Summer Returns to an Arctic Rail Legend
Every summer, a piece of North American adventure awakens in Skagway, Alaska. The White Pass & Yukon Route, a 177-kilometre narrow-gauge railway that snakes through some of the continent's most unforgiving landscape, has reopened its doors for the 2026 season. If you're hunting for a travel experience that combines jaw-dropping scenery with genuine historical weight, this is it.
The railway's story reads like an epic novel. Back in 1898, during the fever pitch of the Klondike Gold Rush, 35,000 workers took on the impossible. They had to carve a railway line from Skagway through British Columbia's wilderness all the way into Canada's Yukon Territory. The conditions were merciless. Workers battled mountains that demanded 16-degree cliff-hanging curves, drilled through rock to create tunnels, and constructed trestles that seemed to defy physics. One tunnel alone, at Mile 16, was built in the dead of winter with temperatures dropping to minus 60 degrees and snow piling up endlessly. Despite it all, the summit was reached by February 1899, and the full route to Lake Bennett opened by July of that year.
In 2026, the railway earned recognition as an International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. More recently, a travel insurance company ran an eye-tracking study that ranked it among North America's most beautiful train journeys. The numbers don't lie, but they also can't capture what it feels like to actually ride this thing.
What You Can Actually Book Right Now
The most accessible option is the White Pass Summit Excursion. This journey starts in Skagway and climbs to the White Pass Summit at 880 metres elevation, covering over 64 kilometres round trip. The entire experience takes about two and a half hours and costs $155 per person. You'll roll through vintage passenger coaches as the landscape unfolds. Bridal Veil Falls, Inspiration Point, and Dead Horse Gulch pass by your window. The real stunner, though, comes when you see where the original Klondike Trail of '98 is still worn into the bedrock, a permanent scar left by thousands of fortune seekers who walked that exact ground more than a century ago. These trips run through October 7, 2026.
Want something more immersive? The Bennett Scenic Journey is the longest ride available. You'll travel 193 kilometres round trip from Skagway to Carcross, and the whole thing takes eight hours to complete. There's a 45-minute stop in Bennett, a town that exists in splendid isolation, reachable only by this train or by hiking the legendary Chilkoot Trail. This experience carries a $289 price tag and is available until September 12, 2026.
Both journeys deliver mountains, glaciers, gorges, waterfalls, tunnels, and trestles. You're not just watching scenery pass by. You're moving through a landscape that demanded the absolute best from the humans who built this railroad, and that history somehow makes every vista feel heavier, more meaningful.
Planning Your Visit
If you're dreaming of summer adventures in North America, this should be high on your list. The railway operates multiple excursion options, including one-way trips and services for hikers wanting to tackle the Chilkoot Trail. The season is limited, so booking sooner rather than later makes sense.
For those building a broader Alaska or Yukon adventure this summer, pair this rail experience with other regional highlights. The drive through the Alaska Highway offers its own set of rewards, and Skagway itself has plenty of gold rush history to explore beyond the train windows.
The White Pass & Yukon Route isn't just nostalgia or a bucket list checkbox. It's a physical connection to one of the most dramatic episodes in North American history, delivered at a pace that lets you actually absorb the landscape instead of flying over it. Summer is short up there. If you're going to ride a historic railway through the Yukon, this is the one.
