It’s been a few years since I paid a visit to my favourite Yukon park, and it looks like 2009 is the year to return. Tombstone Territorial Park hits two milestones this summer: the long-awaited opening of a new visitor centre and the 10th anniversary of the park’s planning.

The Tombstone Interpretive Centre and campground sit at the side of the Dempster Highway with a sweeping view of the north fork of the Klondike River. Jagged black peaks that give the park its name crown the valley. Tombstone has become a magnet for hikers, but you don’t have to be a backpack-toting trekker to enjoy it. My favourite memory is once strolling away from the road and falling to my knees in tundra vegetation that filled my nostrils with the earthy smell of lichen and Labrador tea.

For two decades, a beat-up ATCO trailer has served as info centre and refuge for thousands of visitors winding their way up and down the Dempster. I know I’m not alone in being a little misty-eyed at the prospect of the old trailer being hauled away. Over the years, some very cool folks spent their summers working out of that trailer, guiding nature walks, helping highway travellers and generally effusing about the area’s natural and cultural abundance.

Interpretive displays, hands-on exhibits, hiking, wildlife and road conditions as well as a collection of books and natural specimens will be filling the new centre. The LEED-certified building of timber columns and beams will also post daily interpretive events: walks, campfire talks or special presentations. Five themed weekends in 2009 will be hosted by Friends of Dempster Country, in partnership with the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation and Yukon Parks.

http://travelyukon.com