Kluane Lake

Kluane Lake is 405 km ² the largest lake which lies entirely in the Yukon Territory. He is about 70 km long. Villages on the lake are Destruction Bay, Burwash Landing and Kluane. The melt water from the glacier flows among others Kaskawulsh on the Slims River ( A'ay Chu River) into the lake. The outflow of the lake is the Kluane River, reaching across the Donjek River, the White River and the Yukon River the Bering Sea. The Alaska Highway follows the southern shore of the lake, which is also known by its moraine and the American Arctic char. Lakeside is the Kluane National Park.

Recent geological past

Still 300 to 400 years ago, the then flowed Slims River in the valley of the Chu River today A'ay in the opposite direction and emptied the Kluane Lake to 225 km in length in the Pacific. After the Kaskawulsh glacier continued to expand and eventually blocked the valley, the water level rose in the lake at about 10 meters, until he found a new outlet ( Kluane River) in the north- west and the lake now Donjek River and White River with the Yukon River connects. The water of Kluane Lake since flows ten times longer distance to reach the sea.

Meanwhile, the bed of the new runoff has so deeply flushed, the water level of the lake is back to the old level. On the mountain slopes one can see traces of the old water level at the corresponding height. The Alaska Highway crosses the huge former bed of the Slims River, which is now used by A'ay Chu River in the opposite direction. The glacier itself has now receded and the valley mostly released, the water flow has since remained unchanged.