Whitehorse, Yukon

We were very excited for our drive from Fairbanks and to take the Alaska Highway this time around. Mainly excited for less frost heaves and road deterioration!  I think we have done enough damage to our rig! The drive was just beautiful with mountains and scenery along with the welcomed sunshine the whole drive. I knew I was missing sunshine and being back in the Yukon with it, and realized how much I needed it. Only need to throw in some temperatures above 60 and I will be good! We did however run into a sandstorm going through the Kluane National Park, we had no idea how much sand can be found in the Yukon and Alaska.  That was sure on our what surprised us list!

After bypassing Whitehorse on our way up to Alaska, I was excited to spend some time here before our long journey to Jasper. We enjoyed walking around downtown and looking at the cute shops and well kept trail along the Yukon River. Temperatures were starting to drop having us take out our winter jackets….winter is coming to the Yukon and it’s only the middle of August!

We purchased tires for the truck at Canadian Tire as we couldn’t wait on doing the maintenance work until the lower 48.  Annalise and I decided to go to the Starbucks right by it while Jason took care of getting the truck in. I was not successful in any downloads and just felt like I was crawling on the internet. This is an ongoing occurrence on this leg of the trip! You will not find free good fast speed WiFi at any place around here! Annalise got some of her YouTube videos downloaded although very painful. Realizing an hour later that Canadian Tire has WiFi, we ventured over there to join Jason and to find their WiFi at a slow but decent speed. So should you find yourself in Whitehorse needing WiFi, go to Canadian Tire!

Where we stayed

After long-hauling it from Fairbanks, we were tired and ready to call it a night. Our plan was to stay at the Wolf Creek government campground just outside of town. At only $12 a night, we wanted to stay there to keep our expenses low.  After circling the campground twice, no campsites were to be found that would fit us and the majority were taken, so we decided to move on. Hoping to be at a lower cost campsite, we decided on Pioneer RV campground. Gone with the Wynns had stayed here and although it was not the most attractive campground, it was $35 a night with full hook-ups. We also got a discount being Good Sam members so not bad at all for 3 nights. Full signal here along with 1GB of WiFi from the campground. You can purchase more but we did not. They have gas, propane, car wash and even a dog wash.

What we did

S.S. KLONDIKE

S.S. Klondike sits right at the edge of town by the river. Being one of the top rated things to do on tripadvisor we had to check it out. It is free for a self-guided tour and $6 adult, $2 for children if you want a 45 minute tour. We love free but, all proceeds go to the restoration of the S.S. Klondike so we opted for the tour. It was awesome! We had Greg as our tour guide and he was so informative and engaging! Lucky for us, we were the only ones on this tour giving us the opportunity to monopolize Greg’s time with our questions. One interesting fact we found was that everyone on board was given an axe, with approximately 70 on board. The theory is that there was an axe per person to cut yourself out of the boat should there be an accident. Opt for the tour and ask for Greg if you go!

MILES CANYON

A hiking venture was in order while we were here! Miles Canyon looked so majestic we had to check it out along with it’s suspension bridge. The access point was only a few minutes away from our campground. The trail itself is a 15 km loop, we made it out a short distance and turned around. Beautiful scenery even if you wanted to just check out the bridge and take some pictures. I challenge myself to do the whole loop when I return to Whitehorse!

What we missed

Next time we are here, I would love to set aside a week to paddle up the Yukon river to Dawson City. Maybe at the beginning of the season when temperatures are a little warmer!