Why this ride
From Haines Junction it runs 650 km to the finish; allow about 8 h 55 of riding. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,500 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Kluane Scenic Drive: Haines Junction to Beaver Creek
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 650 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 8 h 55
- Journey
- One way; return travel is separate
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Haines Junction
Haines Junction exists because a road did. In 1942, when the US Army pushed the Alaska Highway through the Yukon in a matter of months to supply Alaska during the war, this spot became a junction where the Haines Road, running down to the Alaskan coast, branches off the main highway. A construction camp turned into a village of about eleven hundred people, and it has been the gateway to Kluane ever since.
Read the complete Haines Junction write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Haines Junction is where the day begins. Next is Kluane Lake.
2. Kluane Lake
Kluane Lake is the biggest lake in the Yukon, a long cold sheet of water in the shadow of the Kluane Ranges, and its colour is a milky turquoise from glacial silt carried down by streams from the big ice fields to the west. It lies on the Alaska Highway, with the little settlements of Destruction Bay and Burwash Landing strung along its shore, and with the St Elias Mountains rising behind to heights that include Mount Logan, the highest peak in Canada at nearly six thousand metres, hidden behind other peaks and rarely visible from the road.
Read the complete Kluane Lake write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Kluane Lake comes up about 154 km into the recorded legs. Next is Beaver Creek.
3. Beaver Creek
Beaver Creek is the last Canadian settlement on the Alaska Highway, a few kilometres from the American border and the westernmost community in Canada. It is a small place of motels, a gas station and a customs post, set among spruce, willow and low hills at the northern edge of the Kluane region, in country where the winter lasts for half the year and the temperature can fall below minus forty.
Read the complete Beaver Creek write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 650 km.
Leg by leg
Haines Junction to Kluane Lake
Haines Junction → Kluane Lake is 154 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Kluane Lake to Beaver Creek
Kluane Lake → Beaver Creek is 496 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
More motorcycle rides nearby
- Kluane Scenic Drive · 447 km
- Alaska Highway: Whitehorse to Tok Alaska · 1323 km
- Kluane Scenic Drive: Whitehorse to Kluane Lake · 485 km