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Tours
Paddling prowess, with
solid Class II training, is
an asset on the Snake’s
downward run. Except for the
lower reaches, water is often
fast, turns are sharp, and boulder
gardens must be navigated. While
less experienced canoeists may
choose to portage the most significant
whitewater stretches, veteran
guides are apt to shoot the
rapids with skill and flair.
Learn more in Recreation.
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Copper, Coal and Conservation
Roadless and remote, the Snake River and
its neighbouring Peel River tributaries
have been only lightly brushed by the forces
of economic development.
From the days of the Klondike Gold Rush,
when Dawson-bound prospectors paused to
try their luck on the Wind River, to the
later 1900’s, when large mining companies
built– and then abandoned–camps
on the Snake and Bonnet Plume, the wilderness
watershed has been the target of frequent
but inconclusive attempts to exploit its
mineral resources. While dozens of companies
have explored the area for coal, oil, gas,
uranium, iron, copper, lead, zinc and silver,
none has moved toward extraction.
Along with the mining trails and airstrips
that have been bulldozed through the landscape,
leaving camp debris and interrupted habitat,
have come calls for a formal conservation
and protection plan for the Wind, Bonnet
Plume and Snake watersheds. Conservation
groups such as the Canadian Parks and Wilderness
Society-Yukon Chapter, the World Wildlife
Fund, the Yukon Conservation Society and
the Friends of Yukon rivers
have supported a campaign to limit
resource exploitation and preserve the land
as wilderness.
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