“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.”
-Beverly Sills
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Just passed burwash, you will come across duke river. a little after the bridge you will see a dirt road starting on your left. Drive that dirt road as far as your car permits it.
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The trail starts by following that old mining road. And it follow that road all the way into the park boundary. Once you reach a small camp, head on your right up the creek, always following the old road. After about 1.5km you will come to a junction, take a left turn. You will get into the upper land, we will meet a few small lake on the way. Keep an eye out for caribou, they tend to hang around there. Once the road starts heading down it is to meet Burwash Creek. Not too far after you will meet another camp. The road now follows the right side of the creek, it will go up a bit, since the creek gets a little canyony. Once you passed the tightest part of the creek, it will open on a beautiful upper land. The road a this point stops, but an ATV trail starts, stay on the right side of the creek. The creek will make a wide left turn, Follow the wide creek all the way to its source. You will pass some national park boundary signs, and not long after you will come across a cabin. This upper land it really gorgeous. make you way pass the cabin, while staying on the creek bed, The creeks divides here, follow the right creek, it passes in front of the sharp triangle peak. This is another beautiful creek with waterfalls and canyon. Stay on the left side of the creek, all the way until you made it passed the canyon. Your are now almost to Hogan's pass. Follow the creek up all the way until you get a pass. From there, you have to make curve around the left hill, it will go up and down a few times, passing small creeks, but soon you will have a view into the next valley. It can be a little tricky to find a safe way down from this point, you have to take the second gully, at some point the gully end with a small waterfall just before descend on the left to avoid it. Once you reach the main creek, you simply have to follow it down all the way to the valley of the Donjek river. You will have to cross the creek multiple time. Once you reached Donjek river, you have your first glimpse of the glacier. From here you can do about 6-7km on the river bed (depending how high is the river) before the canyon of Donjek river. At this point, find a good place to bushwalk away from the river (North East) keep going up until you are above the pine trees line. There is some sort of trail above that tree line that will help you clock good speed. Keep going parallel to the glacier until you've reached a the third wide creek bed, To have a close look at the glacier head down that creek bed all the way until you can nearly touch the glacier (almost). After you have filled your eyes of the beauty of a close encounter with a glacier. Keep walking towards Bighorn Creek. Keep an eye on the creek that originate from Expetation pass. Expetation pass is the saddle on the far right on the hogan peak range. Once you have reached that creek, simply follow it all the way up. Once you are at the Pass, enjoy a nice view on both, Donjek and Kluane glacier. Follow the flank of the mountain to you next and final pass. The pass is between Landmark peak (the snowy one and the biggest one) and the cliffy wall. Once you are reached that pass, make your way on the left along the ridge until you can't because of a cliff, make you way in front of that cliff, you are aiming for the middle ridge heading down, you are trying to reach the second gully. Follow the ridge down all the way to the saddle, from this point it head for that square of grass on top of a ledge. Once there make your way down on the left side of that patch. From this point on, simply follow Atlas creek all the way to Duke river. Once at Duke river, you have the choice to turn right and follow the river upstream if you are planning to exit this trip by Copper Joe creek (explication not covered in this trip). Turn left and head downstream, stay on the dry river bed when you can. it is easy walking for about 6km, in which point the river banks start rising up, and at the same time pushes up to go up the gorge side, The sides are cliffy for a few sharp turn before heading down again. at this point I chose to head hight into the wetland, and to follow the river higher up, were bushwalking was easy. I stayed high almost all the way until I reach that first camp we come across when we start.
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Personal Highlights |
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- Grizzly (every single time I did this hike I saw grizzly bears)
- Slim river (the walk along the river is easy and beautiful)
- Kaskawulsh Glacier (obviously if you do this hike it is to see those 2 glaciers coming into one)
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Challenges |
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- Crowds (it is a well known trail up here in the Yukon, so you are most likely to see more than a few people.
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Pictures |
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