EPIC day hike to Grizzly Lake at Tombstone Territorial Park (Canada's Patagonia 😍) in the Yukon!

Everywhere you look, there are reds, oranges, yellows, just blanketed all along the mountainsides. It is one of the most stunning mountain scenes I've ever seen in my entire life. Oh man, I am stoked! We just finished spending some time in Dawson City, which is such a cool historic town. For the next week, we're going to be embarking on a pretty crazy adventure. We are driving up to the Arctic Ocean along the Dempster Highway, and we'll explain more about the highway in our next video, but the first part of the highway takes you by Tombstone Territorial Park, which is where we're going to be spending the next 24 hours. Seeing Arctic Ocean on a sign is just so surreal. I can't believe it, we're doing it! What? All right, we are officially on the Dempster Highway, as Catherine mentioned. We'll tell you more about it in our next video, but just some quick things to know. It is completely unpaved, and it is known for flat tires and cracked windshields. We have entered Tombstone Territorial Park, and the views just from the car are absolutely insane. We've wanted to come here for a really long time. It's been really high on our hiking bucket list, and I could not be more excited to be here. We have survived the first 72 kilometers of the Dempster Highway. There was one stretch of the road where there was a lot of potholes, but they were really shallow, but overall, it hasn't been too bad. Tombstone Territorial Park is located about 110 kilometers north of Dawson City, and is on the traditional territory of the Trandekwachen, who called this area Ragged Mountain Land in the Han language, and that is a very accurate description. This park is known for its incredible scenery, including rugged mountain peaks, permafrost landforms, and abundant wildlife. It's even been sometimes referred to as Canada's Patagonia. There's one front country campground here in the park, which is $20 per night, and it's pretty basic. There are no hookups or anything. It's basically just campsites and bathrooms, and you get free firewood, which is a nice perk. But we got here really, really late in the day, and as we kind of expected, the campground was totally full. However, if it is full, there are some options. You can park in their overflow parking lot at the campground for the same $20 fee, but since we got here really late, that was also kind of full. So there's another option. You can park at the interpretive center for $20 as well. So that's what we're doing tonight. So we're going to camp here for the night, and then tomorrow morning, we're going to hike the Grizzly Lake Trail. The Grizzly Lake Trail is 13 miles with over 4,700 feet of elevation gain, so it's going to be a bit of a doozy, but it's going to take us to some gorgeous scenery with the iconic peaks that give this park the nickname Canada's Patagonia. So we originally had hoped to backpack this trail and then camp at Grizzly Lake and then continue on to the other lakes, but there are only a set number of campsites at each lake. By the time we looked, unfortunately, they were all taken. So we decided to do this as a day hike instead, a very long day hike. Another important thing to know about this hike that's a little confusing online is on all trails, it says that dogs are not allowed, but the park website says they are allowed. So we called the park in advance, and they did confirm dogs are allowed on a leash. So thankfully, Kona gets to enjoy this one with us. In Alaska and northern Canada, fall begins at the end of August, which is when we're here. And when we planned to come out here, we hoped that we would time it just right, and we did. It is delivering everywhere you look. There are reds, oranges, yellows, just blanketed all along the mountainsides. It is gorgeous. And our hope is that over the next two months, as we make our way back down to Texas, we'll just be chasing those fall colors all the way down and get two full months of fall, which is our favorite season. I cannot get over these colors. Absolutely insane. It's like Skittles out there. We made it up the first big incline, and now we're kind of going up and down along the ridgeline. It was pretty steep. I'm pretty tired. And as you can tell, it's been really cloudy and foggy. The fog just rolls in and out super fast because it's pretty windy out, which makes it very cold. But we got a glimpse of the lake. Well, it was there. It was back there pretty far away. Caught a glimpse of it, but the really cool peaks around it have been socked in the whole time. So we'll see if we actually have the expansive views we hoped for. But even if we don't, just the scenery we can see and just the fall colors have made this hike so beautiful so far. Wow. You can see the lake. We're getting really close. And the peaks that are surrounding behind it. Oh, man, they are peaking out. A little bit. Much better than earlier. Oh, yeah. This is incredible. I cannot believe that we got a peak of the peaks. A peak of the peaks. After seeing those mountains completely socked in the entire hike, I had zero faith that we were actually going to get to see those peaks. And I just can't believe it. I can't stop smiling. It is one of the most stunning mountain scenes I've ever seen in my entire life. Just look at how sharp some of those peaks are. And the clouds are kind of rolling back in. So I feel like we just happened to get here at the one teeny tiny window that they were going to show. And I just couldn't feel more lucky. Oh, man, I am stoked. We just saw a helicopter fly down the valley all the way down to Grizzly Lake here in front of us, carrying basically a big bag of barrels. At these remote campsites like this, they have to helicopter in supplies. And so we're guessing that it was either the number two barrels or the gray water barrels or probably both. But that was just so unexpected and cool to see. And there he goes. He has nothing hanging down now. So I guess he was just bringing more supplies, not replacing. Bye! Oh, that's so cool. We made it to the lake and it is so beautiful. The water is so clear. All of the mountains are still out. And as I mentioned earlier, there are a couple other lakes that people will backpack to, which you can get to from up in there. And I hear the scenery just gets better the further in you go. But it's a bit too much to do as a day hike. So this is our final stop for the day. But after getting a taste of just how unreal and mind-blowing the scenery is out here, we are for sure coming back so we can camp, go to all the lakes and just spend days out here because this is, we say this all the time, but this is truly one of the most beautiful places we have ever been. Even though we aren't able to camp here, we still wanted to share what you can expect at this campground. If you come and camp here, you'll pitch your tent on these elevated platforms. And then when you walk down closer to the lake, there are two outhouses, barrels for gray water, food storage containers, and also these cool tents where you'll cook and eat your food. It's a pretty neat little setup and it's much different than any other campground we've ever seen. My new thing that I do is I wave bye to everything because I'm sad to leave everything. So I wanted to know that I'm sorry I'm leaving you. I love you. I'll be back. Stay good till then. Oh, buddy. That was a long hike. It took us 11 hours. But wow, the scenery was jaw-dropping, just like everything else we've seen in the Yukon. We were so fortunate and so thankful that the weather cleared for us and we were able to see all those views. It was a perfect day. Could not have asked for anything better. But tomorrow, we are going to continue on the Dempster Highway. And one of us is very excited and one of us is very nervous. Who would that be? I don't know. So stay tuned and cross your fingers for no flat tires. I think we're ready to go perform at Gertie's next season. Come find us!