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More about Yukon
The entire territory belongs to the physiographic province of Canada called the Cordilleran Region, or Cordillera. In the Yukon the Eastern System of the Cordillera contains a fringe of the Mackenzie Mountains as well as the Selwyn Mountains and the Richardson Mountains. The Interior System of the Cordillera is represented in the Yukon chiefly by the large Yukon Plateau. Through this plateau run the Yukon’s major rivers, including the Yukon, Klondike, Pelly, Stewart, Peel, and Porcupine rivers. The rivers have cut valleys in the plateau that are in some cases 300 to 600 m (1,000 to 2,000 ft) deep. The Yukon’s longest lakes, Kluane and Aishihik, are at the southern end of the plateau. Away from the river valleys, the plateau is generally rugged and rolling with an average elevation of about 1,200 m (about 4,000 ft) above sea level. To the southwest of the plateau lie the rugged peaks of the Saint Elias Mountains, which belong to the Coast Ranges of western North America and thus are classified with the Western System of the Cordillera. This mountain system contains the highest mountains in the Yukon, including 5,959-m (19,551-ft) Mount Logan, the highest peak in Canada. The Saint Elias Mountains also contain the mountain that was named for United States president John F. Kennedy after his assassination in 1963. In 1972 Kluane National Park and Reserve, the first national park in the Yukon, was established. Covering 22,000 sq km (8,500 sq mi) in the Saint Elias Mountains, it contains dramatic ice fields and much wildlife as well as Canada’s highest mountains.
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