Whitehorse, Day 2

Our first order of business this morning was to move to Wolf Creek Territorial Campground.  We stayed at Hi Country RV Park for two nights.  It was good to have electricity, laundry, WiFi in our rig, and TV, but everything is now recharged, our tanks are empty and the clothes are clean.  Time to move somewhere cheaper.

Hi Country is one of two or three full-service campgrounds in Whitehorse.  It is the one we hear referred to most often in blogs of Alaska travelers.  The owners are definitely friendly, maintain a nice campground, and cater to all of us overnighters making our way along the Alaska Highway.  They are located right on the Alaska Highway and only three miles from downtown Whitehorse--pretty doggone convenient.

 All interior roads are gravel as are the parking pads.  Most sites are pull-thrus, but there are back-ins around the perimeter and a small cluster of back-ins in the center of the campground.  The laundry and showers are clean and everything works.  They seem to have an adequate number of washers and dryers (6 each).  I didn’t have to wait when I went, however, there have been no caravans here this weekend.  That could make all the difference in the world in availability of showers and laundry facilities.  Laundry is $3 per wash and $1 for 16 minutes of drying time.  The washers are the new front-loading type and the dryers are the large commercial type.  I got one load of clothes dry in 16 minutes.  I credit that to our wearing mostly quick-drying performance fabrics.

Nice as Hi Country is, we are on a mission to save on campground fees.  Gotta have that extra money for the gas tank.  So we’re leaving the $36 per night (even with a Good Sam discount) to move over to Wolf Creek for $12 per night.

Wolf Creek is like the other government campgrounds.  This one, however, is a little larger with about 38 sites, a very large day use area in front with picnic tables, a cooking shelter, and a playground.  There are even a few pull-thru sites; one of which we are parked in.

Wolf Creek runs through the campground.  In the late 1990s Yukon Fish and Game built a fish “ladder” to assist the spawning Chinook salmon.  I think what is called a fish ladder is just where the creek or river bed has been built up into something like stair steps.  There is so much rushing water in Wolf Creek today that it is difficult to see the steps of the “ladder”.

After we got settled into our new home base, we drove back to town to visit the Yukon Beringia Interpretative Centre.  We enjoyed our visit and learned a lot about the theories regarding the last ice age, the land bridge connecting Siberia and North America, and the animals that may have populated the area.  We watched two very well done films and wandered through the exhibit halls.  I think there was only one other couple there this afternoon, so the staff gave us lots of attention.  Gene even got to learn how to throw a spear using an atlatl.  That was a hoot.  He was very good at hitting the shrubbery.

The Beringia Centre isn’t a world class museum, but it was very well done.  We enjoyed our visit and would recommend it for anyone interested in prehistory.  For a museum, it was very inexpensive.  We got the senior rate (over 55) of $5.00 each.

What's left of a steppe bison

Next door to the Beringia Centre is the Transportation Museum.  We didn’t go in there, but did walk over to take a picture of the DC-3 on a post.  It actually swivels; probably the world’s largest weathervane.

That was our day.  Thanks for tagging along.