Yukon solitaire is Klondike with the training wheels off. All 52 cards are dealt into seven columns, most of them face-up, and there is no stock pile to draw from — everything you will ever have is already on the table.
The signature twist is movement: you can pick up any face-up card together with every card sitting on top of it, whether or not that group is in proper sequence, and drop it onto a valid target. That freedom turns Yukon into a rich puzzle of shuffling long groups around to expose the cards you need. Coming from FreeCell? You'll enjoy the extra mobility.
How to play Yukon solitaire
Yukon deals all 52 cards into seven tableau columns. The first column holds a single face-up card; each column after it gets one more card than the last, and within every column beyond the first the lower cards are face-down while the top five are face-up. There is no stock and no waste pile — the entire deck is in the tableau from the start.
You build the foundations up by suit from Ace to King, exactly as in Klondike. In the tableau you build down in alternating colours, but here is the crucial difference: you may grab any face-up card along with all the cards resting on it and move the whole stack, even if those upper cards are a jumbled sequence. Only the bottom card of the group you lift needs to legally fit its new home. Moving cards off a column exposes and flips its face-down cards, and only a King (with whatever sits on it) may move to an empty column. Enjoy the free movement? The classic all-visible challenge is FreeCell.
Yukon solitaire strategy & tips
Because you can haul disordered groups around, Yukon is less about tidy sequences and more about which face-down cards you can flip. Target the columns with the deepest face-down stacks and use long group moves to peel cards off the top and reveal what's hidden underneath.
Watch the buried low cards especially — an Ace or two trapped under a face-down pile is what stalls most Yukon games, so plan the group moves that will eventually uncover it rather than parking more cards on top. Guard your empty columns, since only a King can reopen them and a well-timed King move can unlock a whole side of the board. And don't feed the foundations greedily: a low card left in the tableau frequently serves as the anchor that lets you relocate an awkward off-colour group. With no stock to bail you out, every move here is a commitment, so read the board and lean on undo to test a plan before you lock it in.
Yukon vs Klondike: common mistakes
Players arriving from Klondike trip over Yukon's freedoms. The biggest mistake is thinking in single cards or tidy runs — in Yukon you should constantly ask 'what can I lift as a group?', because moving a scrambled stack to expose one face-down card is often the whole point of a turn. Forgetting there is no stock is the second trap: you cannot draw yourself out of trouble, so nothing on the board should be wasted.
The third is emptying a column with no King to fill it, which in Yukon strands valuable space just as it does in Klondike. Because every card is visible from the outset, a higher share of Yukon deals are winnable than in Klondike, but the game still demands the group-move planning that catches newcomers off guard. Master that and Yukon becomes one of the most satisfying members of the solitaire family — a natural next step once Klondike feels routine.