THERE’S A LOT ABOUT Tombstone Territorial Park that is flat out intimidating. Its anglicised name reflects the impression it made on the first Europeans, no doubt catching sight of its foreboding spires on a bad weather day and deciding its massif resembled the headstones of a graveyard, or a place of doomed endeavour at the end of the known world. It still retains that wild, edgy remoteness. Hiking here is a raw and visceral experience, demanding a huge effort to traverse through dense brush, unforgiving talus or spongy mires overlaying permafrost. There’s also the unforgettable fact that it’s home to scores of grizzly bears, swaggeringly confident in their status as the apex predator.
But there’s another side to Tombstone. It’s a place of quiet beauty and reflection, and a landscape of shared experience and human warmth with fellow hikers in one of the most striking mountain ranges that I have ever visited.
BUCKET LIST TRAILS
In August 2023, I made my first visit in a decade to
