Canada Adventure capital
The Yukon, in Canada’s frozen north, offers the ultimate long-haul escape for nature lovers, first-time adventurers and wannabe explorers, discovers Mike MacEacheran
B
efore the roller-coaster turns, before the whispering evergreens and before the caribou crossing, dog
musher Vincent Galliard stands with a strange confidence for a man about to ride on to a frozen lake guided only by excitable huskies. “There are two things you need to learn before you can master dog-sledding,” he tells me, matter- of-factly, before we lurch into the subarctic wilderness of Tagish Lake. “‘Gee’ means turn right and ‘haw’ commands the pups to veer to the left. There’s a very fine line between colliding with the trees – so don’t mix them up!”
The Yukon is hallowed ground for entry-level explorers. Located in the north-western neck of Canada, sandwiched between British Columbia and Alaska, it’s the sort of bucket-list destination that’ll make visitors ooh and ahh.
Once a mighty cog in the machine that drove the Great Klondike Gold Rush in the late 1890s, it still conjures up images of fur-clad trappers and bearded outdoorsmen. Yes, there are majestic mountains; yes, there are life-affirming vistas and soul-stirring lakes and forests; and, yes, there are opportunities to see inky-black skies filled with the green-hued streaks of the northern lights.
However, the territory is now becoming far better known for its have-a-go adventures, particularly in winter. And – these days – it’s easier than ever to handle for first-timers.
62 05.11.2018
Dog-sledding provides the ultimate rush
Adventure for beginners Tourists don’t have to be extremely fit or hardy to visit the territory either. The most popular activities are snowmobiling, ice-fishing, mountain flights and dog-sledding: essentially a greatest hits of what’s best about the Canadian north.
Visitors can try ice-fi shing… … or go snowshoeing
Spotting gangly moose, woodland caribou or lynx in their natural habitat is imagination-tingling, too. All that’s really needed is a wanderlust to match the people who choose to live here. Nor do visitors need to have struck lottery gold to pay for a trip. For example, an increasing number of operators fly from the UK to the gateway cities of Vancouver, Edmonton and
Rustic log cabins reside in the Yukon wilderness
© Stefan Wackerhagen
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