I was there for a week for work. Fly in and fly out to an outfitters camp near the Snake River in the Peel Watershed. This was the first time I’d been to the Yukon and I’m glad to have had the experience. The logistics of getting there were pretty involved - fly from Calgary to Whitehorse, Whitehorse to a tiny town called Mayo on a small plane, then a two hour helicopter ride over the mountains to the camp.
The scenery is breathtaking and much different then what I’m used to here in the Rocky Mountains. Trees are stunted and sparse, the water is the brightest colour of blue I’ve ever seen. Lots of wildlife and easy fishing (we took the helicopter out to a mountain lake one night and caught our limit of Lake Trout in the first 20 minutes).
It was warm (+10C at night to +24C mid-day) and there were more mosquitos than I’ve ever seen. I was in a bug suit most of the time. The sun was setting around 12:30 am and rising around 3:30 am, so it was bright 24 hours a day.
It’s an old iron ore mining site. Hundreds of claims were staked, but after about two or three years of drilling in the 60’s, the site was abandoned because it was decided it was uneconomical to get the iron ore out. There is a runway, debris and an old fuel tank on the site that we’re cleaning up. As you can imagine, the logistics of the project are significant - everything has to be flown in and out.
Whitehorse. We stayed at the SKKY hotel - I have to say, it’s one of the nicer hotels I’ve stayed in!
Beautiful! I’m going to be driving through the Yukon in a couple of months, but just from Whitehorse south. Any tips for things I absolutely shouldn’t miss?
Just beautiful. A friend took his motorbike up the Dempster Highway a couple of years ago, and I can’t wait to get that far north myself. Very inspiring photography!
Pretty much everything north of Whitehorse. I kid. It starts getting more boring south of Dawson Creek, though. You might try taking the John Hart Highway starting at Watson Lake.
bup: While the Yukon Territory forms part of the Alaska border, it’s not actually in Alaska. But I’ll assume you knew that. The scenery in BC and The Yukon is amazing, but it’s really quite different than that of Alaska. In general, you’ll also see much more wildlife in Canada than in Alaska.
Le Ministre de l’au-delà: The Dempster is a good drive. Canada does a good job of maintaining their dirt roads, and the Dempster is nice and wide. You also get to cross the Peel and MacKenzie Rivers by the free ferry system. The scenery is good, although there is better to be seen in BC and YT. You can camp at Eagle Plains just south of the Arctic Circle, and you’ll want to take a side trip to Ft. McPherson to visit the tent and canvas company (beautiful stuff).
Looks like this question has already been answered, and to be honest, I don’t really have any input! This was my first time this far north and I only saw a very limited part of it.
