It wasn’t raining when we got up, but the sky wasn’t clear either. Still we decided to chance a sunrise. Since we were not sold on the outcome, we decided to pick a spot that didn’t actually require any hiking – a viewpoint near the trailhead to Devil’s Bridge.
Devil’s bridge by the way, listed as a “must-do” on every Sedona list. But we decided to avoid it. From what I understand Devil’s bridge is a rock platform that people get their pictures taken on. And there’s a line up just to do that. Even that morning, waiting for some sun rays to peek through the clouds, we kept getting distracted by the headlights of multiple shuttle buses driving to the trailhead, unloading people eager for the IG shot. No thanks!
After a cloudy sunrise we grabbed breakfast nearby at Layla’s bakery, and since it was still pretty early, we decided to go for another short hike.
We started heading down the trail to Chicken point, which is supposed to be another nice view point. There was no one else on the trail, so in my head was already celebrating having the view point to ourselves.
Well…clearly I forgot about one of Sedona’s favorite tourist activity: Jeep tours and ATV riding on rocks. We got to the viewpoint to found a circus of pink jeeps and muddy off-road vehicles, and people everywhere. It actually was pretty comical, and to be honest, those ATVs looked like they would be quite fun.
The view point was very nice nonetheless, and we went a bit higher up on the rocks to get away from the crowd. We could see Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte, which I had planned to run around on later.
Next, we headed back towards Sedona and spent a few hours at the Tlaquepaque Arts and Crafts Village. Its architecture copies that of an authentic Mexican village, with little streets and alcoves. Most of the shops are expensive art galleries, fancy gift shops and restaurants. It was definitely a higher-end experience from the two blocks of tourist shops at the main Sedona road junction.
After some window shopping and grabbing food in a Mexican restaurant, we headed out for one last outdoor activity.
We ran a roughly 8k loop at the base of Courthouse Butte and Bell Rock. A really fun trail and a nice way to shake out the legs after walking in and out of stores for the last few hours.
Day 6 Last day in Sedona, we hiked Bear Mountain as our final hike of the trip. This was an 8km out and back with about 600m of elevation gain, so definitely on the steeper side. When we got to the trailhead clouds obscured the top of the mountain, but we didn’t get too phased by it.
The hike had a mix of steep sections and sections across flatter grounds. When we got to the first plateau, we looked back and were able to see where we started down below.
Then we continued climbing into the fog. It actually made the hike pretty cool. Even though we missed out on views, it gave the trail a more intimate feel, especially since it wasn’t very busy.
We’re pretty used to running in the rainforest in BC, and fog, or being shrouded in clouds is a pretty common occurence, so this felt both familiar and new since the terrain was very different from home. There were very little trees, and mostly low, dry bushes on rocks.
We got to the end of the trail and couldn’t really see past the edge of the mountain (thankfully there was a sign at the top to tell us we had arrived).
As we made our way down the lower portion was clearing up a bit more, so we did get some views of the valley.
We had lunch at the car, then since it wasn’t very late yet, we decided to squeeze in one more short hike/cave sighting from a nearby trail.
Sunrise: Cathedral Rock Hike: Munds Wagon Cow Pies and Hangover Loop trail Sunset: n/a
The sunrise hike we had planned for today was another Sedona must-do : Cathedral Rock.
Its one of the most notable, stand-alone formation in the Sedona landscape, and a fairly accessible hike – albeit pretty steep, which makes it the #1 hike in the whole area. To the point where driving to the trail head is nearly impossible after 8am, and there are shuttle services that take people from the town center to the trailhead during the day.
At 5am though, we found a parking spot without much problem – but even at this early hour, we were definitely not the only ones there.
The hike is less than 2k, with 220m of elevation, so it’s on the steep side but it’s short. The trail climbs up to the base of the big rocky spires that give it its name of Cathedral Rock.
The sunrise was indeed quite spectacular. Sun rising from between the spires on one side, and colours on all the surrounding landscape changing from blue to pink to orange.
We took a good amount of photos and enjoyed the views.
As we made our way down around 8:30, there was already a line of people hiking up.
It was still fairly early so we went for a sit down breakfast before starting our next trail adventure.
Pancakes and bacon at the Secret Garden Cafe
This time we decided to venture away from the beaten path, and do a loop following three trails: Munds Wagon, Cow Pies and Hangover Loop trail.
This wasn’t on the original list that I had compiled, but after re-considering it, a lot of what I had were shorter, busier hikes, so I went onto Alltrails to find something a bit longer and less busy. This hike checked all the boxes, including some really cool views.
We started at the Huckaby parking lot, on the Munds Wagon trail. After running along the trail for a bit, we came to a junction marking the start of the loop.
We did the loop CCW, which is the opposite from what people recommended – but I didn’t actually realize it until later. That said, I think the way we did it gave us a bigger pay off.
The trail starts fairly flat, and follows a dry creek bed for a while, at the base of the main rock formations. Once it connects with Cow Pies trail, you start going up onto a higher promontory, which you then follow for a while on Hangover trail, with a gradual uphill.
From there you get really cool views on a multitude of other, lower rock features to the South.
Eventually the trail climbs to a small pass, and this is where our CCW direction feels like it gave us the best reward. As you get into the pass between two rock features, you discover an expansive mountainous view to the North, and Sedona to the west.
The trail then goes down beyond the pass and it’s a relatively steep and narrow downhill from there, circumventing “Tea Pot” and “Queen Victoria”, the nearest summits.
There are views all along the trail until you get back to the junction, which made me even more glad we did the loop in this way, as we got to enjoy the views going down at a leisurely pace, which I feel might have been more enjoyable than seeing these same views while hiking up.
It was a really nice hike, not very trafficked, especially on the earlier section. We only saw a few people and some mountain bikers in the upper section near the pass.
It was pretty overcast so we decided to skip the sunset and head home from there.
Day 4
We woke up to rainy skies and decided to skip the sunrise this time, as we would likely not get much of the beautiful light. Since the forecast didn’t show signs of much improvement, we decided to stay in the Cottonwood area for the day.
Cottonwood actually has a charming old town center – one stretch of street lined with old buildings housing restaurants and shops.
We walked along the few blocks for a bit, checking out the crystal and art shops and various thrift stores, and eventually sat down for brunch at Crema Kraft Kitchen.
After our meal we drove out to the Tuzigoot National Monument, just a few km outside of town. The monument was established to preserve the ruins of a hilltop pueblo, built by the Sinagua people between 1125 and 1400 CE. The pueblo was composed of over 100 stone rooms, accessed most likely from the rooftops (there are no opening for doors).
The site was likely a busy hub back when it was inhabited, located near an offshoot of the Verde River, and surrounded by agricultural land. There is also a small museum displaying objects from the pubelo, found during the 1930’s excavation of the site.
After this we continued driving west and made a quick stop on Clarkdale, a former mining town that is now mainly home to retirees and artists.
According to Wikipedia, Clarkdale was once one of the most modern mining town in the world, equipped with telegraphs, running water. and sewer. But as for many of those towns built around single-industry, when said industry slowed down, so did the town.
The mine itself was located near another town called Jerome, higher up on Cleopatra Hill. That’s where we headed to next. Before reaching the town center, we stopped at the old mine museum.
Jerome is bulit of the side of the hill, with views towards the red rocks of Sedona. It has fully embraced the “ghost town” vibe and shops are mainly artsy or touristy.
One store is completely dedicated to kaleidoscopes – it actually takes us a minute to figure out what all these wooden glasses and telescope-looking objects are…until we look into them.
After strolling around the couple of streets, he headed back to cottonwood. For dinner, we went to Colt Grill for some BBQ.
After a restful night, we packed up camp and went for a quick exploration of what initially put Tumbler Ridge on the tourist map: Dinosaurs.
The town is fairly young, as it was built in the early 1980s as part of a huge coal mining project in the area. The mining went on for a little less than 20 years, and with the activity reducing and people moving away, Tumbler Ridge was at risk of becoming a ghost town. If it weren’t for two kids going tubing down the river one day. After falling off their tubes, they climbed on the shore and found what they thought looked like dinosaur footprints. After some nagging, they convinced their dad to send photos to a paleontologist, who indeed confirmed they were right. Turns out there were multiple tracks on the river shore, and in other areas nearby. Scientists came to explore further, ultimately discovering actual bones and other fossils. Thanks to those discoveries, and the natural wealth of the area, Tumbler Ridge is now a recognized UNESCO Geopark. We visited the Dinosaur gallery, which features replicas of the species that would have left the tracks, as well as molds of the actual footprints, and the (partial) skeleton of the first dinosaur found in BC.
After that we decided to go see the tracks on-site. We walked the 3km (round trip) trail to Flatbed creek, where the tracks were found. There are two very distinct foot prints just as the trail meets the creek, which were easy to spot.
We crossed the creek to see the tracks on the other side (those that were first spotted by the kids), but those are quite faint and hard to see in daylight. In the summer, the visitor center offers guided tours in the evening hours, to see them under electric light (easier to see them with cast shadow). However, tours were finished for the season, plus we were leaving that day, so we didn’t get to experience that.
Even then, it was pretty incredible to see these two foot steps, neither of us had seen real life dinosaur traces on-site before, kind of blows your mind to think they stood there 100 million years ago, and their mark is still imprinted in the rock, even after the position of tectonic plates have changed, entire mountain ranges have formed around them, and they’re not even at the same longitude they were back then!
It was 2 o’clock once we were done with all the dinosaur attractions, so we got some lunch at the grocery store and headed out. We stopped at Gwilliam lake to eat, a lovely little picnic spot, then drove to Chetwynd.
Chetwynd would likely be another small town on the highway if it weren’t for the very impressive display of chainsaw wood carvings visible along the road. Started in 2005, there is a carving competition every year in June and the result has become the town’s main reason for tourists to stop.
The sculptures were all really remarkable, especially knowing they were all done want by chainsaw – makes me want to look up videos on youtube to find out how they get that much detail with such a big tool.
After Chetwynd, we set off to find a campsite for the night, and had no trouble finding a spot at the first provincial park we came across, Heart Lake, in Pine Le Morray provincial park.
We were back to the more standard camping experience that we’d been having along the way – relatively private site in the trees with a lake nearby, and friendly but distant neighbors (and remarkably clean and toilet-paper-stocked out houses).
That night though I had a mild panic attack upon waking up in the dark to the sounds of storm, wind, rain, cracking trees, and some loud metallic ruckus that my brain couldn’t quite make sense of, while trying to determine which of these noises might be caused by wildlife (spoiler alert: none of them were). But in my half-asleep state I experienced some kind of sensory overload, until Brice pointed out that the metallic sounds were construction machinery (“you can tell by the bip-bip sound of a truck backing up”), and not by a bear aggressively knocking over garbage cans, which my groggy-self was convinced of. In fact, there was excavation work being done across the road, along with a 1:30am train coming by. Thankfully it seemed to quiet down (and so did my brain) after the train passed and we could sleep the rest of the night undisturbed.
September 5 – Prince George to Lillooet.
In the morning, we both felt a bit of camping fatigue, and wondered if we could make it home in one day. But with at least 12 hours to drive, and add 2-3 hours between lunch and other stops, that seemed like a rather brutal travel day.
We could also try to drive as far as possible passed Prince George, and try to get home the next day, but then we might hit the end of long week-end traffic congestion, and no one wants to get stuck in Lions Gate Bridge traffic after driving over 9000km up and down the country – that’s no way to end an epic road trip. So we agreed that spending a couple more nights camping would be fine, and decided to even take another short side-trip, might a well since we were only a couple hundred kilometers from Prince George, and didn’t particularly need or want to spend time in the town itself.
So we drove to Mackenzie, BC, after I had read that you could pretty much drive most of the way up Morfee Mountain, for easy views. And so we did. The dirt road took us almost to the summit and we then hiked 5min up the hill to get a slightly higher vantage point on a scenic view of the valley around, the town and lake in the distance.
Then we drove down to Morfee Lake to have a pleasant lunch by the water. The rest of the day was spent driving. The only stop I wanted to make in Prince George was at Terry’s Fresh Hot Bannock, a place that made donut-like bannock. But like many places along the that way we reached on a weekend, it was closed on Sundays. With that, we picked the first provincial park within the next 150 km and landed at Ten-Mile Lake, near Quesnel, to spend the second to last night on the road.
September 6 – Lillooet to Vancouver
We left the campsite around 11 am, after taking our time for breakfast. We decided to go home through Lillooet and the Sea to sky Higway, rather than Merritt / Hope like we did a month prior. Some of it was to avoid the fire areas, especially since there was now a large fire zone on the Coquihalla highway, and also it was good way to have one last night near home but still in a remote area.
We pretty much drove from 11am to 5pm, with a quick stop in Williams Lake pick up some lunch, which we then ate at Lac La Hache . We made a quick stop at Marble Canyon Rec Site, to stretch our legs, then drove to Kwotlenemo (Fountain) lake, a familiar campsite where we had stayed twice before. We were easing back into everyday life by camping into a familiar spot.
The next day we drove through Lillooet and Pemberton aka the scenic route home. We stopped quickly in Squamish to say hi to our friends Adele and Thierry, and drop off copies of the provincial/territorial tourism guides we’d picked up along the way.
Adele and Thierry had done a similar trip a few years back and lent us their guides, and now Adele was very motivated to go back the next summer, so it only made sense to pass the documentation back to them, and continue the cycle. Finally we made it back to Vancouver after 37 days and 9729 km on the road.
We took care of a few things in the morning while still at the house (namely, book some plane tickets to fly to Montreal literally 2 days after we’re back in Vancouver), then we headed to the Visitor center to grab a couple booklets on Dawson Creek and Tumbler Ridge. These two stops weren’t on the original itinerary, but we decided to add them as we had a bit of buffer with our return-home date.
Before leaving Fort St John, we also stopped at the indigenous Artist Market, a small shop that sells handmade crafts from local artists. They had soaps, salves, shoes, artwork, jewelry etc… I didn’t see anything that I wanted to bring back but it was a nice selection of locally-made items.
Then we left Fort St John and headed to Dawson Creek, about 1 hour away.
Dawson Creek is the historical place of the “Mile 0″, which is where the Alaska Highway officially starts. Not surprisingly, most of the town’s historical sites have to do with the highway construction in the early 1940’s. It was a beautiful sunny day, so we didn’t feel like going into the museum. Instead we took the small walking tour around the town center, which passes by a number of murals depicting some of the town’s history.
It was 4 o’clock when we headed out and we got to the Tumbler Ridge visitor Center at 5pm, right as it closed.
Thankfully, I’d picked up a full booklet about the area in Fort St John, so we were able to easily pick a hike to do the next day. We drove about 25 km out of town towards the trail head and set up camp at the Flatbed Creek Rec Site – a small site off the side of the road but right near a small creek, a pretty nice spot once again.
The next day we were planning on doing a hike called Bootski lake down a rough forest road at the edge of the park boundaries, then we thought we’d come back to this spot to camp another night.
This was the only time of this trip when we spent the night with absolutely no one around, in a fairly remote spot. If wildlife was ever going to come out, that would be it. I did a bit of a check to see if there were any traces of animals (like bear scats). We didn’t know when the last people that camped there were there, and whether they were responsible, leave-no-trace campers, or the type to leave remnants of food out after they’ve gone, attracting wildlife to the spot. Thankfully we didn’t see any traces of such behavior, or recent animal activity. We did get a visitor at night, probably a small-ish rodent type, although it sounded a bit bigger as it ran around on the tarp we’d placed underneath our tent.
The rest of the night was quiet and uneventful but we got a really nice starry sky, being pretty far from any light pollution. We hadn’t seen many stars at all throughout our trips, partly due to weather but also to the fact that the days were still quite long up in the Yukon and we rarely got a full dark night when we were there. Going back down south we could feel the days getting shorter as we got closer to Vancouver.
September 3 – Hiking to Bootski lake
It took us a bit of time in the morning to get ready (if you haven’t clued in by now, it usually does, we’re not really the get-up-and-go type). Contrary to what we first had thought, we decided to pack everything up and spend the following night at a campsite back in Tumbler Ridge, partly because we didn’t want to leave our gear for any random party to find, as people would likely come to this spot to spend the week-end, and also because an in-town campsite came with the promise of showers, which we were sure to appreciate after our hike.
We drove about 13km south on highway 52.E, then 37 km down Okay Main Service Road to the trail head. There was phone service right at the FSR turn off so we made sure to let a friend know where we where going and when to expect us back, a precaution we always take when hiking in remote locations.
It was pretty sunny that day, but weary of changing conditions, and after spending the last few weeks bundled up against the elements, I still wore leggings and long sleeves – a choice I regretted as soon as we warmed up on the trail. Brice wore all black pants and long sleeve, also a questionable choice for him who generally runs hot.
The hike starts with 3.5km along an ATV track. At first we thought we could have driven some of it but it got pretty rough, probably more so than our jeep could handle. There was one creek crossing where I thought it wiser to go through barefoot, rather than risk another leg dunking. Brice as per usual skipped over those slippery rocks like it was nothing.
After 3.5km, the trail veers off into the trees and becomes a steep single track, similar to a lot of those we have around Vancouver. It was only about 1 km, but quite steep. Shortly after the start of the climb, the trail goes through a burn area, still dense with tall, charred trees. Then it’s back into intact forest again, until it reaches an open meadow with 360 views of the mountains and valley around. That view alone was quite stunning, and although some distance back, the impressive wall of Mount Waptki in the backdrop was an imposing sight.
Once we were on the meadow, the trail disappeared and we were a bit taken back, conditioned as we were to always stick to marked trails and avoid stomping on vegetation.
So we went in the general direction of the main summit and bowl (where we assumed the lake was) trying to stay mainly on rocky surface where possible.
We passed a couple with a puppy returning from the lake. They had driven their car all the way up the ATV track to the start of the single track trail, but theirs had higher clearance and a metal plate to absorb shock on the bottom, ours would definitely not have made it that far……
Eventually we reached the bowl and the view of the lake, which was really a small tarn resulting from snow melt, and visibly at its lowest after a summer of evaporating.
From there, we followed a trail going up to the lowest part of the ridge, overlooking the lake. The slope we climbed was quite steep, and all lose gravel, which I didn’t love, but i still managed to make it to the saddle.
While at the top, I marveled at the fact that this mountain was basically made of layers and layers of slate, compacted together nearly vertically, and somewhat loose as I could pull out pieces without much effort. Geology is quite something, and I know nothing about any of it, but still it makes my head spin to think about how these mountains came to be millions of years ago, and the fact that we’re ultimately sitting on a pile of rocks held together by gravity-defying friction….
After some photos and drone-flying, we made our way down in a different spot, along a “spine” of bigger rocks jutting out from the gravel and which we could grab on to while bum-sliding down.
We went down to the tarn and Brice considered going for a dip for a hot second, but to sun was rapidly disappearing behind the top of the ridge and the water was soon completely in shade, so he decided against it. We started heading back across the meadow. It took us a bit less time as we managed to connect the faint sections of trail more directly. The way down was quick and I looked forward to that barefoot creek crossing. My feet got quite hot in my hiking boot and merino socks. Looking back this would have been a great trail to do in running gear, but having never done it before, we erred on the side of steadier footwear – and more layers than we eventually needed, but that’s always what I do anyway. Even if I end up carrying four jackets in my bag, I’d rather that then get caught in the cold and have a very unpleasant experience.
We got back to the car pretty much 5 hours after we left, having spent the exact time suggested on All trails. The drive from the main road took us about 45 min each way, mainly because the 13k nearest the trailhead were very pot-hole-y and slow, whereas the first 24 kms where very smooth.
Then we drove the 35km or so back to town. According to the brochure there are 3 campgrounds in Tumbler Ridge. We went to the Lions Campground, but soon realized all the sites were reserved – it was the start of Labor day long week-end and I hadn’t thought about people going for one last camping trip before back to school. We eventually came across one site that didn’t have a reserved sign and snatched it up. Turns out it was technically reserved as we found out from the campground manager, but he admitted to having a couple of spots saved up for this exact case, so we were able to stay. It was a totally opposite experience from the night before, when we camped in complete isolation, whereas we were now surrounded by big RVs and campers, kids running everywhere and big groups of people sharing they campfire. It wasn’t unpleasant though – especially the part about not having to worry about running into wildlife at night (even though we actually never did), and the sites were pretty quiet from 9pm on, until 7.30 am the next morning.
We thoroughly enjoyed the showers, and had a lovely sleep at the campground.
That morning we headed to the Watson Lake rec center to use the showers, for about $6 each. What a treat to have a hot shower after a week of sponge bath/wipes! Then we got on the road and left Watson Lake, and shortly after, the Yukon, as we started the last leg of our trip driving back down into East Northern BC.
While we hadn’t seen a huge amount of wildlife so far, we got to make up for it with quite a few bison sightings along the way. We first saw an isolated male, and later a couple of herds, just grazing on the side of the road.
The hot springs are the second largest in Canada, and as of a couple of years ago, it was the first provincial park with a completely fenced out campground, in order to prevent human/wildlife interaction. That said the fence only protects the campgrounds, and you have to leave the enclosed area to go to the springs.
The main pool is accessible via a short boardwalk across warm swamps, where Moose sighting are apparently frequent (we didn’t see any ourselves). The warmth of the springs has allowed a lush and diverse vegetation around them.
The hot springs admission is $5 per person, or included in the $26 if you register for a campsite for one night.
The setting is quite nice, there’s a boardwalk with changing rooms on the side of the pool, which is otherwise surrounded by boreal forest and lush greenery. Although man-made, the infrastructure is well integrated in the natural setting and it does feel like you’re in the middle of tropical forest.
The hot water source is on the right when looking at the pool from the main deck, and water in that area gets quite hot, but is cooled down by multiple streams of cold water trickling from the mossy edges of the pool on the forested side.
It was a rainy day and the pool wasn’t too busy, 20- ish people maybe, but it didn’t feel crowded. I can only imagine how busy it might get in the height of summer. We stayed in for a bit, enjoying a dip in hot water for a change. Then it was time to head out.
We contemplated staying at the campground, but it only had 1 spot left and it felt a bit too crowded for us. So instead we drove to the first campground on Muncho Lake. I had read that it was very popular and you had to be there early in the summer to get a spot but on the last Monday of August, and a rather rainy one at that, our odds were pretty good! And in fact it wasn’t very busy at all.
There are 3 sections of 5 campsites pretty much on the water and a few of the spots in the second and third sections were taken, but there was no one in the first section, nearest the entrance, so we set up at one of those spots. When looking at the forecast, I had seen that rain would continue for the next couple of days. But that night the sky cleared out and we didn’t have any rain- although it got a bit cold at night. Driving out to Muncho Lake rather than staying at Liard hot springs was definitely the right decision.
August 31 – Muncho Lake to Fort Nelson
The next morning we woke up to sun and pretty clear sky. Despite visiting at least two dozen lakes along the way, we hadn’t yet used the kayaks. But today was the day, especially looking at the turquoise colour of the water.
We paddled around for a couple of hours, enjoying the calm water and crossing to the other side to admire the emerald green patches of water above sandy ground. With the mountains in the background it couldn’t have been a more perfect place to take the kayaks out, even if it was the only time.
We continued to enjoy the waterfront while having lunch and then it was time to head out.
Leaving Muncho Lake we came across another wildlife family we hadn’t encountered before: Stone sheep
The drive to Fort Nelson, which cuts through the Northern Canadian Rockies, was quite spectacular. We went through several narrow valleys, where the road winds between turquoise-coloured streams or rivers and mountains slopes on one side, and on the other, low peaks that seem to rise from the very edge of the road, snow-capped mountains dramatically layered in the distance.
With a lot of my travel planning focused on the Yukon, I hadn’t really done much research into this part of the trip, and I realized as we got there that all the good hiking near Fort Nelson was behind us, on that stretch of road we had just past. The next day we had a 4 hour drive to Fort St John, on a much less remarkable stretch of the Alaska Highway, with an AirBnB booked for the night. We didn’t really have the option to go back for a day hike – so instead I looked at hikes options passed Fort St John, and added a side trip through Tumbler Ridge a few days later.
Along the way, we relied once again on our trusty Milepost to find us a local spot to have a snack. That day we stopped at Tetsa River Lodge, to enjoy some delicious cinnamon buns on their quaint porch.
We also saw our first caribou on the road, young ones without fully formed antlers yet, as well as stone sheep right as we left Muncho Lake. No moose sighting though, it might be the only wild life that we won’t be checking off the list.
We drove through Fort Nelson and decided to continue on to a campground 30 km further to spend the night. We pitched our tent at the Andy Baily Regional Park, where we were seemingly the only ones that night.
September 1st – Driving to Fort St John
We drove the 4-ish hours between Fort Nelson and Fort St John. The road was quite different from the previous days section through the Northern Canadian Rockies. All around was now flat land, with maybe some rolling hills from time to time, and not really anything stop-worthy along the way.
We did get to witness one of the most spectacular rainbows we’d seen on the road, and we even drove through one of its legs (spoiler alert: there was no pot of gold).
We had rented an airbnb for the night, and it was a nice break from having to set up camp and trying to stay warm outside (as it turned out, the weather had started improving though, but we still enjoyed a night in). The place was quite large and equipped with washer/dryer, which we made use of as soon as we arrived. We reset and reorganized the car and I did a good clean-up of our cooking gear. Then we headed out to the store, for some dinner ingredients, as well as to pick up some beer from a local brewery.
It was quite nice to have a night in and cook dinner in a real kitchen – it’s funny how the most mundane things become exciting when you’ve been living without them even for a very short period of time. Not to mention the nice hot shower of course, and putting on some clean clothes!
We got up and drove to Whitehorse, where we found a much-needed carwash and re-stocked our food supplies. On the way out, looking for a liquor store we stumbled upon the Yukon Beer store, so we bought a few to try out.
Then we headed towards Haines Junction, a couple of hours west on the Alaska Highway.
When we got there we stopped at the Visitor Center and went through the exhibit about the Kluane National Park and Reserve, which is a designated UNESCO World Heritage. The Park is home to 17 of the 20 highest mountains in Canada, including the tallest, Mount Logan, at 5959 meters. The park also features the largest non-polar icefield in the world.
We watched a short movie also covering the topic, the land diversity, fauna, and work being done in collaboration between the Kluane First Nation, Champagne and Aishihik First Nations and the Park Staff/Parks Canada administration.
Next to the visitor Center is the Da Kų Cultural center which showcases First Nation Art and Culture, but it was closed due to Covid.
Next we drove to Kathleen lake, where we’d planned on spending the next few nights, while we explored the Kluane Area.
August 25 – Drive Out and back to Burwash Landing
The forecast suggested rain that day, and nicer conditions the next, so we decided to take the drive to Burwash Landing and wait for the nice day to do a hike.
The drive along the Alaska Highway offers great view points on the Kluane mountains and Kluane lake. We stopped near the southern end of the lake, to take a stroll on a sandy area right off the road. The desert-like landscape is due to the retreat of the Kaskawulsh Glacier. As a result, its meltwater which previously fed two rivers, the Kaskawulsh River and ‘Ä’äy Chù’ (Slims River), now only flows into one. This phenomenon has apparently happened several times in the past, but current state of global warming suggest it is unlikely that the Glacier will re-advance, and that both rivers will run again. It was quite unexpected to see such a landscape surrounded by mountains.
We then stopped at the Thachäl Dhäl Visitor Centre and had lunch. The park ranger there was very friendly and pointed out to us a couple of herds of Dall Sheep that could be seen (through binoculars) on the slopes of the nearby mountain. They were pretty far, so even through binoculars they looked like tiny little white specs. Would this qualify as wildlife sighting?
We continued on the drive to Destruction Bay and Burwash landing, where we once again, we found the museum closed due to Covid. The drive was still worth it though, for the scenery along Kluane Lake and the mountains around.
There are a number of hikes you can do into Kluane along that stretch of highway, some of them multi-day treks. I would definitely be interested in coming back for a multi-day adventure, as some of the trails reach the edge of the icefield, and promise a pretty spectacular sight.
There are also various guided adventures to be taken, from flying over the glaciers to white river rafting up close to them. Too much to do and see in just a couple of days! But it was great to get a glimpse at the area and know what to come back for.
On the way back we stopped at Village Bakery in Haines Junction for some pastries and free wifi, then headed back to camp.
That night we changed things up a bit by making tacos – zucchini, bell peppers, avocado & tuna, with a dash of green pepper hot sauce. That was a nice variation from our other camping meals so far, and one we might even repeat at home.
August 26 – Hiking the King’s Throne trail
We set off for King’s Throne, a hike that was recommended to us by our friend Adele, as well as 2 or 3 other random people we saw on other hikes. The trailhead is actually at Kathleen Lake so it was conveniently near our campsite. Alltrails had it recorded at 12.7km, while I had seen it at 15km in some Yukon guide, with an estimated time of 8 hours.
We started relatively late at 10am. The trail is pretty wide and flat for the first 2 kms in the trees, then it starts climbing steeply up the mountain side. We got to the alpine within 3km from the start and had great views of Kathleen lake from there on. One option I’d found was to hike 5km to King’s “seat”, basically the bottom of the cirque at the base of the ridge. My watch only read about 3.6k though when we got to that point after only about 1 hour of climbing (maybe a bit more), so we continued straight on to climb the ridge.
That portion was probably the most challenging (both up and down) as you climb very steeply on loose gravel. It was slow going up and a bit slippery on the down.
Looking up we could see that the higher section of the ridge was completely covered in clouds but we figured we’d keep going until we felt like it didn’t make sense anymore.
There were some pretty windy spots on the way but alternating with some sheltered ones. We had a snack part-way up and we were debating whether to continue.
Another couple was following us from not far behind so we let them go by, to see if the next portion was strenuous or not, based on their progress. Turns out we were pretty much at the top of the steeper climb, and from there the trail followed the ridge relatively smoothly.
The trail split at each “bump” with option to go up or circumvent at the base. The ground was made up of larger rocks and traveling on that section was actually quick and easy. We went over 3 or 4 prominences, every time wondering if that was the summit, and every time it wasn’t, another bump showing up silhouetted further in the clouds.
The official summit is technically the far end of the ridge, opposite to where we climbed, and we debated how far to keep going as we were basically traveling in a cloud, with little to no view. We did get a peek at the far section of Kathleen lake, as clouds parted on the other side of the ridge. Eventually we made it to a section where someone had built a small shelter out of stacked rocks.
The wind was pretty brutal on the ridge but completely absent in the shelter. We decided this was a good point to turn around. Based on distance, we were at least 1km away from the official summit, maybe more. And at that point, the lack of views didn’t really make it seem worth continuing. A few people passed us, heads down, trudging to the summit, but we decided to turn around without any regrets.
Two hours later when we were back down, sitting by the lake for a snack, and it looked like the summit had cleared but there were still dark menacing clouds above the whole ridge. In any case, we were pretty happy with the hike and the views we got over Kathleen Lake.
It took us 3h20min to go up, with a couple of breaks, and about 2h 20 to come down. I would assume continuing to the summit would have added 1-2 more hours to this. The way down was actually more challenging I found, due to the slippery terrain – And I swear the last 2kmm on flat were way longer than when we started ! (Brice thought so too!). In the end we clocked 13km with 1324m of elevation gain, so a decent day out!
We had snacks at the day use area by the lake, then headed back to camp for the evening.
We had been pretty fortunate with showers so far, finding accessible ones in a lot of campsites or nearby, but nothing of the sort at Kathleen Lake, so sponge bath it was, to rinse off the hike (the lake itself was way too cold and windy for me to go in).
August 14 – Driving down the Silver Trail to Mayo & Keno City
It rained pretty heavily in the early morning so we took some time getting up.
Brice made pancakes – more successfully than the last time. We had put the tarp on the bug shelter this time, instead of the sleeping tent, so the table was nice and dry for breakfast. Then we started packing things up, which was a bit of a process with everything being wet and untie-ing all the ropes we set up for the tarp. Eventually we took off and drove to Pelly Crossing, where we stopped for a bit to do some internet-ing (emails, instagram…) as there was phone service there.
Then we were on our way. In Stewart crossing further down the road, we turned right to head East on the Silver trail, (Highway 11) for our second side trip – to Mayo then Keno City.
We stopped at a rest area for a quick lunch, and managed to get the tents and tarp 90% dry in the time we ate, thanks to a bit of sun and wind (with all the rain, we frequently took advantage on any dry spell during a stop to hang the tents out to dry).
The stop had a nice view of the Stewart River, which was heavily mined for gold during the Klondike gold rush era, but it also turned out to be extremely rich in Silver (hence the name Silver trail), making it one of the top silver mining areas in North America until it closed in the late 80’s.
We followed the river all the way to Mayo, which is located on the traditional territory of the Na-Cho Nyak Dun First Nation, who have lived there for thousands of years.
Once there, we went for a visit of the Binet House, a restored heritage building with a display of photos and artifacts, showing daily life in the small mining community that occupied the town in the late 19th and early 20th century. There was also as a small section about the geological characteristics of the area. All and all a pretty in-depth view of the mining era, and our first dive into that history, after following the roads that were built to make the mining possible.
Both towns of Mayo & Keno were bustling with community life through the 20th century. Nowadays there are less than 500 souls in Mayo, most of which are First Nation born in the area. Keno, further down the road, has a population of 20!
After the visit, it was still early in the day, so we decided to drive to Keno for the night. The way there was quite scenic, as we climbed the unpaved road surrounded by mountain ranges. The scenery up until that point had been mostly rolling hills with trees, ponds and lakes as far as the eye could see.
We arrived in the tiny town and drove to the small campground located down a short dirt road. We were the only ones there at that point. We set up camp and had a snack, and as it was starting to rain, we decided to drive up to Keno Hill, a viewpoint at 1800 meters accessible by car (4WD recommended).
That was the best decision! The road there was incredibly scenic, revealing a different mountain range at every turn, and the sky was unreal. Blue with fluffy clouds on one side, dark and hazy, with rain curtains on the other. All the conditions were right to get a rainbow, which we did.
so much for washing the car in White horse 😛
We reached the signpost at the end of the road, a couple of km from the summit, and the views were remarkable. The valley laid below under the dark stormy clouds, a sliver of golden light filtering through along the peaks in the distance – and still some blue sky over peaks in the opposite direction.
The sign post itself was erected for a geological convention of sort some years ago, and the various signs point to the cities around the world where the scientists attending the event came from.
Past the sign post, the trail keeps going to a higher hill, easy to see as the alpine vegetation is all low shrubs. I decided to venture up there on foot while Brice flew the drone up. The summit seen from below was actually a false summit, as I found out when I reached it. The second (presumably true) summit was still some ways away still so I decided to turn around. I still got some really great views from the false summit and I enjoyed running down the wide, rocky track on the way back down.
Once I got back to the car we drove back down to the campground for dinner. It was the first time in a few days that bugs weren’t all over us, and it didn’t rain, so we were able to sit by the fire and enjoy the evening outside the bug shelter.
As a side note, there was a group at the top of Keno Hill when we got there, and sure enough, it was a bunch of French people (Some from France, some from Canada, based on accents). Of course we found them back at the Campground (there is only one) – As we’ve often found in our various travels, no matter where we go in the world, how remote we get, we always seem to run into the French.
I wonder if other nationalities experience that as well and maybe we only notice French people because of the language…In any case it’s become a bit of a joke, and we can sometimes even identify French people just by looking at them…
August 15 – Hiking up Mount Hinton near Keno
We decided to stay one more night in Keno, so we could take time to do a local hike.
After breakfast we drove to the Mount Hinton trailhead. The directions from Alltrails were actually incorrect and took us down some random mining roads. We eventually found the correct directions, which basically consist of driving up the Sourdough trail, to the top of Sourdough hill, and then continue down into the next valley to a creek crossing. At that point, the road gets quite steep and rocky that’s where we started the hike.
The hike follows a wide dirt path along the side of the mountain for a bit, with open views all around since the vegetation is quite low.
On route we passed two RTVs and for once I thought this could have been a better way to get up the trail.
The trail is really the equivalent of a forest logging road, except in the area it would have been carved out for mining. After a few km of circumventing, we reached a split with one trail to the left going straight up to the ridge, while the other to the right seemed to go down.
So we climbed to the left and reached the ridge for a pretty stunning view. Looking back at the Alltrails GPS later, I think we might have gone a bit further on the road and missed an earlier fork to climb to the summit, but we still got really great views.
When we made our way down, we noticed an excavator next to the two RTVs seen on the way up. It was digging a trench into the side of the mountain. We stopped to ask one of the workers who was standing by the vehicles and he explained they were testing the ground for potential gold mining. The excavator was going to dig out a 100-meter trench followed by a 3m hole and they would assess the ground, to potentially come back next year to start mining.
For some reason, I naively thought gold mining was a thing of the past and didn’t expect to see active digging. But it’s very much still alive, and there are apparently reality TV shows about it shot in the area. I wonder what it means for this hike and the surrounding landscape if the area becomes a mining site next year…
Back in town, we took a tour of the a local museum, which gives a very good overview of the beginning of mining, tools used, a bit about geology, the living conditions in the small mining community in the first half of the 20th Century.
Outside of the main building, two other large buildings housed old machines and vehicles used back in the day – examples of intricate engineering that go right over my head but still very interesting to learn about – and marvel at the technology that was developed progressively to facilitate the work.
We were able to have a shower at the community facilities, for a small fee paid at the Museum front desk. We went back to camp for dinner then decided to go grab a beer at the local bar – the only commercial building still active it seems. Other services previously included The Snack bar, famous for its pizza, but it was presumably only open for take-out, and the former hotel across the street from the bar, which had burned down in Dec 2020 (and one would almost say a bit suspiciously, based on chatting with a couple of locals).
Our next travel rig?
We hung out on the bar porch while listening to local patrons chat (that’s how we learned about Gold Rush and other reality TV shows going on at active mining camps nearby). Eventually we came back to the tent for a good night sleep.
August 16 – Drive to Dawson City
We drove a good portion of the day from Keno to Dawson city. There wasn’t too much to see on the way, and the drive was made a bit longer by all the construction zones and having to wait for pilot cars to go through them (we had at least 3). The road near Dawson changes from paved to gravel which slowed us down as well.
In Watson lake we had our first experience of the Government campgrounds, which are peppered all over the Yukon. They only cost $12 a night, for a site with picnic table and firepit, and wood is provided for free. No amenities, but as we found out through our various stays, the outhouses were always remarkably clean and well stocked up in TP. Overall we never had a bad experience at one of those campgrounds, and we always knew more or less what to expect, as the set up was pretty consistent.
Brice made pancakes for breakfast (or tried to, they didn’t quite turn out how he normally does them). Then we left our camp. We stopped at the Sign Post Forest, which displays signs (or license plates) made by people who visited.
It was started in the 1940’s by a GI who was feeling homesick and was trying to make something that reminded him of home. It evidently became a thing that people do when coming through the town. Apparently there are now over 80 000 signs! I guess it’s the local equivalent of the bridge of locks in Paris – except there’s no danger of the forest of posts collapsing under the weight of the signs…it seems it could still expend for a bit.
We then headed off and spent a few hours driving, making only one stop in Teslin (about halfway between Watson Lake and Whitehorse). We visited the Teslin Tlingit Heritage Center, which has a small display of Tlingit artefacts – small but impressive, with beautiful beaded garments and carved masks by local artists.
We watched a 15 min documentary about the celebrations the Tlingit people organize when their relatives from Juneau, AK come to visit.
The Tlingit people originated from Coastal Southern Alaska, but some migrated inland for fur trading, and as craftsmanship evolved they were able to spend more time in the cold interior winter, eventually settling away from the coast. The descendant of the migrants refer to themselves as the Inland Tlingit, but still have a very strong bond to their coastal cousins, which they celebrate with regular potlatches.
For a period of time though, these gatherings were restricted by the ban on potlatches, which was in place between the mid 1880’s and the 1950’s both in Canada and the US.
The celebrations take place in and around the heritage Center, which also serves as a meeting place. Normally open to visitors, they haven’t been in the recent 1.5 years due to Covid.
We also stopped by the George Johnston museum, but it was closed that day so we made a note to try and stop again when we drive back a few weeks later.
Our next stop was in Johnson’s crossing, after Brice spotted a bakery sign on the side of the road, and we had a couple of pastries for afternoon snack.
Eventually we arrived in Whitehorse and this will come as no surprise to anyone who knows Brice, our very first stop was at a Car-wash to rinse off all the dirt and mud collected along the way.
We had booked another Airbnb for that night. This time we had found a private Bed + Bath in a private house. The set-up was clean and comfortable, but the hosts were not super welcoming, barely saying hi when we got in. Mind you, the previous hosts in Old Hazelton hadn’t been super warm either, so it’s likely Covid had something to do with it. We hadn’t been in an Airbnb since before the pandemic, and our last experience before that was a 10-day stay in a private room in Austin, Tx, where we got to meet and interact with our hosts on a daily basis. But of course the pandemic would have had a huge impact on how much interaction hosts are trying to have (or not to have) with their guests.
We put our stuff down and headed out for dinner, taking advantage of being in a city to go to a proper restaurant. It was almost a bit strange to be sleeping inside a house, after all the camping, but still nice to be able to shower and sleep under a roof, and not have to set up and take down camp.
As we arrived in Whitehorse, I was checking the forecast, and it looked like a lot of rainy days ahead in the Kluane area, which is where we had planned on heading to next. I didn’t really feel like hiking in the rain and missing out on scenery covered in clouds, so we decided to head out to Dawson City early. But instead of driving there in one day, we would take the long way up and spend 3 days doing side trips to Faro & Keno, places that weren’t originally on the itinerary. In turn, we would go to Kluane after coming back from Dawson City, hoping that we would have better luck with the weather then. It also meant trading the Carcross Tagish/Aitlin loop we had also intended later on for this plan but so it goes. At least we had enough buffer time on this trip to be able to make these adjustments, as we didn’t have a set return date in Vancouver. And as we’ve learned on other trips, it’s always good to have a set itinerary, but be prepared to adjust it on the fly.
August 12 – Driving to Faro
In the morning, we took advantage of the city to take care of a few errands, such as getting more cash for the campgrounds, and restocking on groceries. Then we stopped at Alpine Bakery on the way out, to enjoy a couple of sweet pastries in their cute garden patio, and grab some savory treats for lunch later. Then we got on the road, headed North on the Klondike Highway.
We made our first stop at the Fox lake Burn rest area, and walked down the short interpretive trail that leads to a ridge and provides information on forest fires. It described their impact on the ecosystem and how they can be beneficial in the natural cycle of things, allowing new plant and animal species to repopulate an area after a fire. A lot of the naturally caused fires (usually lightening) happen in more remote areas, and they are often monitored but not intervened on. Man-caused fires on the other hand tend to happen closer to populated area and of course cause bigger problems, as they impact human infrastructures and lives. And global warming is making it easier for fires to spread, with vegetation being a lot drier and the lack of rain to control them.
The ridge was incredibly windy! It reminded me of Patagonia, and the types of wind we encountered there, sometimes able to knock you off your feet. I could see how fire would propagate at incredible speed with winds of the sort.
Our next stop was at the Braeburn Lodge. We came up to it just as I was reading in the Milepost that “their cinnamon rolls can feed 4 people”. Clearly we had to stop and check for ourselves.
Sure enough, the buns where the size of a small cake. It was lunch time though, so we decided against buying one (also, they were REALLY big and as much as I like pastry, that was a bit too much for me), and instead went for a grilled cheese sandwich – which by the way could also have fed 4 people. It was super simple but very tasty.
Our last stop on the Klondike that day was at the Montague Roadhouse Historic Site. Until the beginning of the 20th century, the Klondike river was the main way of transportation between Whitehorse and Dawson City. Then in the early 1900’s, the Overland Trail (now Klondike highway) was built to connect the two towns by horse and carriage. The Montague Roadhouse is the only remaining trace of the pioneer-era rest stop along the trail. Rest stops of the sort, with overnight accommodation, were found every 40 km or so along the trail. You can still see some of the main roadhouse building at the site, and read about the history of it.
Once we got to Carmacks, we left the Klondike Highway for our first side trip, heading East to Faro on the Campbell Highway.
We set up camp at the John Connolly municipal park, a nice campground with hot showers (always a plus). We were quite tired from the long drive but decided to take the short hike along the Van Gorder waterfall trail to stretch our legs.
Mosquitos were, once again, a bit aggressive (we wore our bug jackets to the waterfall!), and it rained for a good portion of the night, but we still had a cozy sleep in our little tent.
August 13 – Running on Faro trails and drive to Tatchun lake
The next morning we decided to go for a trail run before heading back out.
There’s a network of trails around Faro, which don’t actually seem to exist on google map, but I picked up a good old paper map from the visitor center across from the campground (they also have a pdf version here). Aside from the overall scale reference, there’s no indication of length, elevation, etc. but it did look like we could do a roughly 10km loop around the town, starting right at the campsite so that’s what we set off for. The trails all have animal names and signs at some intersections but it did take a bit of navigating with the map to stay on our intended route. The trails were not very technical, albeit pretty muddy, but we encountered a few decent hills – and we did get couple of nice views from above the town. As suggested by the map, these trails are likely more used in the winter for cross-country skiing and snowmobiles.
Mosquitos weren’t as bad when we were running, and we managed to stay mostly dry aside from the 93% humidity in the air. After the run, we enjoyed the hot showers then had our savory pastries from the day before for lunch. We ate them on the patio of the information center, which was looked after by the most lovely lady, who offered us free coffee. We then headed back to Carmacks, to continue our journey up the Klondike highway.
The campground in Carmacks sounded good on paper – offering waterfront campsites and burger joint, but when we got there it didn’t turn out to be that exciting – a messy-looking stretch of ground near the river, only separated from the main road by the parking lot, and the pub didn’t look very inviting. It was also quite busy, which was a third reason for us to continue on, to try and find a quieter, more appealing campsite for the night.
We continued North and landed at the Tatchun lake Government Campground, located a few km down a dirt road – away from the highway traffic noise. Note that there is a Tatchun Creek campground up the road, but that one is also near the road, exposed to traffic noise.
For the first time in our trip it felt like the mosquitos were less intense, probably because temperatures were starting to lower. We set up camp a bit earlier than other days, so we had time to relax in the evening, work on photos, write our travel journal, and enjoy some time by the fire.
