We decided to spend a day in Kluane country yesterday. Our week included a Monday seeing family off, followed by administrative tasks. The rest of the week involved work for both of us, plus celebrating our second wedding anniversary. After checking for which weekend day projected better weather, we decided that Saturday would be our trip day.
We left home around 8:00 AM and headed north (west) on the Alaska Highway. We stopped at the Village Bakery for some coffee and breakfast. This is one of our favourite places to stop, and highly recommend it! After grabbing food, we then ventured on to Williscroft Canyon. Trail parking is just west of the gravel pit. It was extremely misty over Kluane Lake.
The start of the hike is very easy. We came across a piece of the old Haines-Fairbanks Pipeline under the creek.
Before too long, we were in the canyon itself. The walls are quite striking! The creek braids itself onto both walls at different points, and so several minor crossings are required. We were able to hop across dry rocks and our feet stayed dry the entire time.
While we couldn’t get right to the boulder at the end, we could see it from beside the falls. The falls were beautiful and refreshing.
As we walked back down the canyon, the views were just as spectacular. It reminded us of the path into the Veil in Game of Thrones.
On the way down, we spotted this sign along the side of the trail. It appears to be from the pipeline, reading:
DANGER
HIGH PRESSURE PIPELINE CROSSING
According to AllTrails, we spent 1:47 on the trail. We had a round-trip distance of 4.13 km and an elevation gain of 243 m.
After a quick stop by the Visitor’s Centre to see some sheep on Sheep Mountain, we headed off to the Rock Glacier trail. We first hiked up to the benches and had our lunch there. When we finished our grilled cheeses, we hiked the rest of the way up. It started to cloud over more and the wind was quite strong, so we didn’t stay long.
