2000 YUKON SIGHTINGS

4-Jan-2000, Wolf Creek Subdivision, Whitehorse, Yukon: (8:45 pm)

The following report is based on an e-mail we received:

Tonight at approx. 8:45 pm, to the south just above my trees off the deck what appeared to be a manmade object/space debris appeared from the east to the west in a fairly flat trajectory. Yellowy/orange in colour with a black area underneath. Colour to the front, top and back with the black space underneath approximately 1/2 the length of the light - rocket casing? The length of the light was approximately a quarter held at arms length, duration approximately 2 seconds. Come to think of it, a twonie ($2 Canadian Coin) might be the more appropriate size. The light was elongated hence reference to a rocket casing or similar.

24 or 25-Jan-2000,   Braeburn, Yukon: (11:00 am)

A man was travelling from Carmacks to Whitehorse and was nearing Braeburn Lodge when he noticed a big silver disk hovering over Braeburn Mountain to the south and ahead of him. He stopped in at Braeburn Lodge and mentioned the sighting to the staff. Thanks to Steve Watson and Leigh for this report. The man has left the Yukon for a few months. It is hoped that he will be contacted upon his return and more details of his sighting can be obtained.

14-Feb-2000, Elsa, Yukon: (9:15 pm)

A man was watching television in the sleepy mining town of Elsa when suddenly the whole living room lit up with an orange-red light. The man first thought that a neighboring house might be on fire. He ran toward the window and observed a large fireball travelling east to west over a tailings pond in the wide valley below. The man decided that he would get a better view if he shut the lights off in the living room. He walked quickly over to the light switch at the opposite end of the room, turned it off, and walked back to the window. The fireball was still there, travelling in the same direction. There was a large orange-red leading fireball followed by 3 to 5 smaller ones of the same color. A long yellow-orange tail of which the last third was a beautiful shade of blue followed the fireballs. The fireball was illuminating the entire valley and surrounding hills. "It was so beautiful" the man remarked. To complete the spectacular scene, there were northern lights higher up and to the left of the fireball. At first the man thought that the meteor could be heading right for the tailings pond due to the steep incline of the tail but then it was apparent it was heading for the northwestern horizon. The man remembered he had a loaded camera downstairs near the entrance doorway of his house. He ran downstairs but was too late when he opened the door to take a picture. "If I went for the camera right away I am sure I could have taken a wonderful picture". A second witness in a house nearby also observed the fireball that eveing. The fireball occurred only one month after a larger and faster moving one that was observed from many other Yukon, BC, NWT and Alaska communities on Jan 18, 2000.

25-Mar-2000, Whitehorse, Yukon: 11:15pm
A man near Mountain View Golf Course watched a yellow-red light travelling in a straight-line get brighter and brighter and then fade rapidly. The estimated brightness was 5 to 10 times that of Venus.

Note: This sighting description is consistent with that of an Iridium Satellite. These satellites have larger reflective surfaces and when the sun catches them just right, they can produce a bright reflection known as an Iridium Flare. Iridium Flares can be observed on a daily basis.

26-Mar-2000, airliner sighting somewhere above the Yukon: (12:00-2:00am)

A man in the Village of Pelly Crossing who is a member of the volunteer fire department had his scanner turned on during the night to monitor possible emergency response calls. The scanner picked up a conversation between an airline pilot and the flight control Centre in Edmonton Alberta. The scanner only picked up the pilot's side of the conversation. The conversation was not recorded but it went something like this:

Pilot: Flight so and so to Edmonton Control Centre, do we have clear airspace?

Edmonton: ?

Pilot: Are there any military exercises or aircraft in our area?

Edmonton: ?

Pilot: Yeah, we got a light following us for the last 500 miles, in close proximity. Are you positive there are not any military operations in the area? Any other aircraft or traffic?

Edmonton: ?

Pilot: ok, thank you.

The man with the scanner added that there was some concern noted in the pilot's voice, unlike with any other air traffic communication he had heard previously. The man listens to conversations between pilots and the Edmonton Control Centre on occasion and this is the first time he noted a conversation regarding a possible UFO. He doesn't recall if the pilot mentioned a specific location nor the airline he worked for. However, on other occasions he has picked up pilots that have been flying over a large area between Whitehorse and Burwash Landing, Yukon. This appears to be a main flight corridor and was likely where this incident occurred.

1-April-2000, Pelly Crossing, Yukon: (12:00-12:15am)

(This report is not a joke) Two red lights travelling through the sky were noted from one residence in Pelly Crossing. The witnesses called a relative in another area of Pelly Crossing who in turn called another relative. The lights were observed from all three residences. At one point the two lights came together, started spinning around each other then flew apart, one light stopped and the other took off at great speed. Investigation into this case continues.

16-Jul- 2000, Whitehorse, Yukon: (2:30pm)

The following sighting report was received by e-mail on August 7, 2000:

"Hi. I'm curious if there has been any sightings at Whitehorse on July 16,
2000? I'm not sure what I saw but this is the story.

We were returning from Dease Lake, BC that day, arriving in Whitehorse at approx. 2:30 pm. There was my boyfriend, my seven-year-old son and I in the front cab of a truck w/camper. My son spotted an eagle at the airport, not sure if it was, I checked and sure enough it was an eagle. He then said he was going to continue to look for more eagles, I said fine, thinking he was lucky to see one. He then asked me what that was in the sky, I looked, couldn't see anything, he kept insisting, so I followed his finger, and way way way up in the sky there was a round, shiny object. The sky was clear and blue, some clouds around, but not in the area where he was pointing. I couldn't believe it, I tried to keep my eyes on it until we came to the Range Rd. turnoff, I was excited by then, my son and I kept watching it. It wasn't doing anything, just being stationary. I pointed it out to my boyfriend, so he pulled over and looked out, he saw it too, wasn't impressed and kept driving. He didn't hear me say pull over, he kept driving. We live in Northland Trailer Park; by the time we arrived, I kept looking out to the sky, but couldn't see anything, and just thought I'd forget it. We went downtown about an hour later, and there was nothing in the sky.

I don't know if they still let weather balloons go or what could it have been? I have no idea. I just wondered if anyone saw anything? Can you let me know please?"

Further Investigation: Although weather balloon launches occur near the sighting location, they are consistently launched at 4:15pm daily by an automatic weather station. This is about an hour and 45 minutes after the witnesses' UFO sighting. Nevertheless, the witnesses were asked to view a weather balloon launch for comparison purposes. The mother and son went out on two occasions. The first occasion was under cloudy conditions and the second was under sunnier skies.

First balloon launch:
"Well we went up to the weather station and watched the balloon. There was a lot of movement from the wind, and I'm not sure if it was windy on July 16. You could visibly see it getting smaller. As we were returning from watching the balloon release, my seven-year-old son asked when we were going to see the shiny thing again. I told him "we just did", and asked him if it looked like it, he said no. But seeing the balloon, I can't really say because what we saw was way up and bigger and shinier and stationary."

Second balloon launch:
"Went to see the balloon release today and decided that it was not a weather balloon that we saw that day. It was too small, not shiny enough and moving about a lot. The weather was sunny, but not totally cloudless, but enough to see that I needed to see. I just don't know what else I can tell you except what we saw was not the weather balloon."

The mother was asked further questions and provided the following details:

"It was very high up in the sky and around the size of 1cm diameter at arms length. It seemed to be past the clouds, and very high up, at a 90 degree height (almost straight up). We viewed it for about a minute. We viewed the object from Airport Chalet to Norcan, travelling at about 70-80 km/h. We stopped outside of Norcan for 15 seconds. During this time the object did not look as if it was getting smaller or moving. It was unnoticeable unless you were looking directly at it."

Update: On October 14, 2000 we received a report that on July 16, 2000 at about 2:30pm, two people observed a large silver balloon that they had observed being released from a street music festival that was being held in downtown Whitehorse. They were walking along the bluff edge between the airport and downtown. Once the balloon reached significant elevation they mentioned that it was difficult to tell whether it was a balloon or solid object, or how big it was.


2 or 3-August-2000, Alaska Highway, Teslin, Yukon: late evening
Two men were travelling northbound on the Alaska Highway 30 to 50 kilometers north of Teslin were watching a light moving slowly and horizontally across the sky from right to left. The sky was overcast. There were no blinking lights, red or green lights accompanying the solid white light. They observed the light for 3 to 4 minutes when suddenly it shot straight up into the sky and disappeared.

22-August-2000, Pelly Crossing, Yukon: 11:40 pm
Three men witnessed a huge row of lights in the forest 5 kilometres north of Pelly Crossing (a detailed case under investigation) "it was like a city back there" one of the man remarked. Having grown up in the area, the men knew that all that was behind those trees was a small creek valley.
22 or 23-August-2000, Dawson City: late evening
Late in the evening, three witnesses in Callison Subdivision observed moving points of light in the sky. There were nine light sources total that were observed in the span of 4 minutes and appeared to be travelling much faster than satellites. The witnesses estimated that they took about 6 seconds to go from horizon to overhead. No sound was heard. The light sources came from different directions and maintained heading from horizon to horizon.

29-August-2000, Whitehorse, Yukon: 4:45am
At the corner of the Alaska Highway-Klondike Highway intersection a man observed what appeared to be a fireball travelling southbound. It broke-up into 4 different fragments and was whitish-yellow in color. The witness remarked that this was much smaller than the January 18, 2000 fireball, which he had also observed.

15-September-2000, Dawson, Yukon: 1:30 to 2:30 am
A mother, father and their sixteen-year-old son were travelling from Inuvik, NWT to Whitehorse, Yukon, a 17-hour trip. After travelling for about 12 hours, they were heading for Dawson City to spend the night. The mother was sleeping in the extended cab portion of the truck. The moonlight lit up the Klondike River valley. They were on the Klondike Highway about 10 minutes out from the Dawson Airport when the father and son were astounded to see an orange oval object fly across the road in front of them in the distance and just above the trees. The object traveled right to left across the road and was not clearly distinct as there was some fog or mist coming off the river in the area. A few seconds later another identical object streaked over the highway and disappeared. This was followed by another, and another for a total of about 5 to 6 objects. The mother was woken by the father and son talking loudly to each other, "what the heck was that?" or something similar. The mother stated that the two "were absolutely shocked" yet she was so sleepy. By the time the mother had awakened, it was too late for her to view even the last UFO.

Drawing by father

The father stated that the objects streaked by at equally spaced time intervals with about 2 to 3 seconds between the time one disappeared to when the next one appeared. The objects appeared to be about two full moon diameters long and one tall. At the estimated distance of a few hundred meters, the father guessed that each object was about 50ft (15 meters) long by 25ft (7.5 meters) tall. The color was similar to that of an orange streetlight but not as intense. The total event lasted about 20 to 30 seconds. He estimated the object speed to be about 100 feet (30 meters) per second. The trajectory was somewhat at a downward angle, about five degrees. The sighting took place on a straight stretch of the highway in an area where there was bush on both sides (i.e. in an area where the highway is not directly adjacent to the river).

August or September-2000, Ft. Selkirk, Yukon: 9:00 or 10:00 pm
Two men were out in the wilderness near the historic settlement of Ft. Selkirk at the confluence of the Pelly and Yukon Rivers, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of the nearest settlement of Pelly Crossing. After darkness had set in, the two men spotted 5 light sources hovering in the sky to the west. There was one centrally located that was brighter than the other four. To the men's astonishment, the central light source jerked a short distance to the side. This was immediately followed by a ray of light emanating from another part of the sky or possibly the ground.* This ray of light shot through the area that the object just had been a split second before. Over a period of 5 to 10 minutes this happened several times; each time the central object took quick evasive maneuvers to avoid the ray of light. Suddenly all five objects streaked off towards the western horizon and were gone in a split second. "Something was shooting at it, it moved out of the way, that's what really impressed me!" said one of the witnesses. "We couldn't believe our eyes, holy __, they just zoomed away over the horizon, nothing can go that fast!" said the other witness. The object seemed to wobble at times just before it moved.

Note:*if it was a laser or a light beam, it would be impossible for the human eye to tell the difference if the source of the light beam came from the sky or from the ground.

11-Oct-2000, Whitehorse, Yukon: 8:30 am
Two men were driving down "Two-Mile Hill", a four-lane divided roadway that leads to downtown Whitehorse from the Alaska highway, overlooks the valley with Grey Mountain on the other side towards the east south-east. The sky was clear and the sun hadn't risen yet. The men observed just to the left of Grey Mountain a short stationary contrail at about a 30-degree angle from the horizon (pointing down right to left). Suddenly the contrail lit up brighter, got dim again, and lit up brighter again. One of the men had the impression that they were watching a rocket where one stage extinguished and that was followed by another stage lighting up. The event last for about 20 seconds (one man's estimate) or almost one minute (the other man's estimate).

13-Oct-2000, Whitehorse, Yukon: 8:50 am
A woman was travelling down "Two-Mile Hill", which is a major thoroughfare that leads to downtown Whitehorse from the Alaska Highway. The four-lane divided roadway overlooks the valley with Grey Mountain on the other side towards the east-southeast. It was sunrise when to the left of Grey Mountain "hanging in the air" she spotted "a silver-like, tinfoil object, aluminum in color, kind of square-ish" reflecting the sunlight. It was rotating or swiveling on a horizontal axis. When the angle of the object was favorable it reflected the sunlight and was plainly visible, when it wasn't reflecting sunlight you couldn't see it at all. As it continued to rotate or swivel it alternated between being visible and being invisible several times. This lasted for a period of about 10 to 15 seconds. The object appeared to be about the size of a small aircraft (Cessna) near Grey Mountain (about 5-8 kilometers away) or the size of the end of a baby finger at arms length distance. It was about an inch (25mm) above the peak of Grey Mountain at arms length. "I have never seen anything like that before, it was weird" remarked the woman. "It wasn't a plane or a satellite since it was just hanging in the air, not moving (laterally) at all, it was too static", the woman added.

15-Oct-2000, Whitehorse, Yukon: 8:15 to 8:20 pm
A woman was driving southbound on Copper Road when she noticed a stationary bright white light just over the Takhini Subdivision bluff (cliff) to her right (west). The light was at treetop height and only captured her interest since she has seen a similar light in the past that had performed maneuvers and had approached her vehicle at very close range. She pulled over to observe the light more carefully. Many cars drove by but she wasn't surprised that they didn't notice since it only looked like a brighter than normal streetlight. The light was suspended slightly over to the left of a street lamp and a power pole. The power pole had two transformers suspended from it and the light was vividly illuminating the transformers and transmission lines. Not being sure if it was anything unusual, she projected a thought "do something", the light suddenly got brighter. After a total observation time of about 10 minutes, the woman drove away. The woman and a UFO investigator returned to the site two days later and at the same hour of the day. The light was not there and the transformers and transmission lines were not illuminated. In fact they were barely visible. The investigator and witness drove up and around to the top of the bluff and had a close look at the location. There was no structure there that could hold up a light source in the position above the transformers and transmission lines.

16-Oct-2000, Whitehorse, Yukon: 8:30pm
A man in Mary Lake Subdivision was watching what he first thought was satellite. The light suddenly changed direction and then changed direction again.

18-Oct-2000, Yukon Crossing, Yukon: 12:11am
Two people were travelling northbound on the Klondike Highway near Yukon Crossing (about 30 kilometers north of Carmacks). In the distance, they observed a flashing red and blue light travelling through the sky and low on the horizon. The people pulled over to observe the lights with binoculars. The lights were adjacent to each other and in a horizontal configuration. The color and behavior of the lights gave the impression of "a police car in the sky". The lights traveled in a straight line and disappeared behind a mountain. They observed the lights for 3 to 4 minutes. A few moments later they saw a series of three flashes, like that from a camera in the vicinity of where the lights had disappeared.

28-Oct-2000, Dawson City, Yukon: 09:30 to 10:30pm
Five witnesses observed to the west-northwest a bright star sized object that would vary in color and brightness in rapid succession. The object was stationary except for an imperceptible trajectory down and to the right over the course of the observation time. Orange-green-orange-blue was one sequence of colors that was described. A check with astronomical computer program indicated that a bright star named "Alpha Bootes" was consistent in position with the object being observed for that time of night and for that location. Alpha Bootes is also known as a variable star meaning it naturally pulsates. It was very likely that this was the object that was being observed by the witnesses. To add to the effect it was a crisp cool night. This formed an inversion layer in the Klondike River valley bottom. Inversion layers tend to act like prisms, diffracting light into its color components, especially when the light source is close to horizon.

15-Nov-2000, Mayo Road (North of Whitehorse): (between 3:00-5:00am)
e-mail report: Was there by any chance a UFO sighting the night of November 15th in the Mayo road area?...The reason I am asking is that I was awaken in the night or early that morning (before 5:00 am) by a strange noise outside. I sleep on the top floor of our house in the country and heard very clearly what it sounded at first like a jet plane very close to the house except that the engine noise would get noisier and then softer. It was almost like a "idling" or "hovering" noise. It did that for perhaps 5-10 minutes. I looked up to see if I could see any light out the window but did not get up to see out the window. It was very bright outside probably from the moonlight. I did listen very carefully though to this highly unusual noise as I thought how strange that I would for one hear a plane's engines so clearly from inside the house and so close to the house, also how odd about the type of noise (coming and going), it felt as though the noise was fairly close and over the house. No one else in my family was awaken by the noise that night but my husband remarked that our horse was unusually agitated that morning. He attributed this to perhaps a wolf or other animal in the neighbourhood. I for one can't help but wonder whether there was indeed a UFO over our house that night!... Are UFO's known to make this type of noise?...Please let me know if this makes any sense to you at all ?...I am still puzzled by this unique incident.

The woman was contacted and the following additional information was obtained: The noise heard was described as a "revving up and then a revving down" The noise would tend to come back stronger each time. "Pulsating". The noise came and went about 10 times in about 5 minutes. To answer the woman's question, this incident is not unique. See also <link to be inserted> for a similar incident in British Columbia.

18-Nov-2000, Lake Laberge, Yukon: 7:30pm
A man living on Shallow Bay Road had gone outside to start his car when he spotted three points of lights moving through the sky. He estimated that the formation was about twice the length of the Pleiades Star Cluster. The man had seen a similar formation on the 16th of November 1996 that is also reported on this web site. This trio of lights were heading in the same direction (west to east) but were not as bright. This time he specifically watched to see if he could see stars pass in between the three moving lights to assess if there was a solid triangular body. He did see stars in between the three travelling lights establishing that three separate smaller objects or lights were responsible rather than one huge object. The lights also pasted behind a layer of cloud. There was no sound heard. The shape outlined by the lights was that of a thin triangle, with the pointy end in the direction of travel. The two further back were not quiet equidistant from the leading light. Note: This UFO sighting is consistent with a trio of satellites in use by the US Navy. These formations of satellites are used to detect and triangulate the position of enemy vessels at sea and have been responsible for other UFO sightings around the world. Click here for more info.

20-Nov-2000, Whitehorse, Yukon: 3:20pm
A man and a woman from their residence in downtown Whitehorse observed strange horseshoe shaped objects or possible contrails to the left of Grey Mountain. The woman first spotted one object, got the binoculars out and alerted her partner. She observed the white object come down on a slow trajectory down from right to left and disappear behind a cloud layer that was in front of the peak of Grey Mountain. At one point, a similar object or contrail (about half the size) appeared to the right of the large one. The two traveled parallel and after a few seconds, the smaller one disappeared. The shape and trajectory of the objects are portrayed in the drawing below.

The total viewing time was between 1 and 2 minutes. The impression that the witnesses received was that the objects were very large and quite far away. They were huge compared to plane contrails and maintained the same shape throughout the sighting. While looking through the binoculars the woman looked for an aircraft ahead or inside the horseshoe shape, but only blue sky was seen. The larger object was about half the size of a full moon or larger. The smaller object was half this size. The larger object was about 1inch (25mm) above the horizon at arms length distance when first spotted.

4-Dec-2000, Whitehorse, Yukon: 9:00am
e-mail report: I witnessed a "shooting star"? this morning about 9:00am while travelling north on the Alaska Highway near Philmar RV Services (a few kilometers south of downtown Whitehorse) - the very bright, sapphire blue streak was visible for about 2 seconds - the streak traveled across the sky in front of me at about a 60 degree angle from right to left appearing at about 2 o'clock and disappearing about 7 o'clock - it was quite impressive.

13-Dec-2000, Lake Laberge, Yukon: 3:55am
A Close-up Light Display at Lake Laberge.

14-Dec-2000, Little Fox Lake: 5:45pm
Two woman were travelling southbound on the Klondike Highway just prior to reaching Little Fox Lake when their vehicle was overtaken on their left side by a large orange fireball. "It zoomed past us". The ball itself was the size of a 3 ft (0.9 metre) road sign and the tail (also orange) was the length of an 18-wheeler trailer. It looked like it was 15 feet above the ground and below tree level. The fireball was visible for one to two seconds. The strange thing was that as soon as it hit, the two women sensed an electrical burning smell in their vehicle. They checked their gauges, which gave no indication of anything amiss and the car gave them no further trouble. One woman thought the fireball was just behind the trees on the side of the road, perhaps 500 ft (150 metres) away and the other woman thought that it was further, about 3 to 10 miles (5 to 16 kilometres) away.

Dec-2000 or Jan 2001, Lewes Lake on Carcross Road: 11:00-11:30pm
The witness was driving towards Carcross when he came around the corner by Lewes Lake and saw a 3 foot high by 6 foot wide window lit-up about 100 metres in front of him on the lake side of the road. When the car's headlight hit the window, the light went out in the window. The witness drives that road often and there is no house at that location. He was very surprised and regrets that he did not stop to investigate. The window was split into 3 equal parts by two vertical dividers and the light was pure white with no visible features )curtains or persons). The window was perfectly level, no tilt. When the witness drove by the area where the window had been he could not see any object due to darkness.