Photo:
Jakub Fryš / CC BY-SA 4.0
Kluane is a land of superlatives, home to Mount Logan, Canada’s highest peak, and the largest non-polar icefields on Earth, sprawling across the southwest Yukon. Part of the largest internationally protected area in the world, it is a wilderness of towering mountains, vast glaciers and grizzly-rich valleys, where most of the park’s icy heart can only be glimpsed from the air.
A green front range of forested valleys and alpine tundra hides an interior of rock and ice, the St. Elias Mountains and their immense icefields, feeding glaciers that grind toward the lowlands. The accessible eastern edge, along the highways, is prime grizzly, Dall sheep and moose country, while the icy core is the realm of mountaineers and flightseeing pilots.
Summer and early fall are the hiking and paddling season, when the valley trails are clear and the weather is at its (still changeable) best; fall adds color and the first snows on the peaks. The mountaineering season on Logan is spring. Winter is long, cold and dark, with limited access.
The park is reached along the Alaska and Haines highways in the southwest Yukon, with visitor centres at Haines Junction and Tachal Dhal. A vehicle gets you to the trailheads and viewpoints along the highway corridor; the interior icefields are accessed only by flightseeing charter or serious mountaineering expedition.
Hike the front-range trails, the King’s Throne and Sheep Creek among them, and watch for Dall sheep and grizzlies. Take a flightseeing tour over Mount Logan and the icefields for the park’s unforgettable centerpiece, raft the Alsek River on a multi-day expedition, or, for the elite, mountaineer in the St. Elias.
This is grizzly country, so carry bear spray, make noise and store food properly. The icefields are glaciated, crevassed terrain for experienced, equipped parties only; weather turns fast and cold, rivers run swift and frigid, and the backcountry is remote. Carry a satellite communicator and register your trip.
A Parks Canada pass is required, overnight and mountaineering trips need registration, and flightseeing should be booked with local operators. This page is a general overview, not a live conditions report; always confirm current conditions, registration and options with Parks Canada before your trip.
Set this declination on your compass, then align it to the map's north lines; it is the angle between true north and magnetic north, refreshed each year.
