Yukon and the Alaska Highway
Empty roads to the horizon, a sun that never sets and Canada's highest peaks as a backdrop: the Yukon is the road trip in its purest state — the one where you fill up at every pump.
Suggested stay — 7 to 10 nights
Here, the road is the destination: the legendary Alaska Highway, carved out in eight months in 1942, crosses the territory from Watson Lake — and its forest of 100,000 signposts — to Whitehorse, the laid-back capital set on the Yukon River, then skirts Kluane National Park, where Mount Logan (5,959 m, Canada's roof) hides behind a front of glaciers you overfly by small plane from Haines Junction — the most memorable flight money can buy in Canada. Grizzlies, moose and Dall sheep show themselves from the road itself; the King's Throne hike or the Sheep Creek trail give the place its scale.
Northwards, the Klondike Highway runs 530 km to Dawson City, a gold-rush town preserved in its own juice — dirt streets, boardwalks, saloons and a cancan cabaret. Purists push on up the Dempster Highway, the only Canadian road to cross the Arctic Circle: 70 km of gravel is enough to touch Tombstone Territorial Park and its hallucinatory tundra. In June it's daylight at midnight; by late August the northern lights resume service and the tundra turns crimson.
Don't miss
- The Kluane glacier flight by small plane from Haines Junction
- Dawson City: Dredge No. 4, Bonanza Creek and an evening of cabaret at Diamond Tooth Gerties
- Tombstone Park via the first kilometres of the Dempster Highway
- The Watson Lake Sign Post Forest, rite of passage of the Alaska Highway
Our tips on the ground
- Golden rule of the North: fill up at every station, even at three-quarters — some stretches exceed 200 km without a pump, and a closed station is never out of the question.
- Carry two spare wheels or a serious repair kit for the Dempster: its shale gravel shreds tyres, and the nearest tow truck bills by the kilometre.
- Late August is the magic window: red tundra, first auroras, mosquitoes in retreat and rental companies dropping prices before the seasonal shutdown.
Our flagship guide — €29
Guide available“Canada on Your Own”, the complete edition, is out
10 chapters: day-by-day itineraries, driving and transport, a costed budget and checklists — the same method as our Namibia guide.
The guide is currently written in French — an English edition is in the works.
Before you go
Readers' questions about Yukon and the Alaska Highway
Is the Yukon doable with a standard rental van?
Yes along the Alaska Highway–Whitehorse–Dawson axis, entirely paved or nearly so. The Dempster is another story: most rental contracts explicitly forbid it (like the Top of the World Highway towards Alaska) — check the clause before signing, as some Whitehorse outfitters cover it for a supplement and suitable tyres.
Will you see northern lights in summer?
Not at midsummer: from late May to early August the sky never gets dark enough. The window opens around August 15-20 and widens through September, when nights turn black again and the weather stays driveable. If auroras are your absolute priority, aim for the very end of the season — or come back in winter, though no longer by van.