Hiking in Kluane National Park
Kluane National Park is located in the southwest of the Yukon Territory. A land of extremes – Kluane National Park is home to Canada’s highest peak, largest ice-fields and the most diverse grizzly bear population.
This Ultimate Hiking Adventure is for the avid explorer that enjoys camping and hiking. Kluane National Park has some amazing day hikes that are easy accessible from the road.
St. Elias Trail, King’s Throne, Sheep Creek and Auriol Trail
From Whitehorse it will take us about 3 hours to reach the St. Elias Trail Head. This is a beautiful and easy 8km return hike for our first day in the park. Perfect length, so we can set up our base camp at Kathleen Lake in the afternoon.
Our first full day hike will be Kings Throne. This is a difficult and steep hike, therefore we highly recommend to have hiking poles. Starting off in an old road the trail will soon turn into a beautiful windy forest trail.
Once we are above the tree line we will make our way up a switch back trail up a rock glacier until we reach the throne. Depending on weather and trail condition we will continue on to the peak. Distance covered today will be between 10 and 16km return.
Our second day hike, we will be hiking Sheep Creek. We will have to drive for about 1 hour to the trail head. This will be a moderate hike with breathtaking views over the slims river valley. Sheep and Grizzly Bears are not an uncommon sight on this trail. At the end of the day we will return to Kathleen lake again.
Our last day hike will be the Auriol Trail. We will be taking down camp in the moring. The trail head of the Auriol Trail is only about a 15 min drive. Another moderate hike. Today our hike will lead us through some mixed forest and meadows into the sub alpine, with excellent views of the Auriol Mountain Range. Our distance for the day will be 15km return. This was our last adventure and therefore it is time to start our 2ish our journey back to Whitehorse.