Marokiii t1_irdt0kh wrote on October 7, 2022 at 8:21 AM

Go to whitehorse. Yellowknife is pretty boring. Also whitehorse has kluane national park which is pretty amazing itself.

I just got back from an alaska, yukon, nwt roadtrip starting from Vancouver. 2 months living out of my tacoma camper, 7 national parks, probably 15+ territorial/state/provincial parks, 2 territorial capitals, 1 state capital, taking the Dempster to the arctic ocean, walked under 3 glaciers, saw the aurora borealis, and it cost me just $9k.

Edit: $9000 Canadian or about $6500USD.

ColinTheMonster t1_ire2mjm wrote on October 7, 2022 at 10:51 AM

Whitehorse does seem cool. For YK I'm considering going to Dawson city though.

I'd love a trip like that, but I figure it would be very difficult to get that time off. How do you have that much time?

Marokiii t1_irexsdr wrote on October 7, 2022 at 3:35 PM

im a welder, so theres always work for our trade and right now not enough workers. i gave my boss about 8 months notice for this trip and told him its my bucket list trip and it has to happen now and if they cant approve my time off with that much notice than ill just quit and go anyways.

i now have 6 months until i leave again at the beginning of april for the rest of Canada. 6 month long roadtrip hitting all the remaining provinces doing every national park you can get to by road and every capital city.

TritonTheDark OP t1_irf64xv wrote on October 7, 2022 at 4:37 PM

Agreed. Yellowknife is fun for a short visit in winter but ultimately you're going to run out of things to do there pretty quickly.

buffalo_Fart t1_irdy3tk wrote on October 7, 2022 at 9:45 AM

I was up there this summer as well. I didn't do as much as you but I really enjoyed the space between Whitehorse up to Destruction Bay. The Skagway and Hanes drives were pretty. The Dempster was intense, took me 9 days to do the whole run and I ran into vehicle trouble the last day, go figure but it got sorted out ($$$). I came in around 5K USD for the 78 days I was up there.

Marokiii t1_irdynn2 wrote on October 7, 2022 at 9:54 AM

i wish i had taken another month off of work, the trip at points felt rushed and i had to skip out on a few things that i now wish i hadnt. i changed 5 peoples flats, so thats what i attribute my good luck of not having a single flat and not a single chip in my windshield the entire time. i bombed up the dempster, 3 days from tombstone up to Tuk and back.

i need to go back for nahanni NP, and i want to kayak out to lake clark and katmai NPs from Homer, AK.

buffalo_Fart t1_irfniwj wrote on October 7, 2022 at 6:48 PM

Nice. Well there's always next time. It's tricky up there. The distances are vast and 300 miles is just a long afternoon. With another 300 tomorrow. I never made it to Homer unfortunately. I got to mainland Alaska too late and it was forcasted for 10 straight days of rain. I got as far as Hope then turned back. Everything in my van was damp and I didn't want mold. 3 window cracks and a broken radiator fan. So I paid some but out of all the high north drives I've done this was the first time anything happened. If I went back I would spend all of my time between Whitehorse, Haines and Destruction Bay. Stunning scenery, food/gas close enough, and easy camping.

JeneralFOD t1_irdeqxn wrote on October 7, 2022 at 4:57 AM

I've also traveled to the nwt from Vancouver and there are cheaper flights through Alberta and if you have the time doing the drive up can be lovely too 🥰

Chartered flights up there do cost quite a bit though. I found it is helpful to know the locals if possible, for more creative ways to travel to different areas

abie915 t1_irdbslt wrote on October 7, 2022 at 4:23 AM

I finally had a chance to go to Banff this summer to see Reddit lake (I mean Lake Louise lol) in person. It's stunningly beautiful, but the whole experience was ruined as it's an absolute madhouse with hundreds of noisy, selfie taking tourists milling around.

When I'm out hiking I expect to have peace and quiet and hear nothing but the sounds of nature, but unfortunately most popular natural attractions and national parks are more akin to a theme park these days.

Anyway to get to my point, I've decided to intentionally seek out remote and harder to get to places. It's the only way that I can think of to experience true wilderness.

covewood t1_irdgz8x wrote on October 7, 2022 at 5:24 AM

Did you see Moraine Lake? It's hard, as an Albertan we shake our sticks at tourists but then we turn around are are the tourists everywhere else.

squickley t1_irdpphy wrote on October 7, 2022 at 7:27 AM

Can confirm on the second point. Southeast BC is swarming with you guys lol

covewood t1_irgqhtf wrote on October 8, 2022 at 12:10 AM

Lol.....

abie915 t1_irf5hra wrote on October 7, 2022 at 4:32 PM

Moraine is hard to get to get to, but boy was it gorgeous!

FYI for anyone who wants to go there: the parking lot fills up at 3 AM and the road to the lake is barricaded after that. There is a bus to it from Lake Louise, but tickets are released 48 hours in advance and sell out pretty quick, so plan ahead :)

covewood t1_irgqdvf wrote on October 8, 2022 at 12:09 AM

3am????? Holy shit, I got there at 9am once and it was fine. Good to know now

Marokiii t1_irdt4h1 wrote on October 7, 2022 at 8:23 AM

Go to moraine lake instead, after about 20 minutes of hiking you leave behind about 90% of the tourists. After about a hour you are left with only a handful of people who like you want to enjoy the peace more than taking pictures.

Sentinel pass is perhaps my favorite hike in all 4 of the rocky mountain national parks.

edit: stanley glacier in kootney NP is also a great hike thats not difficult but has awesome views + waterfalls you can actually get underneath and a glacier you can touch if you go all the way + a bit farther.

abie915 t1_irf53p6 wrote on October 7, 2022 at 4:29 PM

I was lucky enough to go to Moraine lake. I don't know if you've been there recently, but the parking lot only holds 100 or so cars and fills up at 3 AM or so, and they barricade the road after that. There is a bus that runs from Lake Louise parking lot to Moraine, but they release tickets 48 hours before the trip and those usually sell out pretty quickly. Forget about buying a ticket the day you're there.

In my case, I was lucky enough to get there towards the end of the day. There weren't any bus tickets left, but some cars had left so they let me drive.

Thanks for the tips, will bookmark those for my next trip! In case you're in Jasper, I highly recommend the hike up to the Geraldine lakes, which are gorgeous. The trailhead is at the end of a rutted dirt road and I think I saw maybe four people the entire day I was there.

brocahantas t1_irex8yi wrote on October 7, 2022 at 3:31 PM

I mean you can't expect solitude when visiting one of the most popular and accessible places in the country.

If you can drive right up to it (like Lake Louise), it's going to be busy. That goes for pretty much every national park. Hike a couple miles from the trailheads and you'll lose the tourists.

abie915 t1_irf3z2f wrote on October 7, 2022 at 4:21 PM

I wasn't expecting solitude at the popular spots, but I was somewhat taken aback by just how many people there were. I mean there was a giant parking lot for tour buses for chrissakes.

You're spot on about hiking a couple of miles to lose the throngs - that's something I've noticed as well. Another way to find quiet spots is to get guidebooks of the area which usually list how busy a particular trail is.

Autumn in the north is hard to beat. Northwest Territories, Canada [OC] [1080x1602]

ColinTheMonster t1_ird3c16 wrote on October 7, 2022 at 3:05 AM