20 Things to do in Whitehorse

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Whitehorse, the capital of Canada’s Yukon Territory, is a small city with a big heart. There are so many reasons why you’ll love visiting Whitehorse and a surprisingly long list of things to do in Whitehorse to fill your itinerary.

So, if you’re looking for things to do in Canada and love small cities, put Whitehorse on your to-visit list.

Whitehorse

“I hate small towns because once you’ve seen the cannon in the park there’s nothing else to do.” – former American comedian, Lenny Bruce.

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I confess.

I muse over Lenny Bruce’s one-liner as I drive into Whitehorse, a small town situated in the Yukon Territory’s south, just off the Alaska Highway.

Named after the creamy rapids of the 3,200km-long Yukon River on which the town is located (the rapids were thought to have resembled horses manes), Whitehorse is compact indeed.

Its downtown area measures just four by one kilometre and its population of 28,000 people makes up the majority of the Yukon Territory’s total population of 36,000.

It’s a dot in a territory that is so vast, locals claim there are 10 moose and 10 caribou per person.

But as the saying goes, small things hold big surprises.

I soon discover that this compact place – with its wide streets and charming 20th-century buildings – has a huge history, with sights to prove it.

Things to do in Whitehorse
Whitehorse attractions for all seasons. Photo: Canadian Tourism Commission

5 Things to do in Whitehorse in winter

whitehorse nothern lights
Seeing the Aurora (Northern Light) is one of the things to do in Whitehorse if you’re visiting in winter. Photo: Yukon Tourism
  • Stay up till the early hours of the morning to the Northern Lights. There’s a good choice of wilderness lodges near Whitehorse.
  • Join the fun at the Yukon Quest, which starts or ends in Whitehorse every alternate year.
  • Take a driving trip from Whitehorse around the Yukon in winter.
  • Learn how to drive a dog sled like a real Yukon musher if you’re game, or at least take a ride in one.
  • Have fun snowmobiling on a frozen lake, such as Lake Laberge (the lake in Sam McGee’s poem) or Fish Lake.

If you’re not visiting during winter, there are other things to do in Whitehorse around the year.

15 Things to do in Whitehorse

1- Learn about the White Pass and Yukon route railway

Whitehorse train
Riding the historic Whitehorse train is one of the fun things to do in Whitehorse to explore its history. Photo: Government of Yukon

Beyond the town’s ultra-clean, grid-like streets are the pretty spruce-covered peaks – Grey Mountain, Haeckel Hill and Golden Horn Mountain; these explain why, perhaps, Whitehorse is known as “the Wilderness City”.

It’s easy to imagine how the area might have looked when First Nations people camped here before 1898.

The year marked the beginning of the Klondike Gold Rush, when prospectors paused at Whitehorse en-route to the goldfields, after tackling their major navigational obstacles, among them, water rapids.

By 1900, in part to bypass the tricky white waters, the White Pass & Yukon narrow-gauge railway was built.

This linked Whitehorse with Skagway, a tidewater port on the Alaskan coast.

These days, the only trip from Whitehorse is via a restored waterfront 1925 trolley that runs between the two ends of town.

Copper mining in the first decades of the 1900s and the construction of the Alaska Highway during WWII secured Whitehorse’s place on the map.

It became the territorial capital in 1953.

As I wander past the restored White Pass and Yukon Railway Depot, I can almost hear the clatter and whistles, steam and shouts as men prepared frantically for their prospecting adventure.

2- Visit the McBride Museum

Or perhaps that’s because I’ve just spent hours with my imagination in the evocative and quaint McBride Museum of Yukon History.

The museum is a gem and wandering around it is one of the best things to do in Whitehorse, especially when the weather is inclement.

The museum’s beautiful dioramas depict life as it was, along with profiles of the town’s shady and colourful characters, many of whom made – and subsequently lost – fortunes.

That evening, I return to the museum to hear a local band, ‘Hank Karr and the Canucks’, perform.

Judging by the crowd, it’s clear that Hank, a 70-or-so-year-old country crooner and his musicians, are legends among his aged ‘groupies’.

While I enjoy wine, couples dance on the stage wings.

Although Whitehorse doesn’t quite make it into the “party cities in Canada” category, there’s still plenty to enjoy after dark. 

Drinking wine and watching couples dancing is one of the things to do in Whitehorse I had not imagined I’d really enjoy.

3- Walk the Millenium Trail

whitehorse yukon
Whitehorse Millenium Trail has some of the top things to see in Whitehorse. Photo: Government of Yukon/F Mueller

The next day, I explore further on foot.

Despite its modern buildings and neat, wide streets, Whitehorse maintains a frontier feel.

My guide Erin tells me that bears, coyotes and foxes sometimes venture into town.

During winter, it’s common to see lynx, moose, deer, and caribou using the surrounding Klondike and Alaska Highways as their corridor (a ‘first world hazard’ for drivers, Erin jokes).

My first ‘confrontation’ with wildlife comes, however, in the form of a stuffed and mounted moose head (along with a complete Canadian Mountie) in the foyer of our hotel Best Western Gold Rush Inn.

To try to look as outdoorsy as the locals (whose canoe-laden 4x4s, Gor-Tex jackets and all-round ‘can do’ natures make me feel like a city-slicker wimp), I stroll along the Millennium Trail, a 5km paved track that runs along the Yukon River.

Interpretational signs along the Millenium Trail offer hints about the river’s wild and woolly past.

The trail connects to the 15km Yukon River Loop Trail and Miles Canyon, where more signage explains more about the river’s history.

4- Shop at the Fireweed Market

My first stop is the Fireweed Community Market where, every Thursday and Saturday, cheerful locals sell their organic produce and baked items.

The market is a great place to meet locals and shop for handmade crafts and other locally made products.

5- Learn about First Nations at Kwanlin Dun

Kwanlin Dun Cultural Centre building
Kwanlin Dun Cultural Centre in Downtown Whitehorse bathed in the light of the Northern Lights. The centre is one of the top places to visit in Whitehorse to learn about First Nations history. Photo: Yukon Tourism

Then it’s the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre, a fascinating facility that celebrates the region’s First Nations people, the Kwanlin Dün, and exhibits everything from artworks to a traditional canoe to beadwork.

I learn here that 11 of 14 First Nations groups in the Yukon are self-governing.

6- Discover the SS Klondike

Exploring the SS Klondike
Exploring the SS Klondike is one of the top things to do in Whitehorse. Photo: Kate Armstrong

A kilometre or so on from the White Pass and Yukon Railway depot is the SS Klondike, a wonderful old Canadian paddle steamer (built in 1936) that plied the waters of the Yukon River, transporting freight and cargo.

In 1866, the S.S. Wilder was the first sternwheeler steamboat to navigate the Yukon River.

The Gold Rush brought over 60 of these steamboats. 

The S.S. Klondike is is a reminder of how these boats transported people, livestock and goods along the waterways.

Built in 1929 in Whitehorse by the British Yukon Navigation Company, it had a large cargo capacity and the S.S. Klondike carried supplies and ore from the Mayo Mining District, where silver was being mined.

The original steamboat sank in 1936 and the S.S. Klondike II was built to operate the 740 km Whitehorse to Dawson City route in 36 hours until the beginning of WW II.

By then, steamship traffic had been superseded by rail, but S.S. Klondike II continued to serve, transporting supplies for the construction of the Alaska Highway.

After a few more years of operating as a passenger boat, S.S. Klondike II became the last sternwheeler to travel the Yukon River on August 1955.

Operated by Parks Canada as a National Historic Site, you can explore its decks or get a tour of the steamship.

7- See the Fish Ladder

After this point, the trail loops around over the river at the Centennial Bridge, which affords a great view of the impressive Whitehorse Dam, a hydroelectric project that garnishes the power of the gushing waters.

Spray mist fills the air and when it clears I spot a long wooden ‘ladder’ that snakes its way along the river.

This 366m-long contraption, the longest in North America, was specially constructed for salmon to be able to bypass the dam wall which would impede their natural if arduous upriver journey for hundreds of kilometres to spawn (the ‘salmon run’).

Near the dam, too, is a utility pole.

Incredibly, this tall rod is on the tourist map.

For several years it’s been occupied by pair of Bald-headed eagles (with family) whose nest perches on top (apparently, since my visit, the eagles have moved nest and will do so while their ‘home-on-the-pole’ airs out, after which, according to local biologists, she will return to her former home).

Passionate locals even installed a webcam at the site and, according to my guide Erin, the website gets thousands of hits, especially when the eggs are hatching and the chicks are learning to fly.

She herself admits to rushing home from work to watch the ‘birth’ her soapie’s feathery stars.

8- Meet wildlife at the Yukon Wildlife Preserve

By now, in animal-loving mode, I head to the Yukon Wildlife Preserve, a 280-hectare reserve 28 kilometres northeast of Whitehorse.

It’s a tick-off-the-Canadian-animal experience seeing resident moose, mountain goats, elk, caribou, Dall sheep and musk ox live in surrounds that closely replicate their habitats.

9- Explore the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre

Yukon Berengia in whitehorse yukon
Yukon Beringia is one of the places to visit in Whitehorse. Photo: Yukon Tourism

Ironically, my favourite local animal is, in fact, extinct. Nevertheless, I come face to face with one back in town, at the Yukon Beringia Interpretative Centre.

Meet, Whitehorse’s woolly mammoth. This extraordinary creature is a legacy of Beringia when the Bering land bridge joined Asia and North America, encompassing part of modern-day Yukon.

Displayed in the centre’s foyer is a life-size – and very life-like – cast.

I wander through this modern museum, enthralled by its maps and geological finds, plus the museum treasure – the mummified skin of an extinct horse of the Pleistocene Age (think meat jerky that’s 26,000 years old).

10- Hike the trails of Miles Canyon

Miles Canyon Whitehorse
Hiking around Miles Canyon is one of the top Whitehorse attractions. Photo: Government of Yukon

Unfortunately, I’m not in town long enough to hike any of the 800km of marked hiking trails that head out from Whitehorse.

Instead, Erin drives me west of town to a viewpoint above the Miles Canyon.

The canyon, striking for its vertical basalt walls, was one of the major obstacles for the gold-seeking prospectors because of its narrow width and fast waters.

Beyond the canyon extends a carpet of spruce trees; the entire scene resembles a massive Christmas Santa Land.

I breathe in the cool air as I survey this stunning scene.

11- Eat Arctic char

Things to do in Whitehorse
Whitehorse’s attractions include its decent selection of cafes and restaurants. Photo: Government of Yukon

If interesting sights and hard-core outdoor activities – fishing, sledding and skiing – around ‘them these parts’ are plentiful, eating options are more so.

Local Arctic char and roasted elk dishes feature prominently on the menus of the town’s top eateries, including the attractive Wheelhouse Restaurant.

Whitehorse even boasts a good coffee spot, Baked Café, and I head here for my java fix. It’s a modern, convivial place where thankfully, the word ‘barista’ is understood.

12- Visit the Old Log Church Museum

On my final day, I keep coming across quirky attractions: the Old Log Church Museum, a historic monument that is a log cabin with a spire, and one of Whitehorse’s oldest buildings (1900).

Incongruously, as though accidentally left on a sidewalk stands a giant desk sculpture, a tribute to Robert Service – an author and poet, who’d visited the Yukon during the gold rush.

Every local, regardless of age, knows his famous poem, The Cremation of Sam McGee, about a prospector, miserable from the cold, who is cremated (or is he? I won’t spoil the poetic twist; Erin recites it without a verbal stumble).

13- Soak in Takhini Hot Springs

whitehorse yukon
Soaking in the Takhini Hotsprings is one of the things in Whitehorse everyone does when visiting. Photo: Yukon Tourism

We then head to the nearby Takhini Hot Springs, which in addition to its warm waters, holds a winter “hair freezing competition”.

The water, which is rich in natural minerals flows into the hot spring pool at 47C and the temperature holds up at between 36C and 42C.

14- Visit Robert Service Campground

The Bard of the Yukon, Robert Service, was born in Preston, England.

He emigrated to Canada in 1895 and fell in love with the north, penning many novels and volumes of poetry.

His “Cremation of Sam McGee” is a Canadian classic and a poem most visitors will enjoy reciting.

If you’re up for some camping, head to Robert Service Campground along the Yukon river banks.  

But surely the most unusual of all the town’s sights is the one that greets guests at the local airport (and I’m not talking Canada’s former Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, who’d been in town and happened to fly out on my arrival).

I refer to the airport baggage carousel.

In the middle of the circulating bags stand two stuffed caribou, their antlers locked together, posed in a battle stance.

I had giggled, thinking of how the ‘elk-in-the-airport’ might be Whitehorse’s version of Lenny Bruce’s ‘cannon-in-the-park’.

Several busy days later, I conclude I was wrong.

When it comes to Whitehorse, locals and its visitors have the last laugh.

More Yukon

Whitehorse is situated on a wild and mighty river, the Yukon.

It became famous for its navigational challenges from 1897 to 1899, the early Gold Rush days. 

Today, its meandering watercourse as it approaches the city belies the excruciating treachery of Miles Canyon before the hydro dam drowned its rapids in 1958.

However, the Yukon boasts amazing natural phenomena too: it’s the Land of the Midnight Sun and home to the massive ice fields of Kluane National Park.

For more exciting attractions in Yukon read:

20 Things to do in Whitehorse

20 Things to do in Whitehorse

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Kate Armstrong
I joke that the reason I became a travel writer was to escape the Victorian industrial town of my birth. Eventually, many years and circuitous turns later – including stints as a grape picker in France, a dancer in a Bolivian folkloric dance troupe and a volunteer in Peru, plus a two years working in Mozambique -- I eventually became a full-time travel writer.