Hiking the Old Alaska Highway Trail
This is a section of the original 1942 road that ran along the top of the cliffs along Muncho Lake. The road/trail can be seen angling up the far slope in the next photo. The hiking guide rates it as Easy, and says that the 4-km return hike should take 3 hours.
The very steep and loose climb up from the alluvial fan should have eliminated “Easy” from the trail description, and another steep section further on should have confirmed that.
The first part of the trail offers wonderful views over the modern highway, Strawberry Flats Campground, and Muncho Lake. With an open trail and nobody around, Bella and Tucker were off-leash here.
When the trail went into the forest and berry-laden bear scat started appearing, the leashes went on to keep everyone safe.
The old road can be followed past the point where the trail guide says that it ends. That takes you to this view to the south.
Just past that view, a slide effectively blocks further travel. I’ve crossed the slide when I didn’t have dogs with me, but the old road ends at a cliff just past it. At the slide, a cairn was built on the cliff-edge, and empty beer cans and broken bottles litter the trail. I carefully disassembled the cairn so it didn’t topple over the side and kill somebody passing by below.
The spectacular cliffs along Muncho Lake have made it one of my favourite sections of the Alaska Highway ever since I first saw them in 1990. There’s been a bit of highway straightening along the lake, but not much.
Muncho Lake at its finest, looking towards the Northern Rockies Lodge.
I’ve always enjoyed my stays at the Northern Rockies Lodge, but it’s sure getting some awful reviews on TripAdvisor lately. Yes it’s expensive, but it’s the nicest lodge on the highway and the location is superb.
The main reason that I stopped at the lodge this time was to see their aircraft. Operated as Liard Air, Ltd., they’re used primarily for fishing trips and flightseeing. C-GUDK is a De Havilland Canada DHC-3 Turbo Otter, a heavy modification of Otter #349, built in 1958. Urs Schildknecht, owner of the lodge, flies this beauty. In January 2011, Urs lost all 3 of his aircraft when a generator in the hangar here caught fire.
The other float plane is C-GRMU, a Cessna 208 Caravan I. It was just being readied to take some fishermen out.
The other government campground at Muncho Lake is the MacDonald Campground, at Km 709. This is the view of the access road to it while northbound.
MacDonald really is a lovely campground, and has a boat launch. It’s quite a way off the highway, so is also the quieter of the two.
The view north at Km 715. I saw this view many times as I wandered during this 5-day stay 🙂
The only wildlife we saw were Stone sheep, which we saw twice. Tucker can be a barky little beast, but he was very polite with the sheep both times, so got to have a good look and sniff with the window open. Bella, taught well by Monty, has always been good with wildlife.
Well, that was Muncho Lake. I’m not nearly finished exploring there, but Winter is coming soon and I have a lot of work to do, so I may be shutting the motorhome down for the winter this week.
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