The Colour Of Light
There are many different ways we experience energy—from singing out loud, while driving to work, to using hydro-electricity for our power.
Tombstone Territorial Park
Tombstone Tips for Fall and Winter
If we could offer any word of advice on travelling to Tombstone, any time of year, it would be “Be ready for anything.”
Exploring the Yukon’s ‘Paris of the North’
Back in the late 1800s, Dawson City was the most-populated northern town, the “Paris of the North.” The famous Klondike Gold Rush started in 1896, when gold was found at Bonanza Creek. Within a few years, about 100,000 prospectors, miners, prostitutes, wives, children and others travelled the world, passing frozen rivers and mountains, to settle …
The road trip begins: Tuktoyaktuk on The Dempster Highway
When the Tuktoyaktuk (Tuk) highway officially opened Nov. 15, 2017, I wanted to drive it to the Arctic Ocean.
Green talk with the Yukon Conservation Society
Evolving out of the old tradition of a Boxing Day bird hunt, where people competed to see who could shoot the most birds while walking off their Christmas feasts, birds have officially been counted, and the numbers compiled, by the American Audubon Society, since 1900.
Staycation, Yukon-style
It was COVID-19 and the timing of the lifting of the restrictions that brought my daughter Rebecca and I together to go to Dawson.
Jagged little rocks
“Pieces of the Jagged Rocks” by artist Dee Bailey opens Sept. 6 with a reception from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Yukon Artists at Work Gallery in Whitehorse. Bailey’s engaging sculptural paintings look to celebrate wildlife and the landscape. She works with oil-based modelling clay to create paintings with depth. Coloured pieces of clay …
Driven to explore
A seven-hour drive north of Whitehorse, or one hour and 30 minutes north from Dawson City, the Tombstone Interpretive Centre sits as the gateway to one of the Yukon’s most iconic territorial parks. The views along the hiking trails serve as the backdrop for countless social media posts from visitors and Yukoners alike. But the …
Magic in Tombstone
“Art Magic in Tombstone” is a series of workshops hosted by the Friends of Dempster Country society, and Yukon Parks, and will take place in Tombstone Territorial Park/ Ddhäl Ch’èl Cha Nän, throughout the summer.
TIAY Picks Dawson to Showcase Sustainable Tourism
Every few years the Tourism Industry Association of the Yukon brings either its spring or fall conference to Dawson City. TIA Yukon Executive Director Blake Rogers says that it makes even more sense than usual this year. “This year is a special year, the Year of International Sustainable Tourism for Development, as declared by the …
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Colour The Yukon
Erin Dixon is an artist with a passion for Yukon landscapes. “I was into colouring before it was hot,” she says with a laugh. A self described avid colourer, Dixon noticed a vacancy, “I know that colouring is really popular right now and I wanted to fill the void for Yukoners and visitors wishing for …
Like the Beauty of the Yukon? You’ll Love Hiking Japan
He would leave home at 6:30 a.m. and return at 10 or 11 p.m. When Japan’s economy faltered, he wanted a change. He came to Canada, trained as a mountain guide, and moved to the Yukon to set up its Yamnuska branch in 2007. Today, he still works in an office, marketing and organizing. “But …
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Mushroom Confidential
I wrote this in 2013 for Dave Mossop at Yukon College as part of my course requirements for NOST 201, A natural history of the North. However, it had been rattling around in my head for some time. Please do not use this to identify a mushroom; get expert advice. I’m going to tell you …
Promoting the Klondike Experience
Not quite a year ago, Jesse Cooke was in Ottawa to receive the Parks Canada Youth Tourism Entrepreneur Award. He was being recognized for his business, Husky Bus, which he launched in the summer of 2012. Even then, as he announced at a subsequent meeting of the Dawson City Chamber of Commerce, he was already …
Family Camping
My daughter’s dad and I started taking our daughters for Dempster Highway camping adventures around 1991, and the magic and fun times of those trips stayed with them, helping them to become independent and adventurous souls. Here is an excerpt from my daughter Rachel’s 2001 essay, called “True Tracks,” that shows the kind of fun …
Putting the WOW in Tombstone Park
Looking for a memorable northern road trip? The 17th annual Tombstone Weekend on the Wing (WOW) offers three days of fabulous hiking, a birding festival and interpretive events for all ages. The weekend of free events takes place June 3 to 5 and will start from the Tombstone Territorial Park campground, at kilometre 71 of …
Adventures in Tombstone Territorial Park
Tombstone Territorial Park, and the highway that leads to it, evoke the images of the Yukon we love so much: vivid colours, vast, open land, and jagged-steep beautiful mountains. As such, pictures of the park regularly adorn Yukon calendars and postcards. Naturally, I felt a strong pull to this place when I moved to the …
Mirage
Sometimes, when you need a refuge, a magical place appears. It was late at night and I was driving to the Tombstone Mountains for the first time. Already on the road for hours, I needed to find a campsite, fast. I had passed on Pelly Crossing, where one lonely tent perched by the river and …
Celebrating parks
“This is a celebration of all kinds of parks,” says Hillarie Zimmermann, external relations manager with Parks Canada. “Territorial parks, city parks, community parks … anywhere people enjoy the outside.” After 125 years of enjoying these parks, the 20th annual Parks Day will see celebrations across Canada on Saturday, July 17. With the help of …
Dawson Buttons Up for the Coming Winter
So the Outhouse Race is over and the last ball tournament of the season has played its final innings. Later today the Goldrush Campground, whose owners kindly allow me to drain the holding and fresh water tanks on my trailer, will close down for the season, and Pat and Diana Brooks will begin to button …
Approachable Artists in the Tombstones
The Yukon’s beauty stuns. And yet even in this context the Tombstone Territorial Park stands out. It’s a kind of iconic distillation of the Yukon’s beauty. This summer, you’ll be able to see that landscape through the eyes of 10 artists, through the Art Magic in Tombstone program coordinated by Friends of Dempster Country and …
Saving a Language and a Culture
Doris Roberts hates to fly, but when it came time to go to Tanacross, Alaska, to retrieve the songs and stories that Chief Isaac had taken there for safe-keeping many decades earlier, she knew she had to do it. Roberts had lost much of her Hän language while at residential school from 1946 to 1949, …
A Day in the World’s Best Job
I’ve heard it said that park rangers have the best job in the world. Maybe it’s true. After all, how many people get to work in such beautiful and remote areas, the kind of places the rest of us go to on our weekends? With that in mind, I decided to give my hiking some …
