Tay River Road — Ross River to Tay River Canyon Wilderness

The Tay River Road leaves Ross River heading northeast into the Pelly Mountains, following the Tay River drainage into country that sees maybe a handful of vehicles a summer. The road starts as maintained gravel before deteriorating into rutted two-track through spruce muskeg and across open alpine benches. The Tay River itself is a stunning piece of geology — limestone walls drop sheer into the canyon floor in the upper drainage, and the water runs glacially clear even through summer runoff. Moose are thick in the river flats, caribou occasionally push through on the ridges above, and the wolf population in this part of the Pelly Mountains is healthy and vocal. There’s no maintained road end — you push until the terrain says stop.

This is expert-level remote travel. High-clearance 4WD with lockers, mud-terrain tires, and full recovery gear is the baseline. The road crosses several unnamed tributaries of the Tay, and summer water levels make some of these crossings genuinely challenging. A winch is strongly recommended. Ross River is the last fuel stop — the tiny community has a gas pump but call ahead as supply trucks don’t always make it on schedule. No cell service exists past the Ross River town site. Best season is late July through August when tributary crossings are at their lowest. This is the kind of place you go when you want Yukon with absolutely no guardrails.