Yukon in Summer: Whitehorse, Dawson City and Kluane

1. Day 1: Arrive in Whitehorse

   Whitehorse airport (YXY) to your hotel downtown, then the riverfront

   • Drive about 12 min
   • Dinner
   • Stay in Whitehorse
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Whitehorse, the Yukon's capital, landing by about 3 pm. A driver meets you in the small arrivals hall for the five-minute drive down the escarpment into town, and the rest of the afternoon is yours. In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on the week: the long drive north, what to pack for Dawson City, and how the midnight sun changes your sleep. Then we walk the riverfront path along the Yukon River to the SS Klondike, a restored sternwheeler that carried freight and passengers between Whitehorse and Dawson City until the road replaced the river in the 1950s, and past the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre on the water. Dinner together follows at a local restaurant downtown. At this time of year it will still be bright when you walk back to the hotel at ten, so close the curtains.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Whitehorse airport (YXY)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Riverfront walk to the SS Klondike (exterior) and the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre
   • Welcome dinner

   Free time: Free until the early-evening briefing

   Activity: About 2 km of flat walking on the riverfront path.

2. Day 2: Miles Canyon, wildlife and the hot springs

   Whitehorse to Miles Canyon, then north to the Yukon Wildlife Preserve and the hot springs at Takhini

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Whitehorse
   Day 2 details

   We start at Miles Canyon, ten minutes south of town, before 10 am while the trail is quiet. The Yukon River squeezes here between walls of dark basalt, and gold seekers in 1898 lost boats in its rapids, before the 1958 dam on the Yukon River below the canyon tamed the river. Cross the Robert Lowe Suspension Bridge and walk the canyon rim for an hour or so, with the water an unreal green below. Back in town there is a sit-down lunch, then we drive about half an hour north on the Klondike Highway to the Yukon Wildlife Preserve, where moose, wood bison, caribou, muskox, mountain goats and lynx live in large natural enclosures; a guided tour takes you round. A few minutes further up the road are the hot springs at Takhini, mineral pools in the forest, for a late-afternoon soak. The evening is free in Whitehorse: an early night is wise before tomorrow's drive.

   Included

   • Miles Canyon walk with your guide and the Robert Lowe Suspension Bridge
   • Sit-down lunch in Whitehorse
   • Guided tour of the Yukon Wildlife Preserve
   • Entry to the hot springs at Takhini

   Easier option: Walk only to the bridge and back at Miles Canyon (under 1 km), and ride the preserve's shuttle tour rather than walking its loop.

   More active option: Walk the longer canyon rim trail towards Canyon City, about 5 km return, while the group takes the short loop.

   Free time: Evening free in Whitehorse

   Activity: Up to about 5 km on foot at Miles Canyon and the preserve, on gravel trails with some uneven ground.

   

3. Day 3: The Klondike Highway to Dawson City

   Whitehorse past Lake Laberge, Carmacks and Five Finger Rapids to Dawson City

   • Drive about 6.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Dawson City
   Day 3 details

   The longest day of the trip, and the only one over our four-hour driving cap: Whitehorse to Dawson City is about 535 km, roughly six and a half hours at the wheel. The Klondike Highway follows the old stampeders' route north. We do not break the drive with a one-night stop; we drive it once and fly back on day 6. We leave at 8 am and stop every hour or so: a view over Lake Laberge, coffee on the road, then Five Finger Rapids, where a boardwalk and stairs drop towards the river where sternwheelers had to be winched through the rock islands. Lunch is a sit-down stop in Carmacks or Pelly Crossing. In the afternoon the road runs through burned and regrown forest, past the Stewart River and the Tintina Trench viewpoint, and we reach Dawson City around 5 pm, with the evening sun still high over its wooden false-front streets.

   Included

   • The Klondike Highway with your guide, with stops at Lake Laberge, Five Finger Rapids and the Tintina Trench viewpoint
   • Sit-down lunch on the way

   Easier option: Skip the long drive: fly from Whitehorse to Dawson City on a scheduled flight (extra cost, quoted at booking). You fly without the guide that day; we arrange a transfer from Dawson City airport to the hotel, and the group arrives in the early evening.

   More active option: Walk the full stairs and trail down to the Five Finger Rapids viewing platform and back, about 2 km with roughly 200 steps.

   Free time: Evening free in Dawson City

   Activity: About 6.5 hours of driving with four or five stops; leave around 8 am and arrive around 5 pm. June and July bring mosquitoes at the roadside stops, so keep repellent in your day bag; in a wildfire summer, smoke or a road closure can change the stops or the timing, and your guide adjusts on the day.

   

4. Day 4: Dredge No. 4, gold panning and Gerties

   Dawson City up Bonanza Creek Road and back

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Dawson City
   Day 4 details

   Gold was found on Bonanza Creek in August 1896, and the stampede that followed built Dawson City within two years. This morning we drive up Bonanza Creek Road, through valleys still lined with gravel tailings, to Dredge No. 4, a wooden bucket-line dredge the height of an eight-storey building that worked these creeks until 1959. We take the first guided tour of the day, inside its decks of gears and buckets. A few kilometres further on, we spend an hour panning for gold in the creek gravel with a pan and a few lessons; most people find a few flakes, and you keep them. Lunch is back in town, followed by a free afternoon to walk the boardwalks of Front Street and the historic grid, part of the Tr'ondëk-Klondike World Heritage Site listed by UNESCO in 2023. After dinner, which is your choice, we go to Diamond Tooth Gerties for the first can-can show of the night.

   Included

   • Guided tour of Dredge No. 4 National Historic Site
   • Gold panning on Bonanza Creek
   • Sit-down lunch in Dawson City
   • Admission to Diamond Tooth Gerties and the evening show (19 and over)

   Free time: Afternoon free in Dawson City; dinner your choice

   Activity: Short walks; the dredge has steep ship-style stairs inside, and you can see the main deck without climbing.

   

5. Day 5: A slow Dawson day and the Midnight Dome

   Dawson City and the Midnight Dome

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Dawson City
   Day 5 details

   No early start today. Mid-morning your guide walks the group through town: the Dänojà Zho Cultural Centre on Front Street, where the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in tell their own story of the gold rush that arrived on their land, then the cabin of Robert Service, the poet of the Klondike, and the restored buildings Parks Canada keeps around the grid. From the riverbank you can watch the free George Black ferry cross the Yukon River to West Dawson every few minutes. The afternoon and evening are free: a museum, a coffee on the boardwalk or a ride across on the ferry and back. Late in the evening we drive the switchback road up the Midnight Dome, about 880 m above sea level, where the town, the Yukon and Klondike rivers and the goldfields lie below and, in June and early July, the sun skims the northern hills close to midnight.

   Included

   • Guided walk of historic Dawson City with your guide
   • The Dänojà Zho Cultural Centre
   • Late-evening drive up the Midnight Dome

   Optional experiences

   • Tombstone Territorial Park: a guided day up the Dempster Highway to the tundra and peaks of Tombstone, about 110 km each way, in place of the town walk (no extra cost when the group chooses it; road conditions decide)

   Easier option: Stay in town all day; the Midnight Dome viewpoint is a few steps from the van.

   More active option: Walk up to the Midnight Dome on the steep trail from the top of town with your guide, a climb of several hundred metres, and meet the van at the top.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free in Dawson City

   Activity: Easy town walking of 2 to 3 km on boardwalks and gravel streets.

   

6. Day 6: Fly south, drive to Haines Junction

   Dawson City by air to Whitehorse, then the Alaska Highway west to Haines Junction

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Haines Junction
   Day 6 details

   Instead of driving 535 km back, we fly. The van takes us to Dawson City airport, about 20 minutes out of town, for the scheduled flight to Whitehorse, a little over an hour over the river valleys you drove three days ago; the flight time is confirmed with your final itinerary, and any time before it is free in Dawson City. Our van and driver meet the group in Whitehorse, and after lunch in Whitehorse or on the road we drive west on the Alaska Highway, about two hours, to Haines Junction, a small village under the front ranges of the St. Elias Mountains at the edge of Kluane National Park and Reserve. We stop at the Da Kų Cultural Centre, shared by the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations and Parks Canada, for the story of the land and an introduction to the park, which is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site that crosses into Alaska and British Columbia. The evening is free, with the mountains lit late behind the village.

   Included

   • Scheduled flight from Dawson City to Whitehorse
   • Sit-down lunch in Whitehorse or on the road
   • Drive to Haines Junction on the Alaska Highway
   • The Da Kų Cultural Centre and Kluane National Park visitor centre

   Free time: Evening free in Haines Junction

   Activity: Flight times are confirmed with your final itinerary; if the flight is delayed, the Da Kų visit moves to tomorrow.

7. Day 7: Kluane: Kathleen Lake and Kluane Lake

   Haines Junction to Kathleen Lake, then north to Soldier's Summit on Kluane Lake and back

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Haines Junction
   Day 7 details

   Kathleen Lake, about half an hour south of Haines Junction, is usually calmest in the morning, so we go first. The water is cold and clear, with the King's Throne cirque standing over the far shore, and an easy trail and boardwalk follow the shoreline. In the afternoon we head the other way along the Alaska Highway to Kluane Lake, the Yukon's largest, and walk the short trail to Soldier's Summit, where the highway was opened in 1942. Just along the shore, the Tachäl Dhäl visitor centre looks onto Sheep Mountain, where Dall sheep are easiest to spot on the lower slopes in early summer and graze higher, harder to see, by July and August; we stop there with binoculars. If the weather is clear, this is the day for the optional glacier flight over the St. Elias icefields towards Mount Logan, Canada's highest peak at 5,959 m. Lunch is a sit-down meal on the way to Kluane Lake, and tonight is our farewell dinner.

   Included

   • Kathleen Lake shoreline walk with your guide
   • Soldier's Summit trail on Kluane Lake
   • The Tachäl Dhäl visitor centre and Dall sheep viewing at Sheep Mountain
   • Sit-down lunch
   • Farewell dinner

   Optional experiences

   • Glacier flightseeing over the St. Elias icefields from Kluane (weather dependent, price shown at booking)

   Easier option: Stay at the lakeshore viewpoints at Kathleen Lake, and watch for sheep from the visitor centre instead of walking to Soldier's Summit.

   More active option: Climb the first, steep switchbacks of the King's Throne trail above Kathleen Lake with your guide for about two hours, turning back in time for the afternoon, while the group walks the shore.

   Free time: Late afternoon free before dinner

   Activity: Up to about 5 km on foot on easy trails; the King's Throne option is steep, on loose rock and roughly 2 hours. Bring repellent for the lakeshore in June and July; in a wildfire summer, smoke can hide the peaks and ground the glacier flights.

   

8. Day 8: Back to Whitehorse and home

   Haines Junction to the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre and Whitehorse airport (YXY)

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast
   Day 8 details

   A last morning with the mountains outside the window, then we drive east on the Alaska Highway, about two hours, back to Whitehorse, watching the roadside for moose and bears and stopping at a viewpoint or two over the Takhini River valley. The Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre sits beside the airport, so we visit it on the way in: it tells the story of the Ice Age land bridge between Asia and North America, with the skeleton casts of a woolly mammoth and a giant short-faced bear, and of the people who lived here when much of Canada was under ice. From there it is a few minutes to the terminal, arriving in the early afternoon. Your guide sees you to the check-in desk before saying goodbye. Book a flight leaving after about 2:30 pm; if yours is earlier, we go straight to the airport.

   Included

   • Drive back to Whitehorse on the Alaska Highway
   • The Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre
   • Drop-off at Whitehorse airport (YXY)

   Activity: Book a flight leaving after about 2:30 pm.

Wildlife and weather: Summer days in the Yukon are usually 15 C to 25 C with cool evenings, and weather changes fast in Kluane, where flightseeing is often delayed by cloud. June has the longest light and the most mosquitoes; July is the warmest; late August brings yellow aspen, fewer bugs and the first dark nights, when an early aurora is possible but not something to count on. Moose, bears and bald eagles are often seen from the road, never guaranteed; Dall sheep at Sheep Mountain are easiest to see in early summer, higher and harder to spot in July and August.

• Whitehorse2 nights
• Dawson City3 nights
• Haines Junction2 nights