5-Day Golden Aurora Circle: Yukon and Alaska Summits
Whitehorse, Canada
Trip Type: Hiking & Camping
Duration: 5 days
The Golden Circle tour contains some of North America’s grandest scenery, wildest places and plenty opportunities for viewing the Aurora Borealis. This great tour offers totally different landscapes, from boreal forest to coastal rainforest to immense icefields.
More About This Activity All Hiking & Camping →
The Golden Circle tour contains some of North America’s grandest scenery, wildest places and plenty opportunities for viewing the Aurora Borealis. This great tour offers totally different landscapes, from boreal forest to coastal rainforest to immense icefields.Experience native culture and lifestyle by visiting local museums and traditional fishing villages. Both passes, White Pass and Chilkat Pass were used during the Klondike Gold Rush. The towns of Carcross and Skagway still retain the character of those times.
Starting in Whitehorse with the more rounded mountains of the Yukon’s interior valley, the South Klondike Highway rises as you approach Carcross and the Southern Lakes region. The road borders some of these large, long, beautiful lakes before rising over the rugged coastal mountains and then descending into the Alaskan Coast, where Skagway and Haines is located.
The Haines Road follows the wide valley of the Chilkat River until it steeply rises through thick forests to the magnificent mountain scenery of the Chilkat Pass. Kluane National Park and Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, contains Canada’s highest mountains and the largest non-polar icefield in the world.
Day 1: Arrival Whitehorse
After airport pickup, you'll be transferred to your hotel. As one of the most sought-after Northern experiences, a Yukon vacation is only complete with a viewing of the Aurora Borealis cascading across the Yukon night sky. Accommodation: Whitehorse
Day 2: Skagway
On your way to Skagway, stop at the smallest desert in the world, the Carcross desert. Visit Carcross, a charming lakeshore village teeming with gold-rush and First Nations history. Optionally, you can join the famous White Pass and Yukon Route small-track train on the way to Skagway. Accommodation: Skagway
Day 3: Skagway - Haines
Explore Skagway and Dye, the start of the Chilkoot Trail. Via ferry, travel through the Lynn Fjord. With some luck, you may see seals, whales, bald eagles and the giant Alaska brown bears, making this area their home. Haines is a picturesque fishing village. Accommodation: Haines
Day 4: Haines – Haines Junction
Leaving Haines, the road travels along the braided banks of the Chilkat River. This is North America’s best eagle viewing area. The historic Klukshu Village is inhabited in the summer months only and there might be an opportunity to see Salmon in the river and to taste some traditional bread called bannock or smoked salmon. Accommodation: Haines Junction
Day 5: Haines Junction – Whitehorse
Visit the Kluane National Park Visitor Information Centre for interpretive displays and an audio-visual presentation. Depending on the level of interest among the passengers, your tour operator can also organize a spectacular flight by bush plane over the immense glaciers of the park (optional). Return to Whitehorse in the early afternoon.
Starting in Whitehorse with the more rounded mountains of the Yukon’s interior valley, the South Klondike Highway rises as you approach Carcross and the Southern Lakes region. The road borders some of these large, long, beautiful lakes before rising over the rugged coastal mountains and then descending into the Alaskan Coast, where Skagway and Haines is located.
The Haines Road follows the wide valley of the Chilkat River until it steeply rises through thick forests to the magnificent mountain scenery of the Chilkat Pass. Kluane National Park and Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, contains Canada’s highest mountains and the largest non-polar icefield in the world.
Day 1: Arrival Whitehorse
After airport pickup, you'll be transferred to your hotel. As one of the most sought-after Northern experiences, a Yukon vacation is only complete with a viewing of the Aurora Borealis cascading across the Yukon night sky. Accommodation: Whitehorse
Day 2: Skagway
On your way to Skagway, stop at the smallest desert in the world, the Carcross desert. Visit Carcross, a charming lakeshore village teeming with gold-rush and First Nations history. Optionally, you can join the famous White Pass and Yukon Route small-track train on the way to Skagway. Accommodation: Skagway
Day 3: Skagway - Haines
Explore Skagway and Dye, the start of the Chilkoot Trail. Via ferry, travel through the Lynn Fjord. With some luck, you may see seals, whales, bald eagles and the giant Alaska brown bears, making this area their home. Haines is a picturesque fishing village. Accommodation: Haines
Day 4: Haines – Haines Junction
Leaving Haines, the road travels along the braided banks of the Chilkat River. This is North America’s best eagle viewing area. The historic Klukshu Village is inhabited in the summer months only and there might be an opportunity to see Salmon in the river and to taste some traditional bread called bannock or smoked salmon. Accommodation: Haines Junction
Day 5: Haines Junction – Whitehorse
Visit the Kluane National Park Visitor Information Centre for interpretive displays and an audio-visual presentation. Depending on the level of interest among the passengers, your tour operator can also organize a spectacular flight by bush plane over the immense glaciers of the park (optional). Return to Whitehorse in the early afternoon.
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