Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Aurora Tour in Whitehorse

After a nice short work week, I am off on another adventure for Family Day long weekend. This time, I am headed North - to the Yukon. My mom and I signed up for a 4 day aurora borealis tour with Arctic Range Adventures. The forecast (both weather and aurora) didn't look great for this particular weekend but since I had booked the trip well in advance, there was not much we could do.

The morning of my flight, my mom phones me to say that it's canceled. It was deja vu. Another week, another round of airport drama.

We take our time getting to the airport and when we arrive, the customer service rep for Air Canada says that the flight ISN'T CANCELED. The plane was scheduled to refuel in Terrace on route to Whitehorse so the system flagged it as canceled. This is why, no matter what the app says -always go to the airport! You just never know.

We finally arrive! Whitehorse has an adorable little airport with only two luggage carousels. It reminds me of the tiny airport in Windsor, ON.



We are greeted by our British expat tour guide, Jennifer, and then pile into a van with a few other tourists and head off to our hotel. She mentions to be careful while walking around outside due to it being slippery. "If you have your first fall, well.. Welcome to Whitehorse!" 

The sky is so clear that the light is blinding, especially compared to the greyness of Vancouver at this time of year. 

Before we check in, we have an orientation and safety briefing in the lobby and are given our rental winter gear, along with this little certificate. 



Our view. I love it up here! It's so peaceful. There are no high rises, condos or traffic jams. Just snow covered rolling hills and the moon piercing the bright blue sky.



We had heard that bison burgers are a part of the local cuisine, so we decided to give The Dirty Northern a try. The food at this place is AMAZING! The best food I've had in a long time. So fresh and wholesome. The service was great and the drinks were a reasonable price. I highly recommend this place if you ever find yourself in Whitehorse. 









Time to chill at the hotel after dinner and rest up. At 10:30pm we head out to the Aurora Center, which a is about 25 minutes South of here.

Unfortunately, on all three nights, due to cloud cover, we don't see any aurora. The tour guides try to keep us entertained by offering to do light painting or creating maple taffy. I decide to pass and stay in the yurt keeping warm by the fire, eating cookies and looking at the aurora picture books. Interestingly, a large portion of the guests were young Japanese. Apparently the myth that the Japanese believe the aurora aids in fertility is just that - a myth. After searching online, I can't find anything that backs it up.



I managed to get a nice shot of a 22 degree lunar halo on the first night.





We were taken on a city tour. It was... a tad chilly.


The historic SS Klondike



I have never experienced this level of cold and wind chill before. Apparently it has been a relatively warm winter. When the wind blows, it cuts right through every layer -making clothes that I assumed were plenty warm enough be quickly reduced to feeling like I'm wearing nothing. On a few occasions, I mistakenly assumed that what I wore was adequate because on a cold day in Vancouver, I would have been sweating profusely in what I was wearing.



On the last day, we went for a nice long walk along the river and through a park. It was incredibly peaceful and a really nice way to end the trip. 







In the end, we didn't see what we went there for, but Whitehorse is a great little city. We had some amazing food and really got to unwind and enjoy Family Day weekend. I highly recommend visiting! Next time we try and see aurora, we are going to Yellowknife, NT. And this time we'll just go and not book a tour unless the forecast looks favourable.  


The view from the restaurant an hour or before our flight back home.. 





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