The hook
Canada's vast, empty, spectacular north: a wilderness of mountains, tundra, and wild rivers larger than most countries, where gold-rush ghost towns cling to the past, the midnight sun shines all summer, and the aurora blazes across the winter dark.
01Why it's worth it
The Yukon and the Northwest and Nunavut territories make up an immense, thinly-peopled expanse of the Canadian north, and for lovers of wilderness and wide-open space, they are extraordinary. The Yukon alone is a land of jagged mountains, boreal forest, and rivers that were once the highways of the Klondike Gold Rush; the atmospheric frontier town of Dawson City, with its wooden boardwalks and gold-rush saloons, still evokes that stampede, and the Dempster Highway runs north across the tundra toward the Arctic Ocean through some of the continent's most sublime and empty scenery. Further into the Northwest Territories, the South Nahanni River carves through canyons and past the thundering Virginia Falls (twice the height of Niagara) in a legendary wilderness only reached by float plane and canoe. This is a land for genuine adventure: wildlife (grizzlies, caribou, moose, Dall sheep), canoeing and hiking the great rivers and mountains under the endless summer light, and, in the long dark of winter, some of the finest northern-lights viewing and dog-sledding anywhere. Remote, wild, and beautiful, the Canadian north offers space and nature on a scale almost impossible to find elsewhere.
02How to experience it
In summer, road-trip the Yukon (Dawson City, the Dempster Highway) under the midnight sun, or mount a river expedition like the Nahanni by float plane and canoe. In winter, base near Whitehorse or Yellowknife for aurora viewing and dog-sledding. Distances are huge and services sparse, so plan carefully and go with experienced operators for the wilderness trips.