Pelly Crossing
A Small Selkirk First Nation Community On The Klondike Highway, Home Of The Selkirk Cultural Centre, With Salmon Fishing On The Yukon And Pelly Rivers, A Campground And Long Stretches Of Boreal Forest On Either Side. A Stop Between Whitehorse And Dawson City · Pelly Crossing, Yukon
Pelly Crossing is a small Selkirk First Nation community of about 300 people where the Klondike Highway crosses the Pelly River, roughly 280 km north of Whitehorse and about halfway to Dawson City. The Selkirk people, Northern Tutchone speakers, have fished the Pelly and Yukon rivers for salmon for countless generations, and the village took its present site in the 1950s when the highway arrived. A cultural centre built by the First Nation tells that story through photographs, tools, clothing and recordings (confirm the name and hours), and a campground and a small store serve people on the road. The community also looks after Fort Selkirk, an old trading and mission settlement on the Yukon River downstream, which is reached by boat and run as a heritage site with the First Nation (confirm how to get there). Around the village the land is boreal forest, river bars and low hills, quiet and wide open. It is a simple, respectful stop between Whitehorse and the Klondike.
Pelly Crossing, a Selkirk First Nation community on the Klondike Highway at the Pelly River bridge, about 280 km north of Whitehorse; coordinates approximate, Pelly Crossing, Yukon, Canada
The village and its river views are open all year, but visitor services are seasonal. The cultural centre, if open, usually keeps weekday hours from about late May or June to early September, with a midday break, and closes in winter (confirm by phone). The campground normally runs from about mid May to mid September. The store and fuel stop keep ordinary local hours, shorter on Sundays. Boat trips to Fort Selkirk run only in summer, when the river is open, and are arranged in advance with the First Nation. The Klondike Highway is kept open in winter, though daylight is very short.