Yukon Aurora Tour and Northern Lights
Hosted experience with Northern Tales in Whitehorse, Yukon
I had been watching my Aurora tracking app for days, hoping that the one random night in February that we booked an Aurora Tour in the Yukon, the sky would dance with ribbons of green. It didn’t look promising. The forecast for Whitehorse was cloudy overnight, and the KP was around 3 (out of 10). I asked John if he would be disappointed if we didn’t see anything and he said, that’s the chance you take when you search for something in the sky, but at least we’ll have an adventure.
Yukon Aurora Tour and Northern Lights
Our evening started in the lobby of the Hyatt Place in Whitehorse where we met our guides from Northern Tales piled into a bus. “There’s a 0-100% chance of seeing the aurora,” our said before giving us a rundown of the evening. “If it’s your first night out with us, meet by the campfire. If this isn’t, then you’re free to roam.”
The private viewing site is about 30 minutes outside of Whitehorse. The bus windows fogged up so we couldn’t really out as we rumbled along the snow-covered highway, making twists and turns down side roads. “It’s nice to be around people that know how to drive in the snow,” John commented when we first got our shuttle to the hotel from the airport. Having grown up in the Midwest, and lived in Vancouver for the last twenty years, I felt he was qualified to comment on such matters.
We were like a school class, complete with whoosh whooshes of snowpants, all amped up for our wintertime field trip. At our destination we bounded off the bus and were ushered into a heated wall tent, which was a step up from a yurt, and not quite a log cabin, but equally cozy.
Northern Tales can host up to 120 guests at the viewing site and the beauty of it is you can still feel like you’re the only people on the planet once you get under that massive dome of stars. On this night there was about 80 however we were split into cabin groups so our cohort was less than 30. The owners, Emily and Aaron also led a small group of us on a tour oh all of the other tents/cabins, which are paired up with their own fire pits and washroom facilities. Each cabin cohort has a team member taking photos, answering questions, and stoking the fires.
Snowshoes and animal pelts adorned the walls, mugs hung from hooks in the middle of the room by the complimentary beverage and snack stations. The wood-burning stove was crackling and a map on the wall was full of pins representing all of the visitors they’ve had this season alone.
To our surprise, we were greeted by the clearest possible night sky with an entire dome of stars including the Milky Way. Even if there was no aurora, I thought to myself, this was still going to be a magical night.
It was -22C and we were outside from about 11:00pm (after our site tour) until about 2:00am. John and I stayed out, looking up and around and taking photos, and popping into a cabin or around a fire pit every 15 minutes or so to warm our fingers. The heavy duty gloves we had were definitely not touchscreen compatible so we kept slipping them off and using our thinner gloves when getting photos, which of course led to this cycle throughout the night.
Marshmallows were roasted, shooting stars were spotted, and at one point around 1:00am John and I walked back out to the field and we were alone. We sat down on a bench and a moment later he spotted it: A ribbon of what appeared to be clouds moving across the sky. “What’s that light,” he said and before he could continue, voices cried out from the other cabins across the viewing site: “AU-RO-RA!“.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh. A cautious slow-on-the-snow stampede of guests came out to the field and we were treated to the full show of ribbons of green dancing in the sky above.
Throughout the entire evening, a team member was out in the viewing field taking professional photos, at no extra cost, that you could request by email after your stay.
The tour was everything we hoped for, and more. Even if the aurora didn’t show up – because Mother Nature will do as she pleases and we’re just along for the ride – it would still have been a fun adventure in the Yukon, in winter. The fact that we got that plus a spectacular viewing of the aurora borealis made it so much sweeter.
Thanks to Northern Tales for taking such great care in crafting these experiences, and for hosting us for the night. If you’re thinking of booking a tour, they offer everything you could think of and more: Hotel transfer, winter clothing rental, warm beverages and snacks, tripods for your cameras and assistance with your settings for night photos. They also have add-on tours of Whitehorse, the Wildlife Preserve and Hot Springs, and multi-night aurora viewing. Aurora tours are available from August to April. Their Christmas tours are the most popular and should be booked by September to avoid disappointment.
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