Campgrounds and Rest Areas in the Yukon

    The Spruce Beetle Trail Recreation Site is located at Km 1596 of the Alaska Highway. It has outhouses, garbage bins, and interpretive panels along a 2-km loop trail with a viewing deck. The interpretive panels describe the spruce beetle lifecycle and its impact on Yukon forests. The trail can be hiked year-round.

Click on the map to open a pdf version (233 Kb).

"1992 was a good year for spruce beetles. They had nearly always been in the forest in varying numbers, but seldom in plague proportions. Smaller outbreaks were often associated with disturbances such as road construction or clearing projects. Examples include the building of the Alaska and Haines roads and the construction of the Aishihik power dam. But although there were no major projects underway, conditions seemed right in '92 for the start of the biggest outbreak ever recorded in the Yukon. Perhaps it was the combination of warm, unusually dry summers and mild winters - biologists can only speculate. But, from the beetles' perspective, this must have been heaven! An abundance of mature trees and the stress of drought meant ample food and lodging for millions."

The trail has some gradual climbs and descents, and many exposed roots.

"Flying from her usual home on the lower side of a fallen tree, the adult female uses her sight and refined sense of smell to find suitable host trees in which to lay eggs. She then bores a tiny, body-sized hole, through the bark. There, she excavates nursery galleries in the living phloem. If robust and healthy, the tree reacts to a beetle's entry by 'bleeding' abundant quantities of pitch (sap) into the beetle's galleries, washing her out. By 'pitching out' the beetle, the tree survives."