The park is located 1 km (0.62 mi) away from Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut territory, to the west.

[4] In 1861, American explorer Charles Francis Hall became the first non-indigenous person to journey to the area, when he reached the place with Inuit help.

Caribou is the most important animal seen in the park as it forms a major component of traditional and current Inuit cuisine.

They include gyrfalcon, common ringed plover, American golden plover, horned lark, rock ptarmigan, snow bunting, semipalmated sandpiper, red-throated loon, Lapland longspur, northern wheatear and peregrine falcon.

[13] Iqaluit averages just over 400 mm (16 in) of precipitation annually, much wetter than many other localities in the Arctic Archipelago, with the summer being the wettest season.

Temperatures of the winter months are comparable to other northern communities further west on the continent such as Yellowknife and to some extent even Fairbanks, Alaska, even though the area is a few degrees colder than the latter.

Summer temperatures are, however, much colder due to its easterly maritime position affected by the waters of the cold Baffin Island Current.

This means that the tree line is much further south in the eastern part of Canada, being as southbound, in spite of low elevation, as northern Labrador.

[14] Although it is north of the natural tree line, there are some short, south-facing imported black spruce (Picea mariana) specimens protected by snowdrifts in the winter,[15] in addition to a few shrubs, which are woody plants.