Yellowknife

Yellowknife is well known as one of the best places in the world to see the aurora. Luckily, you don't have to go deep into winter to see the aurora in Yellowknife. My trip to Yellowknife during the Easter long weekend turned out to be a success.

Apr 2-4, 2026

Yellowknife

It's recommended to stay in Yellowknife for 3 nights to maximize your chances of seeing the aurora, and that's exactly what I did. Since my flight arrived around 10 pm, I was able to join an aurora bus hunting tour that night (aurora tours usually run from around 10 pm to 2 am, but not all tour operators are willing to pick you up from the airport at that hour, so shop around).

There are various ways to see the aurora in Yellowknife, and the bus hunting tour is believed to offer the best chance. The bus usually goes to multiple locations, and the exact spots are not fixed. Luckily, we were able to see some pretty intense aurora dancing with various colors that night - not bad for the same day I arrived in Yellowknife.

On the afternoon of the second day, I joined a traditional dog sledding tour. It was a bit touristy but still an interesting northern experience if you haven't tried it before. The tour lasted less than two hours, and the actual dog sledding was about 20-25 minutes.

Since I saw some good aurora on the first night, I decided to go on a tour to see the aurora from a camp on the second night. The tour I took went to a camp with both a cabin and tipis - traditional Indigenous tents. On the way to the camp, we saw large areas of aurora in the sky, so large that it could easily be seen from the city of Yellowknife and from both sides of the bus. The tour guide decided to stop somewhere in the middle so people could take photos (they also took photos of people with the aurora in the background and sent them via AirDrop or WhatsApp as part of the program). That turned out to be a smart move, as once we reached the camp, the aurora faded due to increasing cloud cover in the sky until the end of the tour.

On the afternoon of the third day, I decided to check out the city of Yellowknife on my own. The Snowking's Winter Festival (held every March on the frozen Great Slave Lake) had just ended a few days ago, but many sculptures could still be seen. Nearby are two 'sights' in Old Town Yellowknife - Ragged Ass Road (named by some disgruntled gold miners in the 70s) and the Bush Pilots' Monument. After admiring the monument and enjoying a panoramic view of Great Slave Lake, I took a taxi to the 'new town' for $11 and checked out the Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly and the famous Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre (free admission) to learn some history of the land and its people. Exploring the city on your own is much cheaper than joining a 'city tour'.

One of the sculptures on the frozen Great Slave Lake

Overview

My long weekend trip to Yellowknife was a success, defined by two nights of intensive aurora activities - one with incredible aurora dancing and the other with large areas of aurora. My first (and perhaps my last) dog sledding experience wasn’t bad either.