Kluane National Park and Reserve

Scale that's hard to overstate

Kluane covers roughly 22,000 square kilometres of the St. Elias Mountains, including Mount Logan at 5,959 metres, Canada's highest peak and the second-highest in North America, and the vast Kaskawulsh, Hubbard, and Lowell icefields, the largest non-polar icefield system on Earth. Seventeen of Canada's twenty highest mountains stand within its boundaries. Technically, only about 5,900 square kilometres of this is designated as the National Park itself; the larger remainder continues as a National Park Reserve pending final settlement of a land claim with the Kluane First Nation. Together with neighbouring Wrangell-St. Elias, Glacier Bay, and Tatshenshini-Alsek across the Alaska and BC borders, Kluane forms part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site designated in 1979, one of the largest internationally protected landscapes on the planet.

Almost none of it is reachable by road, which is the point: you drive the Alaska or Haines Highway along its eastern edge, then walk, paddle, or fly in. The Tachäl Dhäl (Sheep Mountain) viewpoint alone regularly delivers Dall sheep, grizzlies, and golden eagles visible right from the parking lot.

Making the most of a visit

Base yourself in Haines Junction and pick one big thing per day. First-timers do the King's Throne day hike from Kathleen Lake, ten kilometres return to the cirque and genuinely steep, or a flightseeing tour over Mount Logan and the Kaskawulsh Glacier out of the airstrip beside the visitor centre. Serious hikers tackle the Slims West route toward Observation Mountain, and paddlers run the Alsek River. Fuel up in Haines Junction before you go, there's no gas, no cell service, and no reliable water past Kathleen Lake, and check current retailers there for essentials like bear spray, since options in town do change.