The U.S. portion of a historic, 33-mile hiking trail between Skagway and British Columbia has been off limits to backcountry explorers since 2020.
But that’s about to change, with one key caveat.
The National Park Service said Wednesday that the U.S. segment of the Chilkoot Trail will open for the first time in years, starting in June.
About half the trail is on the U.S. side of the border. Much of that has seen long closures due to the pandemic and flood damage.
The National Park Service eventually opened up the first several miles of the U.S. trail after preliminary repairs. But the rest has remained closed until now.
“We are excited to reopen the Chilkoot National Historic Trail for the season here on June 1, 2025 after a long hiatus,” Angela Wetz, superintendent of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park, said in an interview.
That means hikers will be able to hike to the Canadian border from Dyea, a gold rush ghost town near Skagway.
Will hikers be allowed to cross the border?
Less certain is whether they’ll be able to cross the border and continue on to Lake Bennett, in British Columbia. Wetz said the Canadian Border Services Agency is currently reviewing a proposal by the National Park Service and Parks Canada and will decide if visitors will be able to enter the country on the trail.
The U.S., for its part, has already made up its mind.
“U.S. Customs and Border Patrol will not allow hikers to enter the US on the trail this year, as it’s not a designated port of entry,” Wetz said.
Previously, hikers were able to walk the entire length of the trail in either direction. But Canada’s decision will affect the most hikers — Wetz said the vast majority start in the U.S. and end in Canada.
The trail, which was recently designated a National Historic Trail, carries significant meaning in the region. For millennia, it served as a trade route for the Tlingit people, between the Inside Passage and the headwaters of the Yukon River.
In the 1880’s, several expeditions used the trail, and it later became a major transportation route to the Yukon goldfields. Eventually the trail was replaced by the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad.
“It’s called, sometimes, the world’s longest museum,” Wetz said. “There’s all sorts of artifacts that you can see and signs from the past, of the uses on that trail.”
