Exploring Ontario: 2021 GMC Yukon Denali Diesel to Elora
We visit what one of the Group of Seven once called "Ontario’s most beautiful village”
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This enormous black GMC has two names: Yukon and Denali. If I were to take those handles as destinations I’d head north-east from my home in Oakville to Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory (5,300 km, give or take). I’d then hang a left to Alaska’s Denali, which climbs 20,310 feet (6190 meters) above sea level to claim the title of North America’s highest mountain peak. I only have the GMC for a week, however, so my north-east destination will be a little closer to home: the charming town of Elora, Ontario, a mere 100 kilometres away.
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The full-size 2021 GMC Yukon is pretty much all-new from stem to stern. Notably, this is the first time in the perennial pachyderm’s time on earth (29 years) that it sports an independent rear suspension — all part of the fresh platform that, with a 4.9-inch wheelbase stretch for the Yukon and 4.1-inches for the Yukon XL, makes second- and third-row accommodation that much more palatable.
Denali is GMC-speak for “top-shelf,” and with a base sticker of $80,348, this leather-lined Yukon lays on the luxury and tech. Still, for that sum you aren’t getting everything. The $10,525 Denali Ultimate Package adds adaptive cruise, enhanced emergency braking, rear camera mirror, panoramic sunroof, 22-inch polished wheels, power retractable running boards, max trailering package, rear seat media, and more. But what intrigues me most about this tester is its no-cost optional 3.0L Duramax inline six turbo-diesel that serves up 277 hp and 460 lb-ft of torque, and promises better fuel economy than the standard 420 horsepower, 460 lb-ft 6.2 L gas V8.
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My wife Claire and I hoist ourselves up into the cabin, plunk into the plush seats and point the Denali’s blunt (and oh-so blingy) visage towards “Ontario’s most beautiful village” — so said A.J Casson of the Group of Seven. The Denali excels as a cruisin’ machine. It is quiet and floats over the road, impressively composed for a body-on-frame behemoth. From this imperious driving position the view is good, with the exception of anything within close proximity to its massive snout. Beware at intersections, as shorter humans can be hidden.
Elora is famous for its Gorge, where the Grand River rushes between 22-meter high cliffs. The town dates back to 1832, when Captain William Gilkinson established a sawmill and general store. We take a circuitous route from Oakville, avoiding the 400 series highways. It’s north on Bronte Rd (Hwy 25) to Acton, and then a left, from where we wend our way westward. It’s lovely farm country up here, and after about an hour and a half we roll up historic Metcalf Street into Elora. This main thoroughfare features three grand old hotel buildings that hark back to the town’s bustling past.
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Still being in COVID lockdown, our chances of gorging in Elora are limited, though a few establishments still offer takeout. However, I did buy a selection of fine craft beer from the Elora Brewing Company.
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For a nominal fee, the Elora Gorge Conservation Area offers visitors hiking, canoeing, fishing, tubing, or the space for a relaxing picnic. But if you just want to get a taste of the Gorge from town, walk the block or two west from Metcalf Street to Victoria Park. There you’ll enter a cedar grove, and a short hike has you at Lover’s Leap, an outcropping of rock from which, legend has it, a heartbroken First Nations maiden leapt to her death after hearing her Attawandaron warrior lover had been slain by the Iroquois.
Follow the path further around the top of the escarpment and you’ll discover a staircase leading to the Gorge that dates from 1879. We make our way down to the cool, calm of the chasm where sun glistens on the shallow water as it babbles along the rocky surfaces. This part of the Gorge wasn’t always so bucolic. In the mid-1800s it served as a community dumping ground for all kinds of garbage — trees, building refuse, animal carcasses, etc. After catching fire in 1868 and burning for ten days, the community pulled up its socks and the local horticulture society put its energies into cleaning up the mess, restoring the Gorge to its former beauty.
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Climbing the 56 steps back up, we drop into the Elora Distilling Co.’s Lobby Bar Store. Using locally grown grains and fresh ingredients, this charming enterprise is raising the art of hand made spirits. Claire snags a mickey of St. George’s Spicy Caesar Vodka infused with Ontario dill, garlic and Scotch bonnet peppers. In better days, the establishment offers tours and cocktail-making courses.
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We have one more climb, and that’s back into the Yukon Denali. The GMC’s “Professional Grade” interior is dressed up in stitched leather and some rather unfortunate fake “open-pore” wood trim, trying its best to live up to a price tag just on the wrong side of 90 thousand dollars. And while the shiny plastic chrome accents might be a nod to the bad-old-days of GM interiors, there is one aspect of this dash I am loving: the fuel economy display, which reads an impressive 8.3 L/100 km. Hard to believe.
This Denali, after all, has that secret weapon under its hood: the no-cost optional 3.0 L turbodiesel engine, which gives this leather-lined tool shed the fuel consumption of a compact crossover. And from where I sit, there’s no reason on God’s green earth not to spec it. With 460 lb-ft of wafting torque from just 1500 RPM, there’s never a lack of grunt from the smooth powertrain. Working seamlessly with the marvellous Hydra-Matic 10-speed automatic transmission, it’s quiet too. The Duramax only reminds you of its diesel machinations when accelerating from a stop, and when you do mash the throttle, this six makes a pleasing and purposeful growl. Diesel power may have lost favour in passenger cars, but in the truck world, this new generation of high-tech, clean-burning diesels make a whole whack of sense.
While the Duramax is parsimoniously sipping diesel on our sunny country drive home, Claire and I are anticipating sipping the liquid spoils of our Elora day trip upon our return.