5 Best Places for Photography in the Yukon

where to go for photography in Yukon Canada

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Photography in Yukon should be on everyone’s list. Sitting in the northwest corner of Canada, tucked up against the Alaskan border, Yukon has plenty to offer wildlife and landscape photographers.

By land area, it is twice the size of Great Britain, yet its total population is considerably less than my original hometown of Aylesbury, in Buckinghamshire.

For the past five years, I have called the Yukon home and I’ve spent a considerable portion of that time trying to wrap my head around those staggering facts.

For the rest of that time, I explored this incredible territory from the southern border with British Columbia to the northern coast, where this vast wilderness meets the Arctic Ocean.

In this post, I’ll share some of my favourite locations for nature photography and guide you to them at the best times of the year.

1. Kluane National Park

Kluane National Park should be on every photographer’s Yukon location list.

Located two hours west of Whitehorse, the park is rich with wildlife and landscape opportunities, many of which are right alongside the highway.

From the small village of Haines Junction, the highway runs south through the park into the Haines Pass, or north to Kluane Lake. Both sections are worth exploring so I’d recommend staying in Haines Junction or the campsite at Kathleen Lake.

In particular, the three-hour drive from Haines Junction, up through the Haines pass, and all the way to the Alaskan border is one of my favourite stretches of road in the Yukon.

The road through the Haines pass is perfect to practice your telephoto landscape techniques, with peaks and valleys in all directions that benefit from the compression of a longer lens.

Wildlife photographers should have a lens to hand at all times. It’s rare to make it through the pass without seeing moose, bears, and even lynx.

Highlights include Kathleen Lake, the views from the Auriol Trail, and King’s Throne.

2. Tombstone Territorial Park

Tombstone Territorial Park is one of the best landscape photography locations in Canada.

The park is accessible by driving the first hundred or so kilometres of the Dempster Highway, starting just outside Dawson City.

Once within the park, there is a multitude of shorter 1–2-hour hikes off the side of the highway, all of which gain elevation to give you great views of the surrounding peaks.

For those that want a bigger challenge, several world-famous multi-day hikes wind deeper into the park to the granite spires surrounding Divide Lake, Talus Lake, and Grizzly Lake.

Be warned that camp spots at those lakes are limited and get booked up many months in advance.

Tombstone isn’t just for landscape photographers, though. This area is one of the best for spotting wolves, caribou, and even wolverines!

If I’m in the area and not feeling like a hike, I’ll often cruise up and down the highway from the Tombstone Territorial Campground northwards for 50km or so. It’s a rare day when I don’t catch a glimpse of a few interesting species.

Highlights include Rake Mountain, Angelcombe Peak, and the viewpoints just north of the Dempster Interpretive Center.

3. Dawson City

Dawson City is a 6-hour drive from Whitehorse or a 1-hour flight with Air North. If you have the time, I’d recommend the drive as there are plenty of wildlife spotting opportunities along the way.

The town sprang up during the 19th-century Klondike Gold Rush and is characterized by its quirky old buildings and stunning location along the banks of the mighty Yukon River.

While the Yukon is best known for its landscape and wildlife photography opportunities, Dawson City is a fantastic place to capture something different.

For me, a perfect day in Dawson city is just wandering around with my 24-70mm lens, stopping at the wonderful selection of coffee shops and cafes while I watch the light bounce from one old building to the next.

Highlights include the view from the Midnight Dome viewpoint and the characterful gold rush architecture.

4. Dempster Highway

The Dempster Highway runs 740km from just outside Dawson City to Tuktoyaktuk on the Arctic Ocean. This gravel road is a bucket list trip for many adventurers, and photographic opportunities are abundant for landscape and wildlife photographers alike.

You shouldn’t undertake this trip lightly, though.

The road is often impassable in the winter due to snow, and muddy conditions can make it challenging at other times. Many car rental companies won’t let you take their cars onto the Dempster, so be sure to do your research!

To really experience the journey, allow for ten days to complete the 1500km+ round trip.

Highlights include the Richardson Mountains at the border with the Northwest Territories and staggering views from Eagle Plains.

5. Nahanni Range Road

Yukon Highway 10, or the Nahanni Range Road, is accessible off Highway 4 a couple of hours north of Watson Lake. Much like the Dempster Highway, the Nahanni Range Road is an all-gravel affair with extremely variable road conditions.

It is not at all recommended in the winter, but the autumn can provide some truly spectacular wilderness scenes as you wind your way into the valley on this old mine access road.

On a good day, the start of this road is an 8-hour drive from Whitehorse, so it doesn’t see more than a handful of visitors a year.

During my five years in the Yukon, I have driven every kilometre of every highway, but the Nahanni Range Road was the last one I crossed off the list.

I’m glad I finally got to it because it’s one of the most spectacular drives I have ever done, but the rough conditions and extremely remote location won’t be to everyone’s taste.

Highlights include multiple river crossings on rickety old bridges and a sense that you’re the only person for hundreds of miles.

When to visit the Yukon

The Yukon is a spectacular place at any time of year. While many location guides will tell you when is best to visit different areas, that approach doesn’t work for somewhere with such dramatic changes in temperatures and length of day.

Simply put, many of the Yukon’s best photographic locations are equally good in different seasons. Deciding when to visit them depends on the subject you want to photograph.

Read more: How to Photograph the Seasons

Northern lights photography

Anyone wishing to photograph the northern lights (aurora borealis) must pay close attention to the length of the Yukon days throughout the year. In the summer months, there is very little darkness, making them impossible to photograph.

For this reason, I consider “aurora season” to begin in early October and run through until the end of April.

These months will provide the darkness needed to photograph the lights effectively. Still, if epic aurora photography is your primary goal, you should also plan your trip to coincide with a new moon to give you the darkest possible sky.

Aside from the night-time light levels, I also recommend considering the cold weather. A good night of northern lights photography will see you in the cold for many hours.

Temperatures in the early winter and early spring, though still cold, will be much more manageable for most people.

If you plan to visit between December and the beginning of March, you must be prepared to face temperatures as low as -40°c. This sort of temperature is no joke – if you are ill-prepared, it can be fatal.

One final consideration for timing an aurora photography trip is the possibility of open water in the early winter and spring.

If you’re lucky enough to catch a good display before the Yukon’s many lakes have frozen for the winter or after they have thawed in the spring, your compositional choices multiply greatly.

In the depths of winter when everything is frozen, foregrounds are limited to silhouetted trees, silhouetted people, and mountain outlines. When you have open water, you have the added benefit that you can create incredible foreground reflections.

Wildlife photography

The Yukon is full of wildlife, but much like the northern lights, there are better times to visit if wildlife photography is your primary goal.

In the winter, several species will hibernate, including the black bears and grizzly bears that are so popular among photographers. Harsh winter temperatures and often-difficult winter driving conditions are other reasons to consider a wildlife trip later in the year.

Although predicting temperature trends gets hard every year, by the middle of May much of the snow will have melted from the Yukon valley floors.

The bears will be awake, and you stand a good chance of seeing spring bear cubs, as well as fox kits and coyote pups. If you’re lucky, you might even catch a glimpse of some lynx kittens!

As all of the local Yukon species try to fatten up after hibernation or the difficult winter hunting, there is generally more activity. Thus, you are more likely to spot interesting opportunities while hiking or driving along the lengthy wilderness highways.

While I count spring in the Yukon as the best time to view wildlife, it has to be said that the incredible autumn colours can create truly beautiful photos.

Wildlife viewing opportunities are fewer in the autumn as many species have headed higher into the mountains with the shrinking summer snowpack.

Still, if you do get lucky enough and encounter wildlife among the deep reds and golden yellows of the Yukon’s fall foliage, you might get a once-in-a-lifetime shot.

Landscape photography

While I can fairly easily hone in on the best times to visit the Yukon for northern lights or wildlife photography, landscape photography is a different matter.

The northern latitudes are blessed with gorgeous light in the winter months and sunsets that last for hours in the summer.

To choose the best time to visit for landscape photography, you’ll need to decide if you want a snow-covered landscape backed by jagged peaks and frosty foregrounds, or a vast, green wilderness dissected by raging rivers and beautiful lakes that stretch to the horizon.

Truly, you can’t go wrong when picking a time to visit the Yukon for landscape photography. However, you should take some time to consider the kind of landscapes you wish to capture and how much you want to battle with the elements.

Those wanting to capture winter scenes can avoid the coldest months of December and January.

The Yukon looks no less wintery in February and March, but you’ll be much less likely to encounter dangerously cold temperatures in those months. As an added bonus, the days are far longer in those months, but the light is still fantastic.

Another popular time for landscape photographers to visit the Yukon is autumn when yellow and red leaves are abundant.

The perfect peak varies a little every year, but I’ve always found the first week in September to be a reasonable approximation for locations in the southern Yukon.

In conclusion

When I moved from the U.K. to Canada 20 years ago, I never expected my journey to take me to the Yukon, but I’ll be forever grateful it did.

There are very few places in the world that can offer such incredible beauty on such a grand scale, and so consistently throughout the year. Whatever your nature photography preference is, there’s a time and a place for it in the Yukon.