The 3,190 km long Yukon River is a major watercourse of northwestern North America. The name Yukon means "great river" in the native Gwich'in language. The source of the river is located in British Columbia, Canada and it flows through, and gives its name to, Canada's Yukon Territory. Then, it continues through the interior of Alaska before emptying into the Bering Sea at the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.
It was one of the principal means of transportation during the 1896–1903 Klondike Gold Rush. Paddle-wheel riverboats continued to operate on the river until the 1950s, when the Klondike Highway was completed.

Despite its length, there are only four vehicle-carrying bridges across the river. A car ferry crosses the river at Dawson City in the summer and in winter it is replaced by an ice bridge over the frozen river. On my trip I crossed the river twice, once via the Dawson car ferry and once over the The Yukon River Bridge in Carmacks, on the Klondike Highway.