Things you must do to experience the Yukon

Posted On September 27, 2021

It snowed all day today. The temperature has sat at 0°C for most of the last 18 hours. When a wind arrived with the snow about noon, it was simply awful. It’s not even October yet.

Also today, Keith Halliday posted an article in the Yukon News entitled “Your Yukon life list” – it described 10 things you really should experience in the Yukon, whether you’re a visitor or a resident.

I decided that a really good way to get out of my too-early-winter blues was to create my own list. So here it is, my top 10 experiences, in no particular order…

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Canoe the Yukon River to Dawson City

Canoeing the Yukon River from Whitehorse (or Lake Laberge) to Dawson City takes 7-10 days, and the longer you spend, the better the experience will be. My son and I paddled it in 1997 (see “Our Time Machine is a Canoe“) and it gave us a whole new appreciation for your home. I had planned to do it again in 2019, but my partner had to cancel. Some day…

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Hike the Chilkoot Trail

Hiking the world-famous Chilkoot Trail will take you back 120 years, and you’ll end the 3-day journey with a much better understanding of what it took to join the Klondike gold stampede.

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Aurora Viewing

There are no words to properly describe the aurora borealis, and no photo really does them justice. They really do need to be experienced.

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Flightseeing

To really understand how vast the Yukon is, and how unpeopled, you need to take a flight in a helicopter or small plane. Getting a flight that includes a landing – on a glacier, a lake, at a historic plane crash site – can add immeasurably to the experience.

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Drive the Dempster Highway

The Dempster Highway can take you to a unique part of the Yukon that few people see. While many people drive to the Tombstone Campground and viewpoint, the further you go, the better it gets. If possible, go all the way to Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk, NWT.

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Camping along Lake Bennett

Lake Bennett is one of the Yukon’s power points for me. The combination of spectacular scenery and many historic sites can’t be matched anywhere else in the territory, and in very few places anywhere in the world. Beaches suitable to pitch a tent abound, but the lake is known for sudden winds, so care must be exercised.

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Dogsledding / Mushing

If you love dogs, this should perhaps be #1 on the list. Seeing your team of huskies doing what they love to do is deeply satisfying, especially while experiencing the silence of the Yukon wilderness – “a silence you most could hear,” as our famous bard Robert W. Service said.

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Drive to Skagway or Haines in the Winter

Even if you’ve driven to either Alaska community many times in the summer, it’s a very different world in the Winter.

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Snowmobiling

The entire territory is a winter playground when you have a “sled.” The most popular destinations, though, are the White Pass summit and Haines summit areas, both easily accessible from Whitehorse.

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Explore by bicycle

Much of the Yukon has bicycle-friendly trails, and the Whitehorse area is particularly well stocked with them. Many residents are surprised by what they find in their own neighbourhoods when they get a bike (I certainly was).

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That list was very easy to compile, and did make me feel better. Perhaps it gave you some ideas – what would your list include?