Yukon Information

Yukon is wild: It's one of North America's major wilderness attractions: close to 80 per cent remains pristine wilderness. The Yukon has three national parks, six territorial parks and four Canadian Heritage Rivers. Along with three neighbouring parks in Alaska and B.C., Kluane National Park forms the world's largest protected area and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Yukon is extreme: This is the home of the Yukon Quest, the toughest sled dog race in the world, and its sister event, the Yukon River Quest, the longest annual canoe and kayak race in the world. A tiny place called Snag in southwest Yukon holds the record-low temperature for North America, and central Yukon heats up so much in summer that gardens yield record-size squashes.

Yukon is ancient: Known as prehistoric Beringia, much of what is now the Yukon escaped glaciation during the last Ice Age. Beasts like woolly mammoths and scimitar cats once roamed here, and North America's earliest inhabitants migrated across a land bridge from Siberia. Gold-bearing riverbeds were never scoured and spread by glaciers, leaving rich gold deposits that drew thousands of prospectors to the Klondike.