Five nights at Conrad Campground, Yukon
This post is actually about two visits to Conrad Campground with the motorhome. The first one, on July 4th-5th, only lasted one night due to a major electrical problem. With that fixed, the second one was from July 10th through the 14th.
On our first visit, our first RV outing of the year, we arrived at Conrad at 1:20, which we hoped would allow us to get a site at this very popular campground. The campground was very poorly built – there are no level sites and few sites where we can even get level with blocks. We got lucky, though, and found one that worked out very well. It was a gorgeous afternoon.
The next morning, we met a friend who was camped a few sites down, and went for a walk to the historic Conrad townsite and over to the creek at the south end of town. It’s listed in the Yukon Gazetteer as Big Thing Creek, but gets called by a few different names including Conrad and Montana.
Although the townsite isn’t an approved camping area, it’s been used for camping for over a century so rather than fight it, the government has provided services for the people who do walk in to tent, including bear-proof lockers.
Sue shot the next photo of us at the main bay where the Conrad mining company dock and aerial tramway terminus were located. See much more about Conrad in my post about it today and in the past.
At the campground, Sue found some 1937-1939 magazines apparently being used as firestarter. She found them on July 5, and the Life magazine on the right is from July 5, 1937 🙂
As electrical problems with our rig increased, we decided to give up and go home. But the motorhome wouldn’t start! I normally tow the Tracker which I keep full of equipment including jumper cables, but hadn’t though to move all that stuff over when we decided to have Cathy drive the Jeep instead. Luckily, Sue had jumper cables and we were able to get the rig started.
Back home, I posted on Facebook that “The rig has a major electric problem – it seems like both the two 6-volt house batteries and the chassis battery have died. We were really enjoying it there. The silver lining is that was by far the closest to home we’ve ever camped, so a good time to die (if there is such a thing).”
The house batteries were indeed toast…
…and the chassis battery, rated for 5 years, was now over 10 years old so replacing it would be a good idea.
I drove into town and exchanged $1,069 for about 140 lbs of batteries at NAPA.
Damn these 6-volts are heavy! Google says they’re 46-50 lbs each. Anyway, I soon had all 3 installed and we were once again ready to go.
The short drive to and back from Conrad had been really nice so we decided to go back there. In a light rain, we were about to turn onto the campground access road at 1:40 on Wednesday (July 10th).
It’s a fairly steep drop from the highway to the campground.
The washboarding on the road was bad. This results when people try to climb the hill faster than they have traction for and the wheels start hopping. Each person that does it makes it worse.
The main information board and registration/payment box. I had finally got our annual pass ($100 for seniors, $200 for other Yukon residents) before the last visit so no cash was involved. For a daily permit, it’s $20 cash paid on site but you can buy ahead online for $18.
The rain had now stopped and the skies were clearing, but due to the rain and being mid-week, the campground was pretty much empty and we were able to get the same site we had a few days before.
This visit is going to get broken up into 3 blog posts, each with a different subject. This one will be about the campground and our activities. The next short one (12 photos) is about the unique walk-in tenting sites in the forest high above the main campground. And the final one is about the hiking trails, which for me are Conrad’s biggest attraction.
The strong sunbow was cool to see but it meant that the rain would be returning.
One of the reasons we came back to Conrad was that the walk around the campground is particularly scenic and a good distance for us. I soon decided that clockwise walks are more scenic 🙂
The outhouses, wood box and garbage cans were just 2 sites from us – very convenient but far enough away to not hear any noise from them.
A look back towards the entrance.
Up the hill a bit to the picnic shelter, which has excellent views.
There are binoculars outside the picnic shelter to watch for wildlife on the mountain. You would think that is Conrad Mountain, but it’s not. That’s Escarpment Mountain, and Conrad is the next one to the south, on the Yukon-BC border.
The playground adjacent to the picnic shelter is deluxe!!
The accessible camping sites are very well equipped, with picnic tables and firepits designed for use by folks in wheelchairs. If they aren’t in use by 7:00 pm they can be used by others.
Back down the hill, at the northern end of the campground, is a water tank.
Looking back from the water tank is another information/registration board, and the start of the trail network on the right.
At the start of the trail seen above is a short trail leading down to a very scenic and sheltered beach.
On almost every walk around the campground, Bella tried to convince us to take the beach detour 🙂
It really does have a good vibe, and we all enjoyed our time there.
It’s been windy during all of our days at Conrad Campground – sometimes very windy. his 34-second video was shot on an average day.
Back at the bay at the Conrad townsite. This was a good destination when we wanted a bit of a longer walk. The fine gravel at the little beach was nice, but the sand here is what Bella really liked and what got her into the water.
The rather complex geology of the slopes of Escarpment Mountain fascinated me, and I took a few 400mm photos, looking for evidence of mining exploration work that might have happened during the 1905-1906 rush. I’ve found some hints but nothing definitive.
But what incredible hiking up top! Accessing those slopes, though, would be very difficult, starting with boat access.
On Friday we decided to go on a bear search, and ended up going all the way to Fraser.
We might have gone right to the White Pass summit, but hadn’t expected to be gone long so weren’t very well prepared, with no papers for the dogs and no ramp to help Bella get into and out of the Jeep.
Fraser was good for flowers, though. That’s Dwarf dogwood on the right, but my app says that’s subalpine fleabane of the left and I don’t believe it.
Western Indian paintbrush.
On the way back, I stopped to have a look at the new sign at the BC-Yukon border. Normally I’d say “Welcome sign” but this doesn’t feel like that, nor does it say it. I saw a comment that it looks like a trade show panel, and that’s the way it feels – small and cheap, able to be tossed in the back of a van. I like the concept of using different artwork on each of the installations, but I think the execution was poorly done. I don’t expect them to last long. Oh well, the taxpayers have lots of money…
Edit: Dawson City graphic designer Cud Eastbound posted a design he created in 45 minutes on his Facebook page. It’s getting a lot of comments, all positive – the polar opposite of the design done by a company in Nova Scotia.
We had given up on finding a bear, but less than a kilometer from the campground access road, a black bear ran across the road in front of us! Tucker went nuts. He’s out of practice, clearly – he used to be really good about being quiet when I asked him to.
Snuggled with my puppy in front of the campfire – a fine way to end a day, and to end this post 🙂
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I can’t get enough of your insightful articles and engaging stories. Thank you for sharing your passion with the world!
Murray, this Conrad entry mentions the options of daily and yearly park permits, including senior citizen rates. Do I remember correctly you mentioning a benefit for Yukon’s senior citizens being camping for free? If so, when did the change happen from free to a fee?
Yes, Ryan, annual camping passes for Yukon seniors used to be free. I think 3 years ago they started charging $50, then raised it to $100 the next year.
Good day Murrster, beautiful camping facility at Conrad, battery cost like everything through the roof this days, Cathy seems to be adjusting to retirement quite well, Windy Arm living up to it’s name in the video like scary too, those aspens a trembling eh, Yukon sign not the old school welcome sign with the magic and the mystery theme, that coach rolling towards the picture of the Yukon sign not a Norline coach or Atlas coach, but perhaps Westours 🤔 always great information to rekindle Yukon memories 🇨🇦 Tanks eh 🦫