creek librarian, thanked Sask Lotteries for providing a portion of the funding for John Dunn’s presentation.