Snake River: Duo Lake to Taco Bar (Peel River) (14 days / 300 km)
The Snake River is an incredible river in northeastern Yukon, starting at Duo Lake and flowing into the Peel River just before Taco Bar, the common pick-up gravel bar when flying out. This 300 km journey swiftly takes you through stunning mountains and canyons, with fun continuous white water, good potential wildlife sightings and great campsites with good hiking opportunities.
We paddled the Snake in July 2024, and it was an amazing trip. We were a group of 10 with two dogs, paddling 5 different canoes; A Nova Craft Moisie, an Esquif Canyon, an Esquif Miramichi 18, an Esquif Prospecteur 17 and an Esquif Prospecteur 16, all with spraydecks. The river was a medium level, which made it easy to run most rapids. The water is extremely cold in the top third and warmed up a little as we headed downstream, and was of a stunning turquoise colour.
Trip Completed: July 2024
Trip Summary
Location: Peel Watershed, Yukon.
Traditional Territory: This route takes place on the traditional territory of the Nacho Nyak Dun, Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in, Tetlit Gwich’in and Vuntut Gwitchin First Nations.
Maps & Resources
Guidebook: Wild Rivers of the Peel Watershed
Map: I use the Canada Topo app for all my river trips. It’s a free iPhone app that uses the original topo maps of Canada. After downloading the maps of your route you can use them on your phone on your trip just like you would use a regular GPS.
Permits & Reservations
Campsite Reservations: No reservations required.
Permits: No permits required.
Know Before You Go
Season: We paddled this river between the 13th and 26th of July. It seemed like a good time of the year to paddle it if you want warmer weather and fewer bugs. Duo Lake is the best fly lake that you can land on in this region and won’t be free of ice until mid-late June. August can be great for the Fall colours, but you can expect much colder weather as well as lower water levels which could be tricky, especially in the upper section.
Cell Reception: No cell reception
Water: The water is generally a little silty/turquoise for the whole trip, but will turn to a brownish colour with rain events.
Wildlife: I would not consider any wildlife to be a problem on this trip, there are black and grizzly bears in the region as well as moose, caribou and Dall sheep.
Waste: This is a remote route with no facilities
Outfitters & Shuttles
Outfitter: We did not use an outfitter for this trip. We drove from Whitehorse to Mayo with all our personal equipment before flying out from the Mayo float plane base now run by Alkan Air.
Shuttle: We flew into Duo Lake on two separate flights with a Turbo Otter from Mayo, Yukon. Mayo is an easy 4-5 hour drive from Whitehorse, you can leave your car at the Mayo float plane base for a small cost, or you can organize a shuttle with any of the local outfitters in Whitehorse. We decided to take two Otter flights in because the caravan wasn’t available as a second plane, and we didn’t want to be restricted with weight if we were to fly in with the Otter and the Beaver. Without the dogs (my large golden and a border collie) we would have been fine to fly in with less weight capacity. The price difference isn’t huge, so I always recommend going for more weight capacity and not being stressed about that extra bag of wine, after all, you’re going on a holiday!
We flew out of Taco Bar (a large gravel bar on the Peel River that serves as a pick-up spot for the Wind, Bonnet Plume and Snake Rivers) with the Otter and the Caravan from Alkan Air. You can continue down the Peel to Fort McPherson for a road pickup, but this is extra time and logistics.
If you come from outside the Territory and need boats, paddling gear and/or shuttle, Up North Adventures is the best available outfitter in Whitehorse.
Note: For the flights, you need to make sure your canoes nest if you have more than one. We nested our Moisie into the Miramichi 18 and the Prospecteur 16 into the Prospecteur 17.
Trip Report
Day 1: Fly from Mayo to Duo Lake (0 km)
We left Whitehorse early evening the night before and camped at the plane base in Mayo to be ready for our 8 am departure. We flew in with back-to-back Turbo Otter flights into Duo Lake. The first flight was super smooth, but the second was a little bumpier a one of our crew members got sick on the plane, so bringing Gravol may be a good idea. It’s about a 1-hour flight.
Duo Lake is absolutely beautiful. It’s surrounded by tall peaks; the water is crystal clear and the camp spot there is really nice. Note that there are no trees, so you’ll need to bring a cooking stove if you plan to stay there. We had a couple of jet boils with us that we had planned to use mostly for hikes later on the trip, so we cheated and brought a box of wood with us on our second flight since we had a little extra space. We took our time to set up camp, and a part of the group went up for a hike to the peak on the west side of the lake while the others rested.
Campsite: We camped at the used camping area in the willows on a plateau just above the nice gravelly beach by Duo Lake. It’s a beautiful site and there was plenty of space for our entire group.
| Total Distance | 0 km |
| Portaging Distance | 0 m |
| Number of Portages | 0 |
| Number of Rapids | 0 |
| Campsite Reservation | Crown Land – No Reservation Needed |
Day 2: Duo Lake (0 km)
On day 2, we had planned to stay at Duo Lake to hike around, do a little fishing, do our first portage trip and relax. It is such a beautiful area, it’s worth spending at least one full day here.
The weather was good, it was chilly, but the clouds were high and there wasn’t much wind. We fly-fished for grayling and lake trout, caught a couple that we kept for dinner and released the others. We did the first of our 3 portage trips down to the Snake on the well-established trail. It’s a 2 km portage, but the trail is nice and not overly challenging, so all things considered, this is a fairly easy portage.
Part of our group went for an evening hike on the east peak hoping to catch the sunset, but the clouds sadly never cleared. If you have the chance, this would be a great spot to watch the sun go down at about midnight!
Two other planes showed up on that day, one with a group of 6 paddlers and one with a solo paddler. This was a surprise to us, but luckily, there are plenty of other places to camp around the lake and everyone found a nice spot.
Also to note; there is a thunder box (toilet) hidden in the willows if you follow a flagged trail to the East of the main camping area. I am not aware of who put it there, but it’s amazing, especially in a tundra environment where so many people end up camping.
Campsite: We camped at the used camping area in the willows on a plateau just above the nice gravelly beach by Duo Lake. It’s a beautiful site and there was plenty of space for our entire group.
| Total Distance | 0 km |
| Portaging Distance | 2000 m |
| Number of Portages | 1 |
| Number of Rapids | 0 |
| Campsite Reservation | Crown Land – No Reservation Needed |
Day 3: Duo Lake to Reptile Creek (12 km)
We woke up to a cloudy sky that quickly turned into light rain. We had a quick breakfast and started portaging all the rest of our gear to the river. We took our time to do the 2 trips everyone still needed to do, before assembling the spraydecks and packing the boats to start paddling.
This section of the river is very narrow in some sections as well as shallow and fast flowing with continuous class 1-2 whitewater. Luckily, there are no substantial trees to create log jams. About 3 km upstream of Reptile Creek, there’s a short canyon with very tight corners classified as class 2-3.
At the water level that we had, some of those corners we extremely tight, so we lined a couple of them just to be safe, and ran the ones we thought were easier. All of them can technically be run, but with heavy boats on the first day, and easy inside sections to line, we felt it just wasn’t worth the risk.
We made it to Reptile Creek early in the evening just as the sky decided to open up and the view there was surreal.
Campsite: This is a nice gravel bar camp by a large clear creek, with beautiful vistas. There was plenty of space for everyone, and enough trees to make fires by this point.
| Total Distance | 12 km |
| Portaging Distance | 0 m |
| Number of Portages | 0 |
| Number of Rapids | 0 |
| Campsite Reservation | Crown Land – No Reservation Needed |
Day 4: Reptile Creek to Milky Creek (40 km)
We woke up to blue skies and our tents quickly became hot saunas forcing everyone out of bed. We had a slow breakfast and got ready to head out for our first substantial paddling day down to Milky Creek.
Reptile Creek brought just enough water into the river to make the Snake a little less bony, and the whole day was basically a fast-flowing class 1-2 section with little to worry about.
We arrived at Milky Creek early in the evening, and there was already another group camped on the main gravel bar by the creek, so we set our camp just beside a mix of sand and moss in between willows and poplars.
Campsite: This is a must-stop campsite, for two main reasons. First, it’s simply beautiful, with the milky water entering the turquoise Snake just before a small canyon, but also because it is the main access point to hike to Mt McDonald.
| Total Distance | 40 km |
| Portaging Distance | 0 m |
| Number of Portages | 0 |
| Number of Rapids | 0 |
| Campsite Reservation | Crown Land – No Reservation Needed |
Day 5: Rest Day at Milky Creek (0 km)
Day 5 was a forced rest day. We had a friend giving us weather reports, and although we were hoping to leave for Mt McDonald, the forecast was for a solid 24 hours of rain starting at noon. We decided to hunker down, set up a nice chilling area under our large tarp and take it easy for the day.
Campsite: Same as the day before.
| Total Distance | 0 km |
| Portaging Distance | 0 m |
| Number of Portages | 0 |
| Number of Rapids | 0 |
| Campsite Reservation | Crown Land – No Reservation Needed |
Day 6: Milky Creek to the Mount McDonald Base Camp (8 km)
The forecast was right, and it ended up raining lots through the night and into the morning. The river rose about a foot and became all brown. By noon, the rain stopped and we knew that it was supposed to clear, so we packed our bags and headed out for two nights in the mountains.
We had been told that it was better to hike on the north side of the creek to reach the glacier located at the base of Mt McDonald, but the group that was already there hiked up to the viewpoint on the south side and told us it was good. Being a bit lazy and not wanting to cross Milky Creek right at the start, we decided to head up on the south side. Although it wasn’t terrible, it definitely wasn’t great, which we realized even more when we hiked out on the north side on our way back.
It took us about 3.5 hours to reach base camp, in the most stunning mountain valley! Everyone was in awe about how beautiful that area was.
Campsite: This camp was in a tundra mountain valley not far from the main glacier at the base of Mt McDonald. We had a small clear pond right next to camp which was perfect for drinking water as well as cooking. You could camp pretty much anywhere in this valley, but having water next to camp is handy, which is why we picked this spot. It’s also directly in between two main valleys, so it gives many good hiking options.
| Total Distance | 8 km |
| Portaging Distance | 0 m |
| Number of Portages | 0 |
| Number of Rapids | 0 |
| Campsite Reservation | Crown Land – No Reservation Needed |
Day 7: Rest Day (Mount McDonald Hike)
I got up early this morning to capture the sunrise shining on the sharp surrounding walls of our camp and to take in the beauty. Not too long after, the rest of the crew got up, we had a quick breakfast and made plans to hike up to a peak southeast of our camp.
The weather was perfect, with blue skies but fairly cool. It took us about 8 hours to complete our hike, on which we turned around just short of the summit. The last stretch had a very steep loose rock section with some snow. Not having any climbing gear with us, we decided to turn around. We were able to make it to the top of a small peak overlooking the glacier with a steep 90-degree wall. This was a little surreal and gave vertigo to most of us!
The views were just too spectacular to describe. We encountered a curious cow and calf caribou at about 2/3 of the way to the top, which was also neat to see.
We got back to camp early evening, had a quick dehydrated meal and some of the crew hiked to the base of the glacier while others relaxed and played cards at camp.
Campsite: Same as the day before.
| Total Distance | km |
| Total Elevation | ~1000 m |
| Campsite Reservation | Crown Land – No Reservation Needed |
Day 8: Mount McDonald base camp to Milky Creek (8 km)
We woke up to another beautiful clear sky in this stunning valley. We packed camp and the crew that hadn’t seen the glacier hiked the about 1.5-hour roundtrip to take a look (100% worth it!) and the rest of the group took a hike in the valley directly to the West from our camp.
Myself and another friend decided to try hike the way back on the north side of the creek. The first half was amazing, in a dry open forest with great views of the glacier behind. For the second half, we stumbled onto a highway of a moose/caribou trail that took us all the way back to camp! It took us 2.5 hours from our base camp in the mountains to our Milky Creek camp and we had zero bushwacking along the way. The rest of the crew took either the same way or tried the creek, and trust me on this one, the north side on the game trail is the way to go, don’t be fooled.
By the time we got back to the Snake, it was around 20 degrees and sunny, so everyone enjoyed a nice cold swim before our great pizza night.
Note: Hiking to Mt McDonald is a must if you are paddling the Snake, especially if you have good weather when you get there. I have now paddled all the rivers of the Peel watershed except the Bonnet Plume, and although it is beautiful everywhere, and there are amazing hikes everywhere, most places look similar. Mt McDonald is truly a zone of its own and compares to nothing else I have experienced in that region. Someone could easily spend a week exploring in there without getting bored.
Campsite: Milky Creek Camp (same as nights 4 and 5)
| Total Distance | 8 km |
| Portaging Distance | 0 m |
| Number of Portages | 0 |
| Number of Rapids | 0 |
| Campsite Reservation | Territories – No Reservation Needed |
Day 9: Milky Creek to Camp 4 (50 km)
After 4 days camping at Milky Creek, we were ready to hit the river again! With a good forecast, we decided to gain more ground to be able to have at least one other day off at a great camp somewhere along the way.
We paddled about 50 km of continuous class 1-2 rapids and got charged by a grizzly while paddling. The bear ran towards us at full speed before getting up, taking a closer look, and deciding we weren’t worth the fight and running away. It was a sow, and it was easy to tell that she was lactating when she got up, so my guess is that she had cubs not too far and was just trying to make sure we weren’t coming to mess with her. It was enough to scare a couple of the people in the crews who decided to attach their bear sprays on their spraydecks for the rest of the trip.
Campsite: We pushed our way as far to the river right as possible to camp beside the mountain and the crystal-clear creek coming in. Large gravel bar, and this turned out to be the best sunset spot of the trip, with the sun setting directly in the valley downstream at 11:30 pm.
| Total Distance | 50 km |
| Portaging Distance | 0 m |
| Number of Portages | 0 |
| Number of Rapids | 1 |
| Campsite Reservation | Crown Land – No Reservation Needed |
Day 10: Camp 4 to Waterfall Camp 5 (45 km)
We woke up to clear skies and ideal tomato-growing conditions in our tents, in other words, cooking. It was shaping up to be another gorgeous day on the river. Everyone was excited to reach the beautiful canyon with a class 3 rapid.
Most of the river is otherwise continuous class 1-2, but about 5 km before the canyon, one pair tipped their boat after getting caught off guard by a large wave in a class 2. They quickly brought their boat to shore, and it became just a good reason to give them a hard time for the rest of the trip.
The canyon is located at 8N 580731.46 E, 7229261.15 N, and is a short straightforward class 3. This could change depending on water levels, but I would say it’s classified as a class 3 because of the remoteness and consequences if you miss the entrance, but all in all, this is a fairly easy class 3 with only a couple of moves to make in the entrance and good braising in the boils while in the canyon. Everyone ran it with no problem, and we made it all the way to the waterfall camp. You portage or scout on river left.
Campsite: Amazing camp on a nice flat elevated gravel bar right next to the most beautiful set of crystal-clear waterfalls! It was hot and sunny when we got there, so we spent over an hour swimming and exploring the pools.
| Total Distance | 45 km |
| Portaging Distance | 0 m |
| Number of Portages | 0 |
| Number of Rapids | 1 |
| Campsite Reservation | Crown Land – No Permit Needed |
Day 11: Waterfall Camp 5 (0 km)
Waterfall camp was so beautiful that we decided to spend our last ‘’extra day’’ here. A huge storm rolled in the night before and there was a crazy headwind on the river anyways. So we huddled in the little canyon, sheltered from the wind, cooked moose ham and cheese crêpes, and went on a little stroll up the trail following the falls to go explore.
The berries were in full force, with blueberries, cloud berries as well as crow berries being very abundant. We spent about an hour picking berries before one of the crew was struck with bad luck. He went for a quick dip in the creek above the falls, and while swimming in a pool, he touched the rock wall, and that was enough to make a giant rock fall on his leg. He was hurt enough to need help to hike back down to camp. He was able to get around slowly, and although we suspected a possible break (it was a double fibula break), there wasn’t much we could do at the time and after a short nap to let the painkillers do their thing, he was back with us around the campfire.
Campsite: Same as day before.
| Total Distance | 0 km |
| Portaging Distance | 0 m |
| Number of Portages | 0 |
| Number of Rapids | 0 |
| Campsite Reservation | Crown Land – No Permit Needed |
Day 12: Waterfall Camp 5 to Camp 6 (60 km)
We got up this morning ready to tackle the last big whitewater section of the trip. It was another beautiful hot sunny day, which always makes it more fun when you know large rapids are coming. About 1 km downstream from camp, there was a rapid classified as class 2-3, but it was really just a large wave train for us. It was easy to take the inside and avoid the waves, but a few people in the crew decided to hit the centre line for a little bit of fun!
Following those rapids, you start heading out of the mountains and there are a couple of substantial class 2+ ledges that create large holes. We were able to go around them but keep your head up as some of them came around some sharp corners you could easily be pushed into them if you’re not paying attention. It’s a beautiful section through some small canyons with nice beaches… quite unique.
The rest of the day was all about pushy class 1 water, where we travelled at anywhere between 10 to 14 km/h without much effort.
Campsite: This camp was nothing to brag about. We were all tired and decided to pick the first half-decent gravel bar that we could find to set camp. The weather helped with not being picky. This whole section of the river is braided with gravel bars everywhere.
| Total Distance | 60 km |
| Portaging Distance | 0 m |
| Number of Portages | 0 |
| Number of Rapids | 1 |
| Campsite Reservation | Crown Land – No Permit Needed |
Class 3 wave train after Camp 5
Day 13: Camp 6 to Camp 7 (60 km)
We woke up to another scorching sun, ready for a long day down the braided section of the Snake. The first 30 km or so were really braided, then the river became more uniform, and we decided to camp on a high gravel bar beside the tall cliffs all river right.
Campsite: Nice camp on a higher gravel bar with a small pool perfect for swimming right in front of camp.
| Total Distance | 60 km |
| Portaging Distance | 0 m |
| Number of Portages | 0 |
| Number of Rapids | 0 |
| Campsite Reservation | Crown Land – No Permit Needed |
Day 14: Camp 7 to Taco Bar, Peel River (30 km)
Another day, another clear sky and warm weather. But we got a weather update the night before letting us know that bad weather was on the way the following day, which was when we were supposed to fly out. With a couple of our crew catching a flight across the country from Whitehorse two days later, we texted Alkan to see if they could pick us up late afternoon to avoid the possibility of being stuck at Taco Bar the next day, and they did.
We got organized quickly, and paddled the last 30 or so kilometres to Taco Bar. We got there at 3:30 pm and the planes showed up at 4 pm, so we hurried to get the 2 boats dismantled to nest them before strapping them on the floats. Just before 5 pm, we boarded the planes and flew back to Mayo. We got to Mayo at around 6 pm, loaded up the cars and drove straight back to Whitehorse.
Although this last flatter section of the Snake was less exciting, it still flows really fast, so we were usually paddling anywhere between 10-13 km/h.
| Total Distance | 30 km |
| Portaging Distance | 0 m |
| Number of Portages | 0 |
| Number of Rapids | 0 |
| Campsite Reservation | Crown Land – No Permit Needed |
Trip Video
Reflections
I had kept the Snake in my back pocket for years, for a few reasons. First, I knew it was a slightly more technical river than some of the others in the watershed, so you still need a crew with good paddling skills, but also because of the easy logistics. This year, I had 6 friends who wanted to join us from Québec, so being 10 people, I needed a trip with easier logistics shuttle-wise, which this is.
Overall, we had good weather and a good water level. We heard of a couple of groups that were on the river before us in 2024 and had higher water levels and they found the river challenging. We were also lucky to have clear skies, not only weather-wise, but with no smoke. Earlier in the month the entire Territory was covered, but we had no smoke during our trip.
We found the rapids were easier than we’d expected, but that may be due to water levels. That said, there was also more consistent whitewater than what we had expected, which we loved.
We didn’t see a ton of wildlife, which seemed to be the case for most groups on the river at the same time as us. This brings me to say, it was quite busy on the river. We were five groups overlapping each other, especially in the first week. Although the river is about 300 km in length, you leave the mountains with about 120 km left. So, you definitely want to spend most of your time at the top. Plus, it’s easy to cover long distances. We never paddled for more than 6 hours and still covered good distances.
With Duo, Reptile and Milky Creeks being key camps and places to hike, it creates a bit of a bottleneck at the beginning of the river. The amount of people did not affect us, but it was definitely the busiest I have ever seen one of those rivers, so if you’re looking for a really remote lonely experience, this might not be the river for you.
All in all, this is an absolutely amazing river, with challenging whitewater, but nothing overly dangerous. The constant whitewater was great, but the hiking was what surprised us the most. The 3 days we spent around Mt McDonald were just breathtaking and totally surprised us with its beauty. Another plus is that the flights aren’t very long, so it’s a reasonably priced trip compared to many other fly-in rivers throughout the Arctic.
Author Bio
Gabe grew up paddling in Abitibi, QC and moved to the Yukon in 2008 and guided throughout the Territory for several years. In 2013, he led a 2-month canoe expedition called ‘’Paddle for the North”, to document what was happening in the Peel Watershed at the time. The documentary won several awards in film festivals including the Banff Mountain Film Fest, International Vancouver Film Fest and the Paddling Film Fest. Since then, Gabe became a biologist and now teaches field courses in the Northern Environmental Science program offered at Yukon University. The canoe is by far his preferred way to explore the north.
Instagram: @gabe_rivest
YouTube: @gabrielrivest5892