Why this vast Northern Territory is a must-visit destination
The Yukon can clearly accommodate those who appreciate a little elbow room on their vacations. Annie-Claude Dupuis of Tourism Yukon notes that the large territory is home to only around 45,000 people, the lion’s share of them in Whitehorse.
“It’s vast,” Dupuis says in what some might consider something of an understatement. Dupuis, in Toronto for Rendez-vos Canada, said the largely unpopulated Yukon provides great wilderness experiences, with, for instance, the southwestern Yukon’s Kluane National Park home to Mount Logan, at 5,959 meters the highest mountain in this country. Dramatic Kluane is part of a region that has earned UNESCO World Heritage Site status.
Winter tourism in the Whitehorse area is also benefitting from the Yukon capital being in a prime area for viewing the Northern Lights, with Dupuis reporting that those visiting during winter are eager to see that celestial spectacular able to stay in smaller lodges that can be somewhat exclusive. Northern Lights viewing can also be combined with spa experiences. Northern Lights viewing has become big business in the North, drawing people from as far away as Japan.
Another prime Yukon attraction is Dawson City, epicenter of the Klondike Gold Rush, and which still has numerous reminders of that lively time on display, including Diamond Tooth Gertie’s Gambling Hall, a casino that features can-can dancers; the bank in which Yukon poet Robert Service worked; a cabin in which Jack London spent a winter; and a permanently docked sternwheeler that once plied the Yukon River.
But Dupuis said Yukon tourism authorities are well aware that there was an Indigenous settlement in the Dawson City area well before the gold rush, and so tourism authorities have reshaped Dawson City tourism promotions, with today’s visitors able to visit an Indigenous cultural center and learn about traditional Indigenous lifestyles.
“We’re changing the way we’re talking about it.,” she said of the Dawson City area. “It’s still a very cool story.”
Dupuis said tourism authorities realize there’s interest in Indigenous culture. UNESCO gave the Dawson City area World Heritage Site status in 2023, labelling it Tr’ondëk-Klondike, and noting that it lies within the homeland of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation. “It contains archeological and historic sources that reflect Indigenous people’s adaptation to unprecedented changes caused by the Klondike Gold Rush at the end of the 19th century,” UNESCO says.
Dawson City is linked to Whitehorse by the Klondike Highway, and particularly adventurous sorts can travel the Dempster Highway – which begins just outside Dawson City – to the Arctic community of Inuvik, N.W.T. Dupuis said tourism authorities want to dispel any belief that visiting the Yukon automatically means encountering cold weather, with the territory actually seeing warm summers.
As well, she said the Yukon is easily accessible to Canadians, reachable by road, and Air Canada, WestJet and Yukon carrier Air North all linking it to the south.
