Yukon River: Lake Laberge to Carmacks (5 days / 280 km)
The Yukon River is the one of the longest rivers in North America and has a rich history. This report is about the section from Lake Laberge near Whitehorse, to Carmacks, otherwise known as the Thirty Mile section, which is technically the section between the end of Lake Laberge to where the Teslin River flows in. That section of river is a designated Canadian Heritage River. This report covers the section from the Deep Creek campground on Lake Laberge, all the way to Carmacks for about a 280km journey.
We were a group of 8 with 2 dogs in four canoes. The canoes we used were 3 Esquif Miramichi 18, and a Nova Craft Prospector 17. This section of river is probably the most popular in the Yukon, with several historic sites along the way. There have been a couple large forest fires over the last 2 years which has slightly changed the scenery and affected a few campsites along the way, but efforts from fire fighters saved most historic sites and campsites.
Trip Completed: July 2025
Trip Summary
| Starting Point | Deep Creek, Lake Laberge |
| Ending Point | Carmacks |
| Duration | 5 days / 4 nights |
| Difficulty | Intermediate |
| Total Distance | 280 km |
| Paddling Distance | 280 km |
| Portaging Distance |
Location: Southwest Yukon. Whitehorse is the nearest town.
Traditional Territory: This route takes place on the traditional territory of the Ta’an Kwach’an, Kwanlin Dün and Little Salmon-Carmacks First Nations.
Maps & Resources
Guidebook: Rivers of the Yukon Territory – Yukon River – Marsh Lake – Carmacks by Mike Rourke
Map: I use the Canada Topo app for all my river trips, which is a free app (available on iPhones) that uses the original topographic maps of Canada. You download the maps of your route before departing, and you can use them on your phone (or iPad) while out on your trip, just like you would use a regular GPS.
Permits & Reservations
Campsite Reservations: No reservations
Permits: No permits required
Know Before You Go
Season: June to Early October
Cell Reception: No
Water: The river is clear until the Teslin River comes in. The Teslin is silty at high water, but clears up later in the summer as it becomes lower. By late August, the water usually runs clear all the way to Carmacks.
Wildlife: I would not consider any wildlife to be a problem on this trip, though there are black and grizzly bears in the region.
Waste: This is a remote route with no facilities.
Outfitters & Shuttles
Outfitter: We used Up North Adventures for the boat shuttle to the end of Laberge as well as for the shuttle on the way back from Carmacks.
Shuttle: This is a relatively short shuttle for the length of the trip. It’s easy to put in anywhere from Whitehorse to Deep Creek if you are keen on paddling Lake Laberge. We didn’t have time to do so, which is the reason why we hired Up North to shuttle us across the lake and save us 50km of paddling (2 days).
Trip Report
Day 1: Deep Creek to Johnstone Island (50km shuttle + 10km paddling)
On our first day, we met up at Up North Adventures to hop on the van and head to Deep Creek Campground about 30 minutes north of Whitehorse to load everything up in a motorboat and get a shuttle across the long and large Lake Laberge. We decided on that due to the lack of time to take the extra couple of days to paddle across the lake, but also to avoid getting windbound, as Lake Laberge is notorious for its rough waters.
The shuttle was nice and smooth, and they dropped us off at the old Telegraph station of Lower Laberge. We took a look at the site, had lunch and started our trip down the river. This section of the river flows really fast, and we were paddling at an average of 14km/h. Since it was the first day and everyone was a little on the tired side from all the travelling, we stopped at Johnstone Island since no one was there and it is a nice campsite.
Campsite: Johnstone Island is a nice campsite with a picnic table, a government fire pit as well as outhouses. It had plenty of space for everyone, but it can be scarce for firewood, so we stopped earlier on the river to cut a couple of dead trees so that we wouldn’t have to worry about it there.
Day 2: Johnstone Island to Camp 2 (~36 km)
We woke up to a beautiful sunny sky and no wind. We took our time, had a big breakfast and slowly hit the river just after 10am. This is the best section of the river for pike fishing, so we made sure to spend plenty of time stopping in the bays to make a few casts, until we caught a good size pike that we kept for dinner.
About 10km down from Johnstone Island, there’s a large burn from a fire that occurred in 2024, and we knew we were a little late in the season for morels, but it had been a late spring so we decided to stop at the beginning of the burn for lunch and go walk around to see if we couldn’t add a fancy touch to our dinners for the week. Although most mushrooms were past their prime, we still managed to get a large pot of good morels, which is always exciting!
After all this, we paddled through the old burn until we reached the other side, where there was actually a new fire burning, but luckily it had rained quite a bit the days before our trip, so it wasn’t threatening to us. We made it to Hootalinqua by the end of the afternoon, but that site, as well as the shipyard just below, were busy with several groups, so we paddled a few extra kilometres to a nice campsite on a high bank, overlooking the river.
Campsite: We camped at a nice spot overlooking the river. This campsite doesn’t get much use, and is nice and sheltered in the tree, with lots of firewood.
Day 3: Camp 2 to Dutch Bluff (~65km)
I woke up early as per usual to a beautiful, calm morning, and not long after I had started to fire to start making the coffee, I heard loud splashes and breaking branches. I went to the river edge and spotted a small bull moose feeding away across the river.
Not long after we hit the river, the wind turned against us and the clouds rolled in. We pushed our way to Big Eddy’s wood camp to stop for lunch and throw a line in for arctic grayling. After a good break and catching a few fish, we made our way down to Big Salmon Village, an old Trading Post, where we stopped to stretch our legs and check out the old cabins.
The wind died down and the sky was clearing, so although you can camp at Big Salmon, we didn’t think it was a great campsite and decided to paddle a little further. When we saw the beach at Dutch Bluff and the trail going up, we knew we had found our spot for the night!
Campsite: A beautiful beach on the river right just below a large bluff with a good hiking trail going up. Luckily, we had good weather as there wouldn’t have been good protection, and the sand was fine, so it wouldn’t have been ideal otherwise. It’s also a good swimming spot with a sandy bottom and a large eddy, so you can swim without having to worry about the current.
Day 4: Dutch Bluff to Mandanna Creek (~55km)
Once again, we woke up to a beautiful clear sky and no wind. We knew we had another fairly long day ahead so we hit the river at a good time, knowing that we will probably have sand from Dutch Bluff in our gear for years to come! (As you do with any beach campsite, especially with dogs!)
We paddled/floated for about 40km, stopped for a quick snack at a camp just before the river reaches the Robert Campbell Highway and kept going for another 15km or so. We saw a cow and calf moose swimming along the river, which was a highlight. We made it to our camp at Mandanna Creek just in time to set up camp before the evening’s thunderstorms rolled in.
Campsite: Mandanna Creek camp is a nice, well-hidden site just passed the creek on the left shore of the river. It’s far enough from the highway that you don’t hear it much, and it has an old burn behind the site, so there’s plenty of firewood. It’s also a very large site, so it can easily accommodate large groups or a couple of smaller groups at a time.
Day 5: Mandanna Creek to Carmacks (~45km)
It rained hard for most of the night, but luckily the rain had stopped by morning and it was one of those eerie calm kinds of morning. Just like a couple days before, I heard some splashing while making coffee, and sure enough, there was a cow moose with two calves walking along the edge of the river just across from camp! We watched them as they slowly made their way while feeding.
We left at 9:30 as we knew our shuttle driver was going to be in Carmacks at around 3pm and we wanted to have time to unpack and grab a bight at the Coal Mine Campground before heading back to Whitehorse. The clouds lifted, and we finished our trips in t-shirts, slowly floating to our awaiting burgers.
Reflections
This trip is a great trip for people newer to canoeing tripping and history seekers. Although I added the camps we stayed at in this report and on the map, there are several more campsites along the river, some with more facilities than others, but over the years, more and more camps are being set up with outhouses to help keep the river clean. Unfortunately, there has been big wildfires in the area recently, changing the scenery drastically, but luckily most campsites and historical sites were preserved due to the efforts of the firefighters.
Like mentioned in the introduction, this is the most popular river trip in the Yukon, meaning you are very likely to encounter other people on the river. Keep that in mind when planning your days as you may not have a spot at your desired campsite if you arrive too late, or if you are travelling in a very large group.
All in all, it’s a great river journey, and depending on your main interest, there’s a ton of different information out there about the area. Just imagining what travelling on this section of river 120 years ago during the Klondike Gold Rush days has my head spinning, and seeing first hand some of the equipment they were using along the river is amazing.
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 is preferred way to explore the north.
Instagram: @gabe_rivest
YouTube: @gabepaddles