Faro & Ross River, YT

I've started to get a bit behind on the blog posts recently. Literally having too much fun! Bear with me while I try to catch up, lol.

May 31st - June 2nd:

Faro, YT is not just a mining town and has a lot to offer tourists! There are multiple hiking/biking trails around the town and I posted about the Van Gorder Falls trail previously. They have an Arboretum Trail where there are signs pointing out the trees that are abundant in the area. Apparently, there are only 10 native trees in the Yukon Territory. At the end of the trail, it leads you to a view of the town with a mountain range visible in the background. Faro also has a Golf Course!

Part of the golf course through town.

After we completed the Arboretum trail, we decided to stop at the large dump truck that is displayed as you come to the turnoff for Faro. This truck is massive! There is a picture of the Sean standing next to it below for reference. There is also an excavator bucket that has seen many long days of work that is next to the dump truck. It looks like it has been fortified with lots of amour to contend with the rock in the mines further up the road. Sean and I went down the entire length of the mine road and found the extensive operation they have going on back there.

Sean in the cockpit, lol.

Mining operation.

There are a type of mountain sheep that frequent the cliffs and bluffs and the town has made a viewing area called Mt. Mye Sheep Centre that has a cabin with information of the migratory birds and animals in this part of the country. It's nice and cozy, complete with a wood burning fireplace and provided wood. The windows open for a very clear view, but the windows were very clean when we visited. We took the binoculars to see if we could hunt the sheep along the rocky sided mountain, but we weren't able to locate any. The Mt. Mye Trail continues from cabin, but there is a right turnoff that takes you to the bluff cliffside where the sheep like to lick the minerals & salts from the ground there... still no sighting. We tried another spot that was mentioned there have been many sightings of the sheep at Finger Site, but again, no sheep found. 

Mt. Mye Sheep Centre

Bluff cliffs with view of the Pelly River.

Ross River is a small native community that is Southeast of Faro and accessible by Campbell Hwy. They have a barge ferry that is open seasonally to help vehicles cross the Pelly River. It was not running when we were there and was pulled onto the shore. There is also a suspension bridge to help pedestrians cross the river, but be mindful of the load limit, lol. We were surprised to see how fast the river was flowing!

We heard from a Yukon friend that there was a beautiful place called Lapie River Canyon that you could access on South Canol Road and you could take a picture of your rig from a hiking trail down by the river. There is very few that travel the road, so there are no worries of encountering much traffic. We were having a difficult time finding the old bridge that was in the picture our friend showed us so we continued down the road in search of what we saw in the picture. We turned around after not finding the area that should be easy to spot. We went back to the only bridge we had passed over and explored that area. We finally found it! It was there, but they had upgraded the bridge so everything looked different, lol.

Small cabin near the river on the trail.

Same spot, new bridge.

On the way home from the day trip to Ross River, we decided to go to the Lapie Canyon Campground and hiked the trail that goes along the canyon side. It was so pretty. There was still snow in some areas!

Campbell Hwy bridge.