THE YUKON - British Columbia: Including the Alaska Highway - page 659

who he/she is. You can put up your addition personally or take it inside to the adjacent Wat-
son Lake Visitor Information Centre (corner of Alaska Hwy. and Robert Campbell Hwy.,
867/536-7469, www.watsonlake.ca , early May-late Sept. daily 10am-6pm, July-Aug. daily
8am-8pm) and have them put it up for you. In the center, you'll get a history lesson on the
Signpost Forest, as well as the engineering feat that is the Alaska Highway through photos,
displays, dioramas, and a three-projector audiovisual presentation.
Sights
Across from the information center, the Northern Lights Centre (867/536-7827, May-
Sept.) is dedicated to the enthralling aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights.
The highlight is a planetarium-type theater that shows a stunning one-hour presentation of
northern lights footage shot in the Yukon. It runs up to six times daily from 1pm to 8:30pm.
The center also has a live feed to NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and a SciDome
space show.
Take Eighth Street north a few blocks up from the Alaska Highway to Wye Lake, where
a trail encircles the lake, complete with a boardwalk platform from which to view migrating
shorebirds and resident grebes. If you're traveling with kids, make a stop five kilometers
(3.7 miles) south of town at Lucky Lake (June-Aug.), a day-use recreation area complete
with a waterslide that will land them into the surprisingly warm lake.
Accommodations and Food
Coming into Watson Lake from the road, you'll be tired and hungry, guaranteed. Half a
dozen motels, several campgrounds, and a handful of restaurants are there to serve. Cedar
Lodge Motel (Mile 633 Alaska Hwy., 867/536-7406, www.cedarlodge.yk.net , $95 s or d)
has standard motel rooms with phones and cable TV. The hands-on owners have also deve-
loped suites in a building they moved from an abandoned mining town (from $105 s or d).
Nugget City (867/536-2307 or 888/536-2307, www.nuggetcity.com , May-Oct.) is a
large tourist complex 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of Watson Lake (just past the Cassiar
turn-off). The wooden cabins ($135-220 s or d) are spotlessly clean and come with a deck
and satellite TV. Even taking into consideration the nondescript interiors, they are a good
value. Fancier suites come with jetted tubs and covered decks. Tent sites are $26 and large
pull-through hookup sites come with power, water, and satellite TV hookups for $42-55. At
Nugget City, Wolf it Down Restaurant (867/536-2307, 6:30am-9:30pm daily May-Oct.,
$14-24) is a touristy place with decent food, including Northern specialties like bison bur-
gers, and an in-house bakery.