The wild, rough, beautiful northwest of Canada. Approximately 482,000 square kilometres of mountains, lakes, and forest, with a population of around 45,000 — one of the least densely populated places on earth.
The capital is Whitehorse (population 24,000), a small city on the Yukon River. The second-largest settlement is Dawson City, famous for the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898 and still wonderfully atmospheric — unpaved streets, boardwalks, and saloons that feel barely changed in a century. Kluane National Park, in the southwest, contains Canada's highest peak (Mount Logan, 5,959 m) and some of the largest non-polar ice fields in the world.
In summer, the Yukon offers near-endless daylight, superb canoeing on the Yukon River, and hiking on the historic Chilkoot Trail. In winter, temperatures can drop to -40 and darkness dominates, but there is still plenty to do: dog-mushing, cross-country skiing, snowmobiling, and watching the northern lights. The people are friendly, the communities are small, and the landscape is immense.
