The Yukon—Plenty of Room, a Different Rhythm

Being outdoors can be so refreshing

This week we travel north in Canada to visit the Yukon. I think of mountains, gold rush stories, northern lights, and wilderness stretching farther than I can quite imagine.

The first thing that stands out is the sheer size of the place. The Yukon covers about 482,000 square kilometres, including its lakes and rivers, which means you could fit Nova Scotia into it nearly nine times. Yet its population was only 48,453 in March 2026, roughly the size of Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, or Châteauguay, Quebec. About four out of every five people live in the Whitehorse area, while the rest are spread throughout smaller communities such as Watson Lake and Dawson City. The territory is also home to 14 First Nations, whose people make up about 22% of the population.

Would I Ever Get to Bed?

I am usually ready for bed by nine, but I wonder how that would work in the Yukon. With about 19 hours of summer daylight in Whitehorse, would I actually feel sleepy, or would I look out the window and decide there was still enough daylight left to weed the beans?

Come December, there are only about five and a half hours of daylight. I imagine those hours become rather precious, giving people a limited window for errands, outdoor work, or simply getting a little sunshine on their face. We all live by the seasons to some degree, but in the Yukon they seem to have a much stronger voice in how people plan their days.

Even the Potatoes Have a Journey

Roads connect the Yukon’s main communities, with one notable exception: Old Crow, where supplies usually arrive by air. Beyond those roads, much of that enormous territory remains wilderness, which means a trip to the grocery store can look very different depending on where you live.

The groceries themselves have quite a journey as well. In February 2026, a 10-pound bag of potatoes averaged $15.30 in Whitehorse, compared with $7.11 in British Columbia and $7.37 in Alberta. That would certainly make me appreciate every potato I dug from the garden.

You can buy familiar foods such as cheddar in Whitehorse supermarkets, but getting refrigerated and fresh food north, and then onward to smaller communities, adds transportation costs at every stage. Having lots of space comes with some very practical challenges, even when all you are trying to do is plan supper.

The more I learn about the Yukon, the more I wonder how living there would change what I notice. The return of daylight, the first growing days, the condition of a river, or a delivery arriving safely might all carry more meaning in a place where the natural environment has such a strong influence on daily life. It seems like the kind of place where the rhythms of the land would be difficult to overlook, and where an ordinary bag of potatoes might deserve a little extra appreciation.

A Little Piece of Home on the Alaska Highway

What do you do when you are thousands of miles from home and missing it? If you are Carl Lindley, an American soldier working on the Alaska Highway in 1942, you put up a sign pointing toward it.

While repairing a directional signpost at Watson Lake, Carl added a sign for his hometown of Danville, Illinois. Others followed his example, and over the years that one homesick gesture grew into the Sign Post Forest, now filled with more than 100,000 signs from around the world. Visitors still bring their own, adding hometown names, licence plates and handmade markers to this extraordinary collection.

Imagine the stories behind those signs, and the journeys that brought their owners to the Yukon. I could happily spend an afternoon wandering through the forest looking for familiar places. And, of course, I would have to see whether anyone had already put up a sign for Upper Nine Mile River. If not, I might just have to bring one.

Here in Upper Nine Mile River, I will still be heading to bed at nine, grateful for my garden potatoes and a night that knows when to get dark. But my imagination may wander north a little longer.

That is the pleasure of these weekly travels through Canada. Each place gives me something new to wonder about and another reason to appreciate the country I call home.