In the final episode of the Into the Hearts of Canada podcast’s first series, Matt Leedham talks to Jesse Cooke, founder of the Klondike Experience in Dawson City, Yukon, about building a tourism business at the edge of the Arctic Circle, where wide-open spaces meet deep cultural roots.
Into the Hearts of Canada is an engaging 10-part podcast series that explores the people, places, and powerful ideas shaping the future of travel through a Canadian lens. From Indigenous knowledge-keepers and local changemakers to iconic landscapes and regenerative tourism pioneers, each episode offers an intimate conversation with the people reimagining what travel can be.
Whether you’re a curious wanderer or a travel professional seeking fresh insights, this podcast invites you to see Canada with new eyes and an open heart.
Episode 10: At the End of the Road: Jesse Cooke and the Klondike Experience
Jesse Cooke first arrived in the Yukon after an epic 100-hour Greyhound bus journey from Ottawa as a university student. He never really left. After nine years of teaching at the high school in Dawson City, he launched the Klondike Experience in 2012 with two vans, a mobile phone and a gazebo as a pick-up point.
Today, the business runs year-round tours across the Yukon, from summer hiking and paddling to winter Northern Lights and snowmobile adventures. Jesse has won the Parks Canada Youth Tourism Entrepreneur Award and the Yukon’s Employer of the Year Award.
But ask him what drives it all, and the answer is always the same. People.
Episode 10: Top takeaways
“I first came up here for the adventure. But then I stayed because of the culture and the people.”
Jesse grew up in Windsor, Ontario. A long way from the Arctic Circle. His first summer in the Yukon turned into 20 years. The wide open spaces drew him in. The pace of life and the way people look out for each other, that’s what kept him.
“My favourite part about the job is experiencing it for the first time over and over again, but through a new set of eyes.”
Every traveller who stands on a mountaintop or watches the Aurora for the first time gives Jesse that same feeling he had on day one. His guides feel it too. Some have been with him for over a decade.
“If you ask a Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in citizen, they’ll tell you forever. That’s their official timeline.”
Dawson City sits on the traditional territory of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in, whose presence here stretches back thousands of years. Archaeological evidence points to at least 9,000.
The Klondike Experience facilitates First Nations cultural experiences: medicine-making workshops with elders, willow weaving in a maker’s studio, and storytelling. Small groups, led by community members who choose to share.
“You don’t just pass through a place and consume and take it all in. You’ve got to experience it.” For Jesse, stewardship is not just environmental. It’s cultural. He sees his guides as ambassadors between guests and place.
Understanding the backstory of where you are matters as much as the scenery. Tours run at a one-to-twelve guide-tothe -guest ratio, and the land is treated with the same respect Jesse learned from local people over two decades.
“We’re visitors on this land. Not only the guests and the tourists, but also myself. I’m a newcomer as well.” Even after 20 years, Jesse carries this perspective. It shapes how the business operates, what stories are told, and how the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in culture is shared.
Not loudly. Not for show. On the community’s terms.
Where the road runs out
The Yukon is roughly the size of France with the population of a few apartment blocks in Toronto. About 40,000 people. Dawson City sits 550 kilometres north of Whitehorse, at the end of the Klondike Highway, just below the Arctic Circle.
For context, the Yukon is seven times the size of Tasmania. Eighty per cent wilderness. In summer, the sun barely sets. In winter, it barely rises. Grizzlies, caribou, moose, wolves and lynx roam freely. Tombstone Territorial Park, right on Dawson’s doorstep, offers subarctic tundra, peaks and valleys unlike anywhere else.
In 2023, Tr’ondëk-Klondike was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Yukon’s first cultural listing, recognising the significance of Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in history and the Gold Rush era that reshaped it.
The two economies keeping Dawson alive? Gold mining and tourism. Between them, they’ve built a community with an award-winning restaurant, Canada’s oldest casino, live music and art galleries.
What does this mean for advisors?
The Yukon is only a 2.5-hour flight north of Vancouver. That reframes everything. For clients who’ve done the Rockies, Banff and Whistler, the Yukon is a short extension into something completely different.
Whitehorse and Dawson City are the main visitor hubs. A week in summer covers hiking, paddling, wildlife and First Nations cultural immersion. Winter brings Northern Lights, snowshoeing and snowmobile tours. Jesse’s soft adventure options, think campfire, warming hut and hot chocolate under the Aurora just 15 minutes from your hotel, suit travellers who want the wild without roughing it.
“Come and find out for yourself,” Jesse says. “Come visit and look me up.”
Show Notes
- Find out more about the Klondike Experience here.
- Subscribe to Into The Hearts of Canada Podcast here.
- Find your local Canada Specialist Travel Advisor here.
- Travel Advisors: Join the Canada Specialist Program here.
- Join the Together for Impact pledge and help co-create Canada’s regenerative future.
Into the Hearts of Canada is presented in partnership with Destination Canada.
