Visiting the Yukon, and Why I NEED to go Back.

It is not a place full of luxury hotels, newly paved roads or five-star dining restaurants. Instead, the Yukon is a place of rugged, untouched wilderness, beauty so unknown that you must go there to experience it. With a population of just over 36,000, there is certainly no shortage of unoccupied landscape and space. There are no shortcuts to go from one town to another, just endless hours of driving, whether it be sunny, rainy or mostly, snowing. “It starts snowing in August here”, Jim from Tourism Yukon told me with a laugh when I asked about the weather patterns and when they might start to expect the fluffy white stuff. Luckily, on this trip to the Yukon Territory the only snow I saw was on top of the big beautiful mountains that jut out of the landscape throughout the entire territory.

The Yukon had always been on my bucket list, a place I knew nothing about, other than it was cold, and desolate and there was gold to be found, or at least there was at one point. One more thing, apparently, there was promised wildlife, such as the largest population of grizzly bears in the world, more moose than people and an abundance of dogs bred specifically for mushing. What I wasn’t prepared for was the incredible culinary scene, the local hospitality and the endless hours of driving.

To get to Whitehorse, the largest and most populated city in the Yukon, teaming with a quirky mix of locals and tourists one must fly in via a small choice of airlines. Flying into the city via Air North is a treat upon itself, a refreshing airline that offers warm chocolate chip cookies, hot meals and some of the friendliest airline staff in the world. As they greeted passengers by name and handed out the warm cookies to both adults and kids, I thought to myself “I could get used to this”.

As mentioned earlier, don’t expect five star hotels here, instead book yourself into one of the quaint hotels in the downtown core, the Yukon Inn or the Westmark are always favorites among visitors. While I could see myself getting stuck spending all my time in Whitehorse, attending the Follie Show, meeting the locals in the Woodcutter’s Blanket Cocktail Bar and wandering in and out of shops such as The Collective and the Used Book Store, this city was only a starting point for my journey through the Yukon.

It’s a long 5-hour drive to Dawson City, and worth every single second, weaving my way around the lakes, rivers and towering mountain tops. Wildlife is active, bounding across the road and flying high above the trees, while rivers cut through the tall grass, snaking their away along the side of the road. Dawson City is the next most populated city in the Yukon and was once at the forefront of the Klondike Gold Rush. Although the gold is few and far between now, the town remains full of life, resembling an early 1900’s town, almost as it has been picked out of an old movie set.

As I loaded into the three seater plane and prepared to take off over the mountains in Kluane Lake a dust storm suddenly erupted in front of us. I asked Captain Tom from Icefiled Discovery what was causing the dust storm as all I saw in front of me was the gorgeous Kluane Lake and its startling blue color.  "The Slims River, what was once a fast flowing water source in which drownings sometimes occurred has suddenly changed, in just one season, to a valley completely dried up and full of dust storms", Tom explained. “Buckle up and I will show you want I mean”, Tom says through the headset. As we took off into the mountains I began to understand just how isolated one must feel living in this territory.

My time here was too short, I only caught a glimpse of what this territory has to offer visitors and as I stared out the window on my plane ride home I promised myself I would one day return.