Enjoying Whitehorse Trails - Yukon Energy
Enjoying Whitehorse TrailsA guide to the Yukon River trails toSchwatka Lake, Miles Canyon and Canyon City
CONTENTSWelcome to the trails, p.1The land under your feet, p.2Nature along the Yukon River, p.4History of the valley, p.6Getting ready to hike, p.10Section 1: Yukon River: RobertCampbell Bridge to WhitehorseFishway, p.11Section 2: Lookout hill: WhitehorseFishway to Schwatka Lake, p.14Section 3: Schwatka Lake: lookouthill to day use area, p.16Section 4: Miles Canyon: day use areato Canyon City, p.18Section 5: Miles Canyon: Canyon Cityto Robert E. Lowe Bridge, p.20Section 6: Miles Canyon Road: RobertE. Lowe Bridge to Robert ServiceCampground, p.22Section 7: Yukon River walkway:Robert Service Campground toRobert Campbell Bridge, p.24References, p.25Overview of the City of Whitehorse5 kmLEGENDbooklet trailsviewpointother trailscampground roadPparkingrailwayfish ladderpower linesboat launchSection 1 trailheadspicnic tablesY R G ski trails 2000Yukon Energy Corporation,(867) 393-5300Production:K-L Services and Midnight Arts,Whitehorse, YukonThis trail guide is provided byYukon Energy as a communityservice. Every effort has beenmade to verify the informationprovided in this trail guide.Any suggestions you have forinclusion in future printings areencouraged. Please note, use ofthe trails is at your own risk.Unless otherwise credited, allphotos by Peter Long.Site of trails
Welcome to the trails“I know about the Miles Canyon and Whitehorse Rapids. My grandmother told meabout it. We use to come and fish, gaff salmon and spear salmon there, in the rapidsarea, when they come close to shore. They go up the river and they use to hunt acrossthe river where Riverdale is. They get moose there. Moose, and people use to live there.They dry fish. We use to go all over the place. ” Ronald Bill, 1995The trails along the Yukon River inWhitehorse are very special. Theywere used by countless generations ofFirst Nations people on their travelsaround the fearsome Whitehorse Rapids.Later, newcomers in search of gold andadventure used the same trails in theirrace to the Klondike gold fields. Now,residents and visitors alike tramp alongthe shores of the Yukon River andSchwatka Lake.(both photos) Yukon Archives. MacBride Museum Coll. 3888, 3889 (inset)This guide describes the trail systemas it follows the east side of theYukon River from the Robert CampbellBridge, along Schwatka Lake, then on tothe abandoned gold rush settlement ofCanyon City. The trail then returns toMiles Canyon, crossing the river at thesuspension bridge and continuing on tothe S.S. Klondike on the west side of theriver via the Miles Canyon Road and theYukon River walkway. From the modernpower generating facility to the ancientlava flows, from the tiny northern plantsto the limestone mass of Grey Mountain,there is much to capture your interestand imagination. Within minutes ofa modern urban centre, you will bewalking in the northern boreal forestwhere all sense of the city disappears.You can take a 20-minute walk on justpart of the trail or spend the day andhike the entire loop. Along the way,there are several places to park yourvehicle so you can walk just parts of thetrail. Design a walk to suit your needs!We hope you enjoy these trails and that,for the pleasure of others, you leavethem as you found them.Walking the tramline by the rapids.1
The land under your feetou are walking in the Yukon Rivervalley carved over millennia byglaciers and water. The mountains yousee around you are part of a sevenkilometre-thick layer of sedimentaryrocks between 160 and 210 millionyears old. These rocks are mainlysandstone, limestone and conglomerate(a variety of rocks cemented together).Grey Mountain, to the east, was formedfrom limestone. To the west, a belt oflimestone contains the copper depositsof the Whitehorse Copper Belt.Along much of the trail, you will also seedark-coloured basaltic rocks that formpart of the valley floor in the area. Thisporous rock is from a volcanic lavaflow over eight million years ago. Somescientists think that the lava came froma fissure in Golden Horn Mountain to thesouth.During the last great ice age, glacierscovered this part of the southern Yukon.Up until about 14,000 years ago, thevalley sat under nearly a kilometre ofice. The sea of ice completely coveredGrey Mountain and all but the topof Golden Horn Mountain. The glacierrounded off the mountains and carvedout a U-shaped valley.About 9,000 to 11,000 years ago, the icesheets began to melt and retreat towardsthe southeast. As the ice retreated, thesediments trapped in the ice melted out,leaving the rounded hills and knife edgeridges of gravel, sand and rock that yousee in the valley today.Sometimes, large blocks of ice broke offthe retreating glacier and became buriedin these sediments. Over hundreds ofyears, these icebergs melted, leavingkettle-like depressions. Some of theseShooting Miles Canyon at high water, 1899.2Yukon Archives. Emil Forrest Coll. 80/60, #6Y
filled with water and became lakes.Chadburn Lake and the Hidden Lakesare examples of this.At the same time, ice dams in the Yukonand Takhini (Southern Tutchone name,Näkhu chù) river valleys prevented themelt water from escaping. A huge lakeformed, extending from Haines Junctionin the west to Marsh Lake (Tàkwädàdà)in the east and Lake Laberge (Ta’anMan) in the north. As the silts fromthe glacier entered the lake, they weredeposited in the distinct layers or bandsthat you can see today in the clay cliffsalong the river in Whitehorse.When the ice dams broke, the lakewaters rushed out, carving theEffects of erosion.beginnings of the modern river channel.The Yukon River continued carvingthrough the soft silt deposits of theancient lake bottom to form the valleywhere downtown Whitehorse sits today.Since that time, the soil has beenaccumulating, though it’s a slow processin the cold, dry climate of the Yukon. Ifyou look at places where the river bankhas been cut away, you will see little soilbuildup over the gravel. Notice that oftenyou can see a distinct strip of white dustin the ground. This is called the WhiteRiver ash layer, deposited by a volcaniceruption in eastern Alaska some 1,200years ago. Not much soil has built upover that white ash.Clay cliffs in the winter.3
Nature along the Yukon Rivert 3,185 kilometres, the Yukon Riveris the fifth longest river in NorthAmerica. The blue-green colours ofthe water are a result of the glacialsediments and remind us that the icybirthplace of the river is not far away.in the summer. Whitehorse’s proximityto the ocean, 180 kilometres to thesouth, means that we benefit fromwarmer south winds, which moderatetemperatures. Generally, however, ourwinters are dry and cold.A popular view of the north has usburied under tons of snow in the winter.In fact, the climate in Whitehorse issemi-arid, meaning it is very dry. TheCoastal Mountains, only 100 kilometresaway, put this area into a rain shadow.Precipitation averages 268 centimetreseach year, about half of that fallingWhitehorse lies in an upland forest withstands of lodgepole pine, spruce andaspen. Along the trail, you will alsosee poplar, willow and, near the water,groves of alder. While the trees are notlarge by southern standards, many arequite old. Trees here grow very slowlydue to dry conditions and harsh winters.Early view of Hepburn tramway.4Univ. of Washington Libraries, Special Coll. Division, #11586AStreamside alders.
As you walk the trail, you will travelclose to the water through forest andalong the river. The trail also crossesdry, grassy hillsides and the clay cliffsthemselves. Many plants have adaptedwell to the dry, thin soil conditionsin the Yukon River valley. Dependingon the time of year, you will seea wide variety of wild flowers. TheMiles Canyon area is a popular localspot to look for crocuses in late Apriland early May. Other plants, such aswild rose, spotted saxifrage and YukonBeardtongue, grow in this dry, rockysoil. In the nearby woods, you can findArctic lupines, elegant death camas andbluebells.Remember that, in the north, it takesa long time to grow even the smallestof plants. Please leave the flowers andplants for others to enjoy.The river valley is also home to northernwildlife. Even this close to the city, youmay see beaver, otter, coyotes, arcticground squirrels, snowshoe hares and,possibly, moose, black bear and muledeer.Mid-river islands and sandbars.In the woods, some of the birds you willsee include Gray Jays, magpies, juncos,robins, Bohemian Waxwings, hawks andPine Grosbeaks. Schwatka Lake and thebackwaters along the river are gatheringspots for many waterfowl, gulls andeagles. Cliff swallows nest along somestretches of the river bank and inMiles Canyon. The clay cliffs are agood place to watch for ravens. Theselarge, intelligent birds seem to delight inplaying in the updrafts along the steepbanks. You may also see Bald Eaglesriding the air currents near the clay cliffsor searching the edges of the river forfish and game.Lakeside vegetation on south slopes.5
History of the valleyThe Whitehorse area is within thetraditional lands of the Ta’an Kwäch’änand the Kwanlin Dün First Nations.(Kwanlin is the Southern Tutchone wordfor Miles Canyon and means “waterrunning through a narrow place.”) Mostmembers of these two First Nations areSouthern Tutchone speakers who, in turn,are part of the vast Athapaskan familyfound in the Yukon, Northwest Territoriesand as far south as Nevada.It is believed that several distinct FirstNations cultures have flourished anddisappeared from this area over the last10,000 years. There is evidence thatpeople hunted along the edges of thegreat glacial lake which filled this valley.They followed the migrating herds ofcaribou as they in turn followedthe retreating ice southward. When thelake drained, it left a huge grassy plainwhere buffalo herds thrived. As spruceforests replaced grasslands, moosemoved to this area and the buffalodisappeared. The First Nations peopleadapted, becoming moose huntersinstead.After the glaciers melted, and the YukonRiver began to flow again, salmonbecame an important new food sourcefor First Nations. During the salmon’smigration up the river, the First Nationspeople came to fish. People tended touse the same campsites year after year,but they did not build large, permanentsettlements. Sometimes, several familieswould gather at a fish camp to help catchand dry the salmon. It was an importanttime for renewing acquaintances andcatching up on news. There were manycamps along this section of river and one6of these, Kwanlin, was at the site of thepresent-day Robert Service Campground.Hunting, fishing, gathering and tradingwere all part of the seasonal travels forthe First Nations people, who movedto where food sources were abundant.While there are stories of people bravingthe rapids on rafts and moose skinboats, they mostly used the trails tobypass the rough water. The peopletravelled through here regularly, movingfrom Ta’an Man (Lake Laberge) in thenorth, to Tàkwädàdà (Marsh Lake) inthe south.This was also a jumping off spot forthe trail to U zela (Fish Lake), westof Whitehorse. Although the river waspoleslashedto osswaysFirst Nations people transported dried fish and meatthrough the raging waters on self-guiding rafts. Longpoles deflected the raft back into the current when ithit the canyon walls. At the foot of the rapids, the raftwould drift into an eddy and be retrieved with a gaff.Raft description from stories told to David Bunburyby his grandfather, Frankie Jim, both members ofthe Ta’an Kwäch’än First Nation.Rob IngramFirst Nations
a great food source during the summersalmon runs, people usually gathered atthe larger lakes in the winter wherethey could catch lake trout and whitefishthrough the ice and hunt moose in theforests.The people of the southern Yukon werepart of an extensive trade network thatextended far down the British Columbiacoast. Traders from other inland peopleand coastal First Nations travelled hereregularly. The furs, skins and meat ofthe Yukon were traded for fish oils, cedarproducts and rare sea shells, amongstother things. Through this trade system,the people of the Yukon interior werefamiliar with European trade goodsseveral decades before any non-nativepeople entered their territory.The gold rush, and beforeBYukon Archives. MacBride Museum Coll. #3961efore the late 19th century, it wasvery difficult to enter the Yukonthrough the coastal passes as they weretightly guarded by the coastal Tlingitpeople. By controlling the main accessto the interior of the Yukon, the Tlingitheld a monopoly on trade with theinterior First Nations people.Beginning in the 1840s, a few tradersand explorers trickled into the territoryfrom the north and east. In 1848,Hudson’s Bay Company trader RobertCampbell built a trading post at FortSelkirk in the Yukon’s interior. TheChilkat Tlingit saw him as an interloperand, in 1852, sent a raiding partyover 600 kilometres, from near Haines,Alaska to Fort Selkirk, to run him off.(The bridge between downtown Whitehorse and Riverdale is named after him.)It was not until the 1880s that theAmerican navy convinced the Tlingit toallow prospectors through the passes.Most came via the White Pass andChilkoot Pass and followed the YukonRiver north, using the existing trails.Jenny and Jack Shakoon in the Canadiana at the Whitehorse waterfront, ca. 1915.7
On May 29, 1898, the ice went out onLake Bennett. Within 48 hours, over7,000 boats were floating downriver toDawson City. However, first, there weretwo major impediments: Miles Canyonand the Whitehorse Rapids.Until the construction of the Whitehorsedam, this stretch of the Yukon River wasall but unnavigable. Within a few daysof the arrival of thousands of boats, atleast 150 of them were lost to the Whitehorse Rapids and 10 people drowned.The Northwest Mounted Police directedthat only experienced pilots could takethe rafts and boats through.Beginning in June 1898, the alternativeto the rapids was Norman Macaulay’s“Canyon and White Horse RapidsTramway,” on the east side of theriver. By late summer, there was thecompeting “Miles Canyon & LewesRiver Tramway,” set up on the westside by John Hepburn. Both operationsused horse-drawn carts running onwooden rails to move boats, suppliesand equipment around the canyon andrapids. Canyon City sprouted up at thehead of Macaulay’s rails and the originalsettlement of White Horse began at itsterminus, in present-day Riverdale.We sped through the canyon. Therewas a breath-taking interval before wewere swept into the seething cauldronof the White Horse Rapids, where somany venturesome souls had lost theirlives and outfits. Half-way through oursteering oar broke with a crack like thatof a pistol shot, above the roaring waters.For a tense moment the boat whirledhalf her length about in the current.Captain Spencer quickly seized anotheroar, calling coolly, “Never mind boys! Lether go stern to.” A second’s hesitation andour lives would have paid the penalty.Martha Louise Black, 1898Approaching the rapids, 1898. Tramway visible on far shore.8Yukon Archives. Vancouver Public Library Coll. #2229In 1897, when news of the big Klondikegold strike of August 1896 reachedthe outside world, the rush was on.Thousands of people poured throughSkagway and Dyea, in Alaska, en routeto the goldfields around Dawson City.Most crossed the passes and built rafts orcrude boats at Bennett Lake. From there,they could float all the way to DawsonCity and their dreams of Eldorado.
Tramways and old course of the Yukon RiverAfter the rushWhen it looked like the gold mightlast forever, the Close Brothers ofEngland thought they could make afortune with a railway running fromtidewater at Skagway right to thegoldfields in Dawson. To provide a rightof way for the White Pass & YukonRailway and eliminate competition, thecompany bought out both the tramwaysfor 185,000 in July 1899.In the fall of 1899, the company laid outa townsite across the river from the littlecommunity of White Horse and triedto call it Closeleigh. However, at theinsistence of the Yukon’s Commissioner,it was called White Horse (later changedto Whitehorse). In July 1900, the brandnew town celebrated the completion ofthe railway from Skagway.Whitehorse quickly became a companytown. The White Pass & Yukon Route setup its river division, the British YukonNavigation Company, over the winterof 1900-01. Soon, the company held avirtual monopoly on sternwheeler trafficplying the upper Yukon River from theheadwater lakes to the Alaskan border.Whitehorse became the transportationcentre of the territory.For most of its history, Whitehorsehas had a large transient population.First Nations people continued to travelthroughout the area, but now stoppedto shop in town and work on thesternwheelers and in the wood camps.Outsiders came north to work thesternwheelers, leaving the Yukon as therivers froze for the winter.Squatter communities grew up alongthe river to accommodate this transientlifestyle. One community, known asWhiskey Flats, occupied land on thedowntown side of what is now theRobert Campbell Bridge.The construction of the Alaska Highwayduring World War II helped to transformWhitehorse into a major centre. In1953, Whitehorse became the seat ofthe Yukon government. As the territory’spopulation grew, Whitehorse becameimportant as the headquarters for manygovernment agencies and attracted moremining companies and retailers.Along with the prosperity came southernsensibilities. By the mid-1970s, WhiskeyFlats was cleared of its dwellings. It isnow the site of Rotary Peace Park andthe national historic site, S.S. Klondike.Once the bane of the river traveller, theWhitehorse rapids have now been tamedby the high water levels that resultedfrom the building of the dam. However,through the years, the river trails havecontinued to be well used for recreationby residents and visitors.9
Getting ready to hike!The trail is divided into sections andparking areas are indicated. Somepeople may choose to walk the entiretrail system, from downtown and backagain, as a pleasant day-long outing.Others may choose other starting pointsand walk one or two sections at atime. You can park your vehicle atyour starting point and return to it byretracing your steps. Or, if you haveaccess to two vehicles, you can park oneat the end point, and after the walk,drive it back to pick up the first vehicle.The route is described, and the trailson the map are marked, in a clockwisefashion. We have provided anapproximate time to walk each sectionin one direction only. It is justan estimate, however, and assumesthat walkers are accustomed to usingwoodland trails. The time estimateallows for occasional stops to exploreand to enjoy the scenery. For a returnalong the same route, just double thetime.Most of the trails are easy grades andfairly level. No matter what time ofyear you are walking, wear good walkingshoes or boots. Much of the route iswell used and should not require heavyhiking boots. Always look out for rocks,roots, stumps and branches that may beon the pathway.Parents of small children should bewatchful, especially when near the moretreacherous dropoffs such as at MilesCanyon.Most of the route is off limits tomotorized vehicles. However, you mayencounter bicyclists at any point alongthe way.10Summer is mosquito and black flyseason. Go prepared with insectrepellent. Light-coloured clothing isrecommended and, if you areparticularly susceptible to insect bites,long pants and long shirtsleeves are agood idea.Carry a jacket. Cool winds can blow upoff the lake or river at any time. Bringingwater is advisable as you can work upa good thirst on your walk. Don’t drinkriver or lake water without boiling it first.There are many places where youcan enjoy a picnic lunch. Please packout any garbage or deposit it in theappropriate containers. There may beouthouses available at some
The Whitehorse area is within the traditional lands of the Ta’an Kwäch’än and the Kwanlin Dün First Nations. (Kwanlin is the Southern Tutchone word for Miles Canyon and means “water running through a narrow place.”) Most members of these two First Nations are
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