Kluane National Park — Slims River Washout and Braided Flats Viewpoint

In 2016, the Kaskawulsh Glacier retreated enough to redirect its meltwater southward, effectively killing the Slims River almost overnight in a phenomenon scientists call ‘river piracy.’ What’s left is a massive braided gravel plain stretching toward Kluane Lake’s north end — windswept, stark, and genuinely otherworldly. On big wind days, dust plumes rip across the flats and blast the Alaska Highway. It’s a front-row seat to glacial change happening in real time, not geological time.

Pull off near the Slims River West trailhead on the Alaska Highway north of Destruction Bay. No formal developed viewpoint, but the scale hits you immediately from the highway shoulder. Best viewed with binoculars — Dall sheep are often visible on Sheep Mountain across the lake. Windy conditions are the norm, not the exception.

A river that vanished — overnight.