Carcross Travel Guide

Carcross is located on the South Klondike Highway, between Whitehorse and Skagway in the Yukon, Canada. It is situated at the northern tip of Bennett Lake, on the old Klondike Gold Rush trail, and home of the world's smallest desert. The population is about 50/50 Native and non-Native.

There is an abundance of things to see and do in the area: Snow geese appreciate the meadows created, once the level of Nares Lake drops over the winter. If you are lucky, you might detect a pond created by beavers along the Tagish Road, a couple of miles from Carcross. Take gorgious photographs of Mount Gray reflected in one of the ever-expanding pools of water on Lake Bennett. Or explore the wreckage of the sternwheeler Gleaner, which sits on the bank of the Nares River, only visible at extreme low water. Walk across the highway bridge over the Nares River, from where you can get a classic view of Carcross. And each spring, when the ice leaves early on a small area of Lake Bennett near its outlet, Trumpeter and Tundra swans congregate there to rest, feed and socialize on their annual migration north.
Our own Yukon is home to the smallest desert in the world, less than 260 hectares.

Carcross is also home to a small desert, which is the remains of the sandy bottom of a glacial lake left after the last ice age. The dry climate and the strong wind conditions create the sand dunes and allow little vegetation to grow.