Campground Review - Downtown RV Park - Watson Lake, Yukon Territory, Canada

Description

The Downtown RV Park is just off the Alaska Highway in downtown Watson Lake, Yukon Territory, Canada. The park has full service hookups and easy access to amenities in Watson Lake. This campground is a convenient place to stop while traveling the Alaska Highway. Unfortunately, the campground has little charm as it is essentially a large parking lot.

Location

Downtown RV Park
105, 8 St N
Watson Lake, YT Y0A 1C0, Canada
Park: +1 867-536-2646
Latitude: 60.03825 N, Longitude: -128.42398 W, Elevation: ~2260 ft (689 m).

Details

We stayed for one night at the Downtown RV Park in mid May, 2018. This is a very basic full service park. This is a Good Sam park. The manager seemed unpleasantly abrasive and opinionated.

Cost

For one night at a 50 amp full hookup pull-thru site we paid about $55(CN) per night with tax. The price seemed expensive, given the very basic amenities. There were no fees for pets or an extra vehicle.

Ratings (1-5)

Accessibility – 3/5

The campground is accessible via paved roads. Lanes in the campground are well-maintained gravel. The park has both pull-thru and back-in sites and can accommodate large rigs. The campground facilities have some provisions for Universal access.

Facilities/Amenities – 2/5

This campground has basic amenities, including full hookup sites, dump station, coin-op restrooms and showers, coin-op laundry, coin-op RV wash, and limited free WiFi. Tents are not allowed. Facilities could use more frequent cleaning and repairs.

Site quality – 2/5

RV sites have full hookups with either 50 amp or 30 amp electric service. The campground is basically a large gravel parking lot – sites are level gravel, with little separation between sites. The campground has back-in and pull-thru sites.

Scenic Value – 2/5

The park has shade trees along the borders of the campground and between lots, but the campground is otherwise a large parking lot with little scenic value or charm. There is, however, a boardwalk with a nice view of Wye Lake across the street from the RV park

Location/Isolation – 2/5

This is about a block from the ALCAN Highway in the semi-urban center of Watson Lake town. Road noise from the ALCAN is noticeable but the park is reasonably quiet at night. The open layout of the park and closeness of sites does not lend to a feeling of isolation.

Paws Friendliness – 2/5

The campground is pet friendly, but does not have an enclosed pet run or cleanup bag stations. The park is small for walking your pet, but there is easy access to the Wye Lake boardwalk for longer walks.

Overall Rating – 2/5

Overall, the Downtown RV Park is a convenient place to stay while travelling the Alaska Highway, but otherwise has little charm. Our stay here was acceptable, but given a choice on another trip we would stay elsewhere.

Additional info

Internet access

We received a moderate 4G signal at this campground. Access was roaming, but did not cost extra with our Verizon Unlimited plan. High speed data usage throttled down after 500 Mb per device per day. Internet speed was generally slow for the cellular connection. We did not use the campground WiFi service.

Water Quality

The campground water tested hard.

Nearby Amenities

Several gas stations, restaurants, grocery stores, visitor information and some automotive and RV services are available in Watson Lake. A wide range of grocery stores, restaurants, shopping, and RV and automotive services are available in Whitehorse, YT (270 miles / 438 km) or fewer options at Fort Nelson, BC (317 miles / 513 km).