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Fox Lake Burn Rest Area, Yukon

by Murray Lundberg


Campgrounds and Rest Areas in the Yukon

    This large gravel rest area is located at Km 272 of the North Klondike Highway. It has outhouses, garbage bins, and the Boreal Fire interpretive trail.

    On July 2, 1998, a human-caused fire started at the north end of Fox Lake. The fire burned 45,125 hectares - about 27 times the size of Fox Lake - came within 2o kilometres of Braeburn Lodge, and caused several road closures. It cost $2.5 million to fight. Small patches of fire smouldered underground through the winter and flared up again the next spring, but soon burned out because of lack of fuel. The brochure "Driving the Fire Belt" (pdf, 2.9MB) gives more information about this and other fires in the region.

    The kilometer posts on the North Klondike Highway mark the mileage from the ferry terminal in Skagway, Alaska. Dawson City, the north end of the highway, is at Km 715.4.


Fox Lake Burn Rest Area, Yukon
The view across the rest area looking north.
Fox Lake Burn Rest Area, Yukon
The Fox Lake Burn Rest Area sign.
Boreal Fire Interpretive Trail, Yukon
The start of the Boreal Fire Interpretive Trail, also known as the Fox Lake Burn Viewpoint Trail.
It is 200 meters long (650 feet), and takes about 40 minutes to walk out and back.
Boreal Fire Interpretive Trail, Yukon
On the trail, looking back towards the rest area.
Fox Lake Burn Interpretive Trail, Yukon
One of the interpretive panels, describing the very different forest that is expected to re-grow here,
due to climate change.
Fox Lake Burn Interpretive Trail, Yukon
One of the broad views at the end of the trail.