I just got back from a three week trip with my father in law. We went from Port Hardy, BC all through northern British Columbia, Yukon and Northwest Territories. It was almost a year of planning and it was a trip I’ll never forget.
We left at the end of the first week of September from Port Hardy taking the BC Ferries Route on the Northern Expedition all the way up to Prince Rupert. The ferry left at 7:30 am from Port Hardy and arrived in Prince Rupert at 12:30am. In total it was 17hrs on the boat, but the ride is amazing all the way up the west coast, going through Bella Bella, Klemtu, Ocean Falls and many more little spots here and there to see along the way.
We made the mistake of NOT getting a cabin on the way up, do yourself a favour and book a cabin, your body will thank you for being able to have your own space to lay down on the long trip.
Once we arrived in Prince Rupert my father in law was pretty determined to get to the Yukon as fast as we could so we drove straight from Prince Rupert to Watson Lake in once shot non stop. With stops for some food and scenery breaks. Taking the Cassiar Highway, it took us about 15 hrs of driving to reach the Yukon border.
We arrived at the Yukon border which was only a few minutes away from Watson Lake where we spent our first night sleep there. We were exhausted after the long haul on the ferry and drive straight through but were excited to start our tour of northern Canada.
This was my first time in the Yukon and the first thing I was immediately struck by was how vast your views were. You could see for miles in each direction while being totally surrounded by massive mountains.
The first sight seeing location planned was to head up to Silver City on the outside of Kluane National Park.
We stayed at a wonderful little cabin rented out to us by the Icefield Discovery Tours. We were supposed to take a glacier plane ride with them but unfortunately some strong winds ruined those plans, but that place was still amazing! No power, off grid cabin just two minutes from Kluane Lake.
Silver City is an old abandoned town, originally settled to find gold, but it didn’t have the yields that made it worth staying so it was eventually abandoned. These old cabins held the remains of peoples homes, shelters, as well as fox farms, which were harvested for their pelts to keep settlers warm during the hard Yukon winters.
Kluane Lake has some pretty amazing sand dunes to explore along with that, if you time it right you can see Dhals sheep in the Valley. We only spotted them way up on the cliff sides, but there were 50 or so sheep that we spotted running around that aptly named “Sheep Mountain.”
The next day we decided to head out and explore Kluane National park. This place was incredible and a must see. Coming in the fall was a great choice for a few reasons. First the colours everywhere you went through Kluane burst with yellows, oranges, reds and greens. Secondly the temperature was not too hot and not too cold. Finally and what is probably the best part, NO BUGS!
Kluane National park changes its scenery, it seemed, every 30 or so kilometres. You’d go from thick forrest, to barren ground, to low brush back into crazy mountains. We drove it all the way to the USA border before we headed back.
After our couple days in Kluane we headed to Dawson City. We took in the sights along the way of the Yukon River including the “5 Finger Rapids.” We arrived for dinner time in Dawson city where we stayed at the “Bunkhouse” which I highly recommend. It was a 2 bed small room and shared washroom facilities but they were clean and cheap and totally worth it.
Dome Hill in Dawson City was definitely a must. It is a 360 view of Dawson City and the surrounding area and only 10 minutes drive from town. Still can’t believe the weather we had during most of our trip, it was just perfect.
Dawson City was my favourite “City” that we visited during our time in the Yukon. It’s maintained it’s old time charm with modern day amenities. All dirt roads, wooden boardwalks and half sunk / raised buildings. We were able to take a tour of the Dawson City Visitors Centre, the Dänojà Zho Cultural Centre and of course Diamond Tooth Gerties.
From Dawson City we set out to head to the North West Territories along the famous Dempster Highway. It’s a gravel road that connects the Yukon to the Arctic Ocean. It’s an incredible drive that takes you through Tombstone Territorial Park. Like the Kluane its scenery changed every 30 km or so, but it was much different than Kluane. Much more “prairie type” views surrounded by massive mountains all around you. We were lucky to catch the first dusting of snow through Tombstone as we went through which just capped the tallest mountains around us. This is a place I wish we could have spent more time exploring and hiking through. Would love to come back here again.
One of the cool things to see was these Ptarmigan which we saw everywhere, but further down south they were solid brown, but as we got further north we saw that they had already started to change colour in preparation for winter when they turn bright white to blend in with the snow.
Along the Dempster Highway just 30 mins outside of Eagle Plains where we stayed for the night is the Arctic Circle. It’s hard to explain the feelings going through me the further north we went. I’d never been anywhere this far north and we weren’t even as far north as we were going.
We crossed over the boarder into the North West Territories and spent the night in Inuvik, before we were going to do our last push the next day to make it up to Tuktoyaktuk. I will say this, I thought the Dempster Highway would be MUCH WORSE than it actually was, for a full gravel highway it was really well maintained. That being said I would still highly recommend going with a 4x4 and for sure having a full size spare, which, you should have on your roof cause nobody wants to crawly under their truck after being on the Dempster.
The drive up to Tuktoyaktuk actually surprised me. From what I had read it was flat flat flat, but it was actually beautiful. Tones of lakes and ponds scattered the whole drive up, and it was more hilly than flat so lots of views to give you a scope out over all the land. You could definitely feel the temperature change as fall was winding down up here and winter was getting ready.
One of the things that I loved about this trip was learning so many new things, for example learning about Pingos, not to be confused with Pingu the kids penguin show. Pingos are naturally occurring phenomenon where hydrostatic pressure … actually you know what read about them here. The cool thing about them is Tuktoyaktuk has the most in the world, with over 1300 of them.
Tuktoyaktuk surprised me as well. I didn’t think that I would love it as much as I did. The whole feel of the town felt very “maritime” if that makes any sense. It was also very cool, both litteraly and figuratively to see and touch the Arctic Ocean. A first for me.
After our trip up as far north as we could go it was time to start our trip back down south and slowly make our way back home. As much as ALL of the north is photogenic I really only had one bucket list shot I wanted to get, and that was to get the Northern Lights / Aurora Borealis. I had one attempt so far on the trip but it was during a full moon which totally blew out the sky. On our way back down we stayed overnight in Dawson City again when I made my second attempt to capture the lights from Dome Hill. This was the first time I was able to see the Northern lights with my naked eyes, but with the moon still at half it wasn’t as spectacular as I hoped it would be. That being said was still very happy with the photos that I was able to capture.
From Dawson City we wanted a couple down days which we had in Whitehorse. Got to explore Miles Canyon and tool around the city a bit. This was more a couple down days to just recover to the journey home as we had been going hard driving long days to get to the top of the world.
From Whitehorse we took a day trip out to Atlin which actually crossed us back into British Columbia. This is another place I would like to go back an explore as we didn’t take tones of time here, but it’s for sure on my list of “come back here one day.”
A trip up north would not be complete without capturing some wildlife. We were hoping to capture a few things such as moose, caribou and maybe a grizzly bear, though we didn’t see those, Im sure they got the memo we were looking. We were able to see a curious coyote, a rather handsome porcupine and some jay walking bison.
On our last night in the Yukon my bucket list shot of capturing the northern lights finally came to pass. We stayed at a small private cabin in Faro when at 1am I went to have a look outside. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and grabbed my camera. The sky was exploding with the northern lights and I was amazed by what I was able to capture. I was beyond excited with the images.
The last thing we did before we were going to head back to Prince Rupert was to take in the Liard Hot Springs. It’s located in the Liard River Hot Springs Provincial park and is 100% worth the visit. After a short 10 minute walk on a beautiful boardwalk you’re at the natural hot springs. I was told by friends who went in the summer that the bugs were unbearable but at the end of September we didn’t experience any and it was wonderful. The water was hot and the little river at the end of the springs was fun to explore.
This was my first time exploring the Yukon and North West Territories. It was a whirlwind trip and I was able to see a lot. There were so many places that I will definitely be returning to to explore further and for longer. You could spend a lifetime and not see everything these places have to offer and I can’t wait to go back again.
Special thanks to my Father in Law who planned 99% of the trip. He was so excited to take me around everywhere and show me everything that made him fall in love with the north of Canada. Not many people can say they’ve spent 3 weeks straight with their father in law, and Im proud to say I did and survived haha. Thanks so much Pat, it was a great trip!