How long should you spend in Tombstone Territorial Park?

A bare minimum visit — stopping at the interpretive centre and driving slowly through — takes about two hours. A proper visit is one night at the campground plus one of the half-day hikes. A day trip from Dawson City (71.5 km each way) gives you enough time for the interpretive centre and one trail.

Is Tombstone Territorial Park Worth Visiting?

Q: Is Tombstone Territorial Park worth visiting?

Unambiguously yes. It's one of the best things to do in the Yukon and requires almost no additional planning if you're already heading north on the Dempster Highway. The jagged granite Tombstone Mountains, open tundra, and wildlife — caribou, Dall sheep, grizzly bears — make it extraordinary.

Q: What are the best hiking trails in Tombstone Territorial Park?

The Goldensides Trail is a half-day hike that gains significant elevation and delivers panoramic views of the Tombstone range. The Grizzly Lake Trail is a full-day route into the alpine. Both require good footwear and layers but no technical mountaineering experience.

Tombstone Territorial Park sits on the first 100 km of the Dempster Highway. It's one of the most spectacular landscapes in the Yukon — and it's often overlooked because people are thinking about the Dempster, not about the park it passes through.

Tombstone Territorial Park is not a detour. It's not a side trip. It's on the [Dempster Highway](/dempster-highway), which means if you're driving north from Dawson City, you pass through it. The question is whether you stop.

You should stop.

### What's There

The park covers 2,200 square kilometres of tundra, mountain, and boreal forest in the Ogilvie Mountains. The defining feature is the Tombstone Mountain massif — a series of jagged granite peaks, dark and dramatic, rising sharply out of open tundra. The name comes from the tombstone-like profile of the main peak when seen from certain angles.

The landscape here is genuinely extraordinary. It doesn't look like anywhere else in Canada. It looks, to my eye, like the kind of mountain landscape that people travel to Patagonia or Iceland to see — except it's accessible off a road you can drive in a regular vehicle.

Wildlife in the park is real and visible: caribou, Dall sheep, grizzly bears, wolves, moose. The Tombstone area is one of the better places in the Yukon to actually see large mammals from a vehicle or on foot.

### The Interpretive Centre

At kilometre 71.5 on the Dempster, there's a Yukon Parks interpretive centre that's worth your time even if you're not camping. It covers the ecology of the area, the First Nations history (this is Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in territory), and the practical information about hiking trails and camping in the park. The staff are good. The exhibits are genuinely informative rather than perfunctory.

Stop here first, get oriented, and then decide how long you want to stay.

### Hiking

The hiking in Tombstone is exceptional. The Goldensides Trail is a half-day hike that gains significant elevation and delivers panoramic views of the Tombstone range. The Grizzly Lake Trail is a full-day route into the alpine. Both are well worth doing if you have the time and the legs for them.

You don't need technical gear or mountaineering experience for either of these trails. You need good footwear, layers (weather changes fast at this elevation), and the self-sufficiency that any backcountry hiking requires.

### How Long to Stay

A bare minimum visit is stopping at the interpretive centre and driving slowly through the park before continuing north — about two hours. A proper visit is one night at the campground, with one of the half-day hikes. If you're not continuing on the Dempster, a day trip from Dawson City (71.5 km each way) gives you enough time for the interpretive centre and one trail.

The campground at Tombstone is bookable through the Yukon government reservation system and fills up in peak summer. Book early if you want a site on a specific night.

Is it worth visiting? Unambiguously yes. It's one of the best things to do in the Yukon, and it requires almost no additional planning if you're already heading north on the [Dempster](/dempster-highway).