Last full day in Yellowknife! After the slightly disappointing aurora viewing the night before, I dragged myself up from bed after a few hours of sleep and made breakfast. After grabbing all our gear, we got picked up at 12:30pm to begin our dogsled tour at Aurora Village.

It was my first time doing a day tour with the company and it was definitely much more relaxing than the nighttime aurora viewings. We had a much smaller group, so it didn’t feel as crowded. My guide that day was named Sue and she was really nice to everyone. Sue was originally from Korea and she said that Yellowknife was the first place she had ever visited in Canada. It’s pretty amazing that she chose to go to the arctic for her first job in the country. =P

After we got to the village, we were once again shown to our teepee. It was sooooo different being there in the daytime. I was finally able to get a good orientation of the village. We were introduced to some of the daytime activities, like their snow-tubing hill, their marshmallow roasting pit, and the kennels where the dogs are kept.

All the guests were divided into groups of twos and we were given times to meet back in front of the teepee when it was our turn to go dogsledding. We started off our free time by testing out the snow tube hill. The hill didn’t look quite as daunting as we made our way up, but looking down from the top it appeared like a death drop to the bottom. I was too chickened to go down first, so we ended up letting this Japanese mom and son go on first to test it out. It seemed to go very fast at the initial drop, but it slowed down once it reached the bottom. I think by the end of the day, we went down the hill 2-3 times. It was actually a lot of fun.

When it was finally nearing our turn to go dogsledding, we made our way over to the kennels. I forget how many dogs they said they owned there, but I think there must have been around 70-80 dogs inside. We bundled up right before we got on the sled and Sue was kind enough to help us take some photos. There was a dozen dogs in front, with one person driving the sled. We made sure we were safely tucked inside the sled before we took off.

Once we started moving, I noticed how bumpy it was during parts of the trail. However, it wasn’t nearly quite as fast as I had anticipated, so I could pull out my camera and snap photos during the ride. The entire ride itself last around 10 minutes, but overall it was quite a unique experience.

Later that afternoon we spent time roasting marshmallows and trying out traditional snowshoes. We also got to hold 5-week old puppies! Poor thing was shaking the whole time as she was passed around between everyone. Hehe

We stopped by the restaurant to grab a snack before we left the village. We had their fish chowder with bannock and a spinach salad. It was a nice place to unwind after spending all our time outdoors. Finally when it was time to go, we hopped back on the bus and returned to the hotel. We were kind of short on sleep that day, so we took a nap first, then had dinner later in the evening.

For dinner we ate at Trader’s Grill, which is one of the two restaurants at our hotel. Since it was our last chance to try different game meats, I ended up I ordering their slow roasted rack of venison, while my sister had their elk. I definitely think venison is becoming one of my favourite game meats. =P

We had one more night of aurora viewing that evening. Luckily we were able to see the aurora that night and I finally managed to grab some shots on my camera. Great way to end our trip in Yellowknife!