Yukon and Northwest Territories

Those emotions culminated when she took a float plane to a new campsite in Nahanni National Park Reserve. There, along the icy blue waters of Glacier Lake, she got her first glimpse of the Cirque des Inaccessibles.–a series of granite peaks rising above the alpine forest floor in summer. The beauty overwhelmed her to the point of bringing tears to her eyes.

“It filled my heart,” she said. “The scenery is breathtaking. And when you walk in and see that view, it’s breathtaking. There’s maybe one or two places that I’ve (discovered) that I found just as breathtaking.”

“It almost feels like the tropics,” adds Vitale, who, against her Floridian instincts, felt drawn to join her guides and fellow travelers for a dip in the icy waters. The experience was in many ways a metaphor for her entire trip.

“At first you’re like, ‘Oh my God,’” she recalls of her first swim. “You can’t breathe. And then you learn to breathe anyway, and it’s amazing.”