Travelogue: 96 Hours in the Yukon (Days 30-33)

Okay, we cheated a little.

Our cross-Canada road trip temporarily became a plane trip, because our time (and our rented minivan) couldn't accommodate the drive from Vancouver to Whitehorse. So we flew.

But once we landed and got into our wilderness-ready rented Ford F-250, we made the most of our four days in Canada's gold rush territory.

Before I get into what we did, I have to pause to rave about our accommodations. Rather than stay at a hotel in Whitehorse, we had decided to stay just north of the city in a little place that advertises itself on Airbnb as "Oma and Opa's Northern Lights Cabin".

We were determined to see the Aurora Borealis during our stay, and figured that a cabin with the Northern Lights in its name was likely to deliver. (On the first night my wife and I did see a modest display, but when we tried to wake the kids to see them, they were bascially catatonic and refused to move.)

The cabin was tiny and adorable, with a big window by the dining table through which we watched mule deer strolling by each morning, and through which we hoped to see more northern lights as our stay wore on.

Stowed underneath the table was a big box of wooden train tracks of the type that our kids had played with non-stop when they were younger. I wouldn't have expected them to go for that stuff at this age, but the toys proved to be a throwback delight for them, especially our son, who spent a good amount of time building a complicated system of tracks that, in his imaginary world, delivered freight all across the north.

Whitehorse itself had plenty to offer, including the ninth Jumpstart playground of our trip, and an outstanding skate park with a smooth surface and plenty of fun elements. The weather on our first day was miraculously clear, and the kids explored the skate park in 10-degree sunlight.

Whitehorse is also home to several good museums, and although we didn't manage to visit them all, we very much enjoyed the MacBride Museum, which covers pretty much everything about the Yukon. We learned about the human history, the geology, the wildlife, the gold rush...just about every topic imaginable packed into a small but carefully planned out assemblage of rooms.

Hopeful that the norhtern lights would be back on night 2 we rushed back to the cabin, but thick clouds brough snow and disappointment.

The next morning the sun was shining, there was a dusting of snow on the ground, and we set out for possibly the most epic day of this entire trip so far.

It started with a trip to the Yukon Wildlife Preserve. This enormous property specializes in rehabilitating orphaned or injured or otherwise at-risk animals native to the Yukon, and you can tour the property either by a self-guided walk or a guided bus ride. We preferred the warm promise of a bus, so we went with that option.

Our tour guide was excellent, and we managed to see every single species of animal they have at the reserve - our tour guide said this was rare as some of their animals (especially the lynx) tend to be a bit reclusive. Moose, caribou, deer, a golden eagle, mountain goats, bison, muskox...it was a fantastic morning of learning all about the animals that call Yukon home.

We left the preserve thinking that it would be tough to top...but top it we did.

Our next order of business was a company called "Caribou Wild Mountain Tours" which offers multi-day camping trips on horseback through the Yukon mountains. We had neither the time nor the will nor the horseback experience to consider a multi-day camping trip, so we opted instead for a two-hour mountaintop horseback ride.

My horse's name was Fiddle, and she was a delightful (if somewhat flatulen) horse who I became rather fond of during our ride. With two guides as engine and caboose, we made our way up the mountainside, saw a curious coyote, and watched countless scenic vistas unfolding with every corner we rounded.

We returned to our cabin for our third night, with clear skies and internet predictions of a good chance of Aurora Borealis. We built a campfire, pumped the kids full of hot chocolate to help them stay up late enough to see the show...and the sky delivered in a big way.

What had been a foggy white arc for most of the night finally blossomed into a fluttering, shimmering, flowing green display that I'm sure none of us will soon forget.

For our last full day, we ventured south of Whitehorse to the town of Carcross.

This tiny town was once a hub for the steam ships that used to carry people further into the territory before there were paved roads, and it still feels like a gold-rush era time capsule today, despite a good smattering of artisan shops, good coffee, and a nice little playground by Earthscape, an Ontario-based company whose workshop we visited years ago, and who probably rate as our favourite playground manufacturer.

The other Carcross highlight was the Carcross Desert - an incongruous expanse of sand in the middle of the arctic.

It's not technically a desert, but was formed from the silt and sandy deposits left behind by an ancient glacial lake, and the prevailing winds have whipped the sand to its current spot on the side of a hill. We strolled around this bizarre landscape for quite a while on another mild day, shoes in hand and feet in sand.

Our time in the Yukon was a turning point in several ways. We could feel the seasons changing: it was 10 degrees and sunny when we arrived, but there was snow on the ground when we left. We could feel the territory tipping away from the sun: there was half an hour less daylight on our final day than there had been just four days earlier.

We could also start to feel the gravitational pull of home. This was the furthest we would be from Toronto at any point on the trip. From here on, we're heading towards home, and I've got mixed feelings about that.

As he played with our cabin's wooden train set, our son struggled to separate a freight car from a crane that picks up said freight cars using magnets. As he pried it off, he mumbled to himself, "it's hard to let go" and I found myself agreeing with him wholeheartedly.

But before you go...if you believe in the power of play (and if you're here you probably do) please consider donating to our cross-Canada road trip by clicking here. It would mean a lot!