We left Whitehorse after spending a night at the Gold Rush Inn. The drive to Tombstone Territorial Park was, well... painful. For six hours, the scenery was nothing but trees. Trees on the left, trees on the right, and just in case you missed them—more trees. Google Maps says the drive takes 6 hours.
To make things extra fun, the last 70 km are on a gravel road. By the time we arrived, the place was completely socked in with smoke. No mountains in sight. Not surprising, but it still sucks!.
Luckily, the next morning we woke up and the smoke had cleared up a bit, so we tackled a short hike called Goldensides. Super manageable, and the kids actually enjoyed it (a small miracle). The view at the top was pretty awesome, even with a little haze.
After that, I kept a close eye on firesmoke.ca, and the forecast looked good for the following day. Sure enough, we woke up and—boom—clear skies! So we geared up early to do the park’s most popular hike: the Grizzly Lake Trail. The trail name sounds scary, but don't worry, I brought bear spray. I also made sure that I was the one carrying it, because I'm the slowest runner in the family.
This one is 8 km round trip with a 650 m elevation gain. Translation: steep as hell.
Mylène and Emma handled it like mountain goats. Teddy and I… not so much. But the view at the end? Absolutely worth the sweat and whining. Check it out!
For our final night in Tombstone, we skipped the campground and slept in the visitor centre parking lot. Why? Because there was a sinkhole in the road before the campground, and we weren’t in the mood to get permanently trapped on the Dempster highway.. From the parking lot, we set up an overnight timelapse to see just how dark it gets this far north in the Yukon. Spoiler: not very. Still cool though—check it out below.
The next morning, we left and had to drive down the same 70 km of gravel. Fun times. Also, shoutout to the passing truck that launched a rock at our RV windshield.
Photo gallery
Be the first to comment.