Canoeing expedition on the Teslin River in the Yukon

Transfer from Whitehorse Airport to your downtown hotel via city highlights including the SS Klondike, Old Log Church, and Log Cabin Skyscraper. At your group meeting this afternoon, you’ll meet your fellow tour participants and your guide will review the itinerary. Time for optional tours, shopping, and sightseeing this evening. Overnight in a hotel in Whitehorse.

We’ll depart Whitehorse southbound on the historic Alaska Highway, completed in under a year in 1942 to aid the Pacific front during WWII. We’ll travel to Johnson’s Crossing, famous for its giant cinnamon buns. We’ll unload our gear and canoes, load-up, and put in on the river. The Teslin offers a relaxing paddle along a wide, fast-moving, deep river. A short paddle brings us to our first campsite.

Teslin River 
We’ll spend the next week on this scenic, gentle, fast-moving river. All tolled, we’ll travel more than 350km through the spectacular southern Yukon. Moose are often spotted along the shorelines, or even swimming the river to access better food sources on mid-channel islands or the opposite shoreline. Black bears enjoy the grasses and roots of the exposed south-facing slopes, and their dark coats stand out nicely against the sandy soil.

Just north of Lake Laberge, the made famous by Gold Rush poet, Robert Service, in his poem the Cremation of Sam McGee, the Teslin flows into the Yukon River near the former trading post of Hootalinqua. A gold rush era paddle wheeler can be found rotting away on the shoreline nearby, recalling the headier days, when the Yukon was the most exciting place to be in the North American West. After gold was discovered near Dawson City in 1898, more than 50,000 people paddled the Yukon River and its tributaries. In fact, it was these same gold seekers who gave the Teslin River its contemporary name. The First Nation (natives) people living on the banks of the river called it the Déslin Chú, which became Teslin. Yukon’s gold rush history is frequently evidenced during our tour as we pass by old cabins and trading posts, some of which are now inhabited by contemporary pioneer families living a simple off the grid lifestyle.

Carmacks - Whitehorse
Our tour ends in the native village of Carmacks, which was first established during the Klondike Goldrush by one of the original discovers of gold at Dawson City, George Carmacks. The town of just 450 residents appears a metropolis after a week on the river! Our river trip ends here; and you will return to Whitehorse in a comfortable maxi-van where a warm shower, cold beer and a comfortable bed awaits! Overnight in a hotel in Whitehorse.

After breakfast, you’ll be transferred to Whitehorse Airport or to your next program. This marks the end of the tour. Please note: as this is an expedition-style trip, the itinerary may be adjusted due to weather or other conditions at the discretion of your guide.