Drive Yourself Roundtrip  -  Yukon / Alaska  

From the Pacific to the Klondike   -  10 days / 9 nights  -

The most powerful words cannot describe the unrivalled wild beauty, and immense, almost uninhabited expanse, of the Yukon and Alaska. This round trip will reveal to you one of the last grand, completely wild spots of the world. You will get to know it from several perspectives:

• You have the opportunity to fly by airplane over Kluane National Park. This park contains the highest mountain range in Canada, and the largest non-polar ice fields on earth.

• With your car you will travel the highways and gravel roads of the high north. The Alaska Highway, Klondike Highway, Top of the World Highway and other roads are stretching deep through the vast wilderness. Majestic mountain ranges, virgin forest, mountain tundra, serene lakes, and untamed rivers comprise the most visible element of hundreds, often thousands, of kilometres of wilderness that will surround you in its awesome and magnificent grip.

Itinerary:

Day 1
Arrival at the Whitehorse airport. Transfer to the hotel by taxi. In the afternoon you may stroll the streets of Whitehorse and visit sites such as: the McBride Museum, a Yukon Stern Wheeler, and the Old Log Church and a wooden "Skyscraper".

Hotel: Westmark Klondike Inn

Day 2
In the morning you will pick up your rental car. You will travel the Klondike Highway and reach Dawson City approx. mid afternoon (550 km/345 miles). Dawson City, the legendary capital of the 1898 Gold Rush, is a living relic. Even 100 years after the great gold Rush miners here are still digging for gold. In the evening Diamond Tooth Gertie's Gambling Hall is a must on the program. Long-legged can-can girls, honk-y-tonk piano player, poker, blackjack and roulette provide an "almost" genuine gold digger atmosphere.

Hotel: Westmark Inn

Day 3
In the morning you have time to stroll the wooden sidewalks of Dawson City that looks like a western movie setting. Most of the buildings left in Dawson City were set up at the turn of the century. Visiting the Gold Miner Museum, the Jack London Cabin and the huge Gold Dredge #4 will provide a comprehensive impression of the 1898 Gold Rush. Also you probably do not want to miss to see the original Discovery Claim at the Bonanza Creek, where George Carmacks and his native companions once discovered the first "Klondike Gold", causing the biggest Gold Rush the World has ever seen.

Hotel: Westmark Inn

TOP

Day 4
From the panoramic Midnight Dome high above Dawson City you may say goodbye to Dawson City. The overwhelming view from the top of the Dome reveals all the scars that a hundred years of searching for gold had left. The gravel road of the Top of the World Highway leads you through the sub-alpine tundra of the Alaskan mountain ranges to Beaver Creek the next destination of your journey. You will cross the border to Alaska at "Poker Creek" the most northern border crossing of the United States. The American custom officer will stamp your passport with the "Caribou Stamp". Just a few kilometres/miles down the road you will find a bizarre gift shop worth to take a picture. Late afternoon you will reach Beaver Creek (approx. 510 km/320 miles).

Hotel: Westmark Inn

Day 5
Alaska Highway Beaver Creek - Haines Junction (approx. 300 km/186 miles). You travel along the northern border of the largest continuously protected area in the world: The Wrangell/St. Elias and Kluane National Parks. The majestic scenery of the Wrangell/St. Elias and Kluane Mountains will accompany you all the way to Haines Junction. A small native museum in Burwash Landing offers an impressive exhibition of the Yukon wildlife. In Haines Junction you may take an optional flight to the 65 km long, double-tongued, Kaskawulsh Glacier and on over the Kluane ice fields. This flight provides a breathtaking birds-eye view of the majestic mountain world of the Kluane National Park.

Hotel: Alcan Inn or Cozy Corner

Day 6
The Visitor Information Centre in Haines Jct. offers comprehensive information about Canada's largest National Park. Furthermore you may have a relaxing walking tour into the Kluane National Park.

Hotel: Alcan Inn or Cozy Corner

TOP

Day 7
Haines Junction - Haines Alaska (approx. 250 km/160 miles). Every mile of today's route along the eastern St. Elias Mountains offers the grandeur of the constantly changing scenery, and panoramic views of breathtaking beauty. After crossing the Chilkat Pass you will be in Alaska again; traveling through the wild and romantic valley of the Chilkat River (Bald Eagle Valley), all the way to Haines nestled into the Coast Mountains of the Alaskan Panhandle. At Old Fort Seward you will be greeted by totem poles recounting long family tales. Here you will have the chance to enjoy the sophisticated art work of Tlingit (coastal First Nation tribe) totem carvers. Dancing sessions interpreting the old tribal legends are performed at least three times weekly.
Take your time for a hiking tour into the Chilkat State Park and admire the emerald green glaciers calving on the opposite side into the fjord.

Hotel: Captain's Choice Motel

Day 8
With the Alaska State Ferry you will across the Lynn Channel, the longest and deepest fjord of the world. You will reach Skagway after approx. 1 hour.
During the Gold Rush of 1898 the port of Skagway was the starting point for tens of thousands of Gold Rush stampeders to the Klondike Gold Fields. Most buildings of Skagway's historic site were constructed during the Gold Rush era.

Hotel: Westmark Inn

Day 9
After strolling the busy "Broadway" of Skagway in the morning you are going to hit the Klondike Highway for your last leg of the itinerary back to Whitehorse (approx. 180 km/115 miles). Your today's route leads you up to the coastal mountains and the White Pass, the border crossing-point of the Yukon. The road follows the "Dead Horse Trail", which gained sad popularity because more than four-thousand horses perished on this trail during the Gold Rush. Late afternoon you will pass Carcross on your way to Whitehorse. Shortly past the community of Carcross you may stop at the "Carcross Desert" said to be the smallest desert of the world.

Hotel: Westmark Klondike Inn

Day 10
Transfer to the Whitehorse airport and departure, or an ad-on stay in a cabin with summer or winter activities of your choice. You also may want to go on a guided canoe or hiking tour.