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Anchorage, Alaska
USA
1340 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2006 : 11:52 AM
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From Aug. 14th to Aug. 17th, my hiking buddy Andrew and I spent three nights touring the Tombstone Park backcountry in the central Yukon. The delay in posting this trip report was due to an overabundance of pics to sort through, plus trying to remember all the important things to mention about this trip, some of which I'm certain to forget.
From start to finish we were marred by hostile weather, shortening our intended six nights to three. The hiking terrain is unforgiving also; you are either fighting through waist-high willows or slipping/sliding over angular boulder fields. The intermittent rain made both of these less pleasant.
On day one, we headed up the Grizzly Valley high route from the trailhead at km 57 of Dempster Highway, and spent 4 hours hiking the 12 km in to the Grizzly Lake campground.
Gaining the ridgeline was nothing short of exhausting with our packs on, which weighed about 70-80 pounds each at the start. But the high route was reputed as easier than fighting through the thickets in the valley bottom. Plus the views were fantastic.
  
  
  
  
In spite of an austere grey sky and intermittent rain, the views of Mount Monolith and the surrounding granite spires to the west of Grizzly Lake, were stunning.
Grizzly Lake was better equipped than I expected; it had a decent outhouse, bear lockers, a small cooking area, and all the tent pads were elevated above the tundra on wooden pallets. A geologist had told me the park is situated over a naturally radioactive area, and drinking the water should be kept to a minimum  , so we did our best, and diluted our evening drinks with crystal light and vodka (couldn't find an MSR filter capable of removing Radon gas...)
 
More shots around Grizzly Lake, in momentary episodes of sunlight...
  
Andrew got up very early on day two, and caught photos of the only decent weather we'd see that day:
  
We ended up getting rained on hard enough that we stayed put all day, playing cards and eating... The following morning, on day three, the clouds appeared to have lifted a bit so we decided to head for Grizzly Pass and Twin Lakes to the south, to take in the scenery, then reverse direction and head toward Glissade Pass and the North Klondike Valley, passing by Grizzly Lake again.
Here's our route:
Climbing up Grizzly Pass, the fog and mist made me glad for having the GPS:
  
  
Looking SW down into the Wolf Valley. It was easy to get disoriented under the overcast skies.
 
Sexy geology: Large hornblende crystals in what I would call a pegmatite...
The viewpoint overlooking Twin Lakes:
 
We returned to Grizzly Lake campground mid-day to get our packs, and continue north over Glissade Pass toward Divide Lake, in the North Klondike Valley. As an aside, The North Klondike can be hiked directly from the Dempster Highway, but requires 16 km of bushwacking through chest-deep willows thick with latent rainwater and possibly grizzlies. So access Divide Lake via the Grizzly Valley is what we did.
Here's our route:
Glissade Pass would be more aptly named "Glissade Ridge". You access it by hiking directly north from Grizzly Lake up the side of the hill, until you reach a saddle point about 400 vertical metres above the lake. Here's looking back at Grizzly Lake from partway up:
and near the top itself. Note the color differences in our cameras.
The north side of the pass didn't even look traversable at first glance. A closer study reveals a faint path swtichbacking down the very steep scree slope. Andrew studies the path down into the North Klondike:
 
I stand on the edge looking down...
 
In the second shot you can see the path down.
Glancing out Grizzly Valley toward the highway:
Looking back up at the steep approach to Glissade Pass from the valley on the north side:
Some brief sunshine, looking down the North Klondike Valley toward the highway:
The scenery around Divide Lake. This campground was also equipped with an outhouse, and elevated camping pads:
 
We awoke on day four to yet more rain. Originally we were going to head for Talus Lake, on the other side of the broad Tombstone Pass. But since we couldn't even get dry, we decided to just head back to the road via Glissade Pass.
 
Our route out:
Glissade Pass was less than enjoyable when approached from the north, with heavy packs. Andrew made it from valley floor to summit in less than 15 minutes, a pace that was hard to keep up to. From there, we tried to stay high in elevation while heading back towards the highway, but side hills and slippery expanse or angular boulders forced us to drop a couple hundred metres in elevation to tie in with the main trail out. Although the rain was never that hard, with the constant stumbling through wet willows and slipping in creeks, I was as wet coming out at the trailhead as if I'd just jumped into a swimming pool.
Tombstone Park was very reminiscent of Denali National Park in Alaska, where the tundra vegetation changes dramatically with altitude, and the easiest hiking is found higher up. My recommendation would be to plan a route that kept you high, and stay out of the lower North Klondike as well as the Wolf Valley and the westernmost reaches of the park. Also bring full rain gear and check the forecast - I did neither  .
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"Hey Brian, I got my tax return back. I'm getting an Audi!"
"Uh, Peter, there's a 'T' at the end. You're getting audited."
"No, Brian, it's a foreign car. The 'T' is silent. Sweet, I'm getting an Audi!" |
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Coquitlam, British Columbia
Canada
1727 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2006 : 12:53 PM
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| Great adventure, puts our trips to shame... |
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Whitehorse, Yukon
Canada
3 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2006 : 1:22 PM
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| I am just moving to Whithorse, where did you get the topo map from? and is there more of the Yukon? |
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Anchorage, Alaska
USA
1340 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2006 : 1:56 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Lost Dog
I am just moving to Whithorse, where did you get the topo map from? and is there more of the Yukon?
Those are excerpts from my Mapsource Topo Canada digital database, which I bought from Map Town in CD form for $150 shortly after purchasing my GPS. Yukon is completely covered as far as I can tell.
I sure wish I could've waited another week and joined BillyGoat and the Girls on their trip!! Looks like they had much better weather than us. We probably passed them on the highway back down...
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"Hey Brian, I got my tax return back. I'm getting an Audi!"
"Uh, Peter, there's a 'T' at the end. You're getting audited."
"No, Brian, it's a foreign car. The 'T' is silent. Sweet, I'm getting an Audi!" |
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 Satirical photoshop junkie who frolics in the mountains of the Chilliwack River Valley
Chilliwack, BC
Canada
6902 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2006 : 2:19 PM
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lost dog,
You can get topos through Mac's fireweed bookstore in Whitehorse; where I'm currently a half block or so from. They have an onlinie store as well, and that was how we got our topos.
The colours sure changed in the short time lapse between your trip and ours N.A. We ended up staying 6 nights and got one day of rain, but the rain was snow in the mtns which made for some fantastic photo shoots around Divide Lake as you'll see in one of my later trip reports. Truly a spectacular place to be.
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Sweat is the cologne of accomplishment
Harry Neale
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Telkwa
1176 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2006 : 2:24 PM
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| So cool. Many, many years ago I spent 4 years up in that area and got to know the Tombstones well. There wasn't any trails or campsites or anything back then (1970's). What a beautiful and wonderful place. Did you get to Unuvik? More pictures along the road - maybe some of Engineer, Hart ranges etc. Post more! (sorry don't mean to yell, I just love that area) |
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Anchorage, Alaska
USA
1340 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2006 : 2:49 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by telkwa
So cool. Many, many years ago I spent 4 years up in that area and got to know the Tombstones well. There wasn't any trails or campsites or anything back then (1970's). What a beautiful and wonderful place. Did you get to Unuvik? More pictures along the road - maybe some of Engineer, Hart ranges etc. Post more! (sorry don't mean to yell, I just love that area)
We did make it to Inuvik & went on to climb Pilot's Peak and Mt. Hare and did some rambling in the Richardsons. But you'll have to wait for those TR's!! Nice Iceland trip BTW.
Even by the 22nd, when we drove back through on our way south, the tundra had changed color and the fireweed appeared to be dying. So fast!
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"Hey Brian, I got my tax return back. I'm getting an Audi!"
"Uh, Peter, there's a 'T' at the end. You're getting audited."
"No, Brian, it's a foreign car. The 'T' is silent. Sweet, I'm getting an Audi!" |
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Vancouver, BC
653 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2006 : 5:24 PM
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You guys went *up* Glissade pass from the north 
Damn!
Too bad you had iffy weather - guess you'll just have to head back there next year  .
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Calgary, Alberta
Andorra
3787 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2006 : 6:27 PM
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| It sucks that you had bad weather - nothing like constant wet to kill a trip. The clouds make some ot the photos really dramatic, however. Thos massive peaks towering through the dark clouds - totally awesome. The lack of sunshine also makes the couple photos that have it stand out more - great reflection in Grizzly lake (I think it is?). |
Edited by - Rachelo on 09/05/2006 6:31 PM |
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Mallorca
508 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2006 : 7:31 PM
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Nice! Even with bad weather I wished I could have spent more time in that area. Thanks for sharing.
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Caminante no hay camino, se hace camino al andar. |
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Calgary, Alberta
Canada
86 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2006 : 8:07 PM
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| How sexy. I would agree about the pegmatite, but man does that seem felsic! Okay, before anyone shoots the rock geek, those photos are stunning. The one where the mountains shine like gold in the reflection in the lake...what am I doing in Calgary anyways?? Thanks for sharing, man. |
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Calgary, AB
Canada
252 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2006 : 8:13 PM
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Another great TR, NA. Recently I saw a 1 hr program (CBC) on the Dempster hwy and it had me riveted to the TV. The Dempster hwy area is now on the list. Stunning pictures all the same. Thanks for sharing!  |
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Arctic Trip II: Tombstone Territorial, Yukon
