Yukon Wildlife Preserve — Attraction in Yukon

The Preserve is about a 20 minute drive out of Whitehorse. We got there just after ten, and so missed the shuttle which was a good thing. It made us walk the approximately 5K road route past the habitats of the animals. We walked at a leisurely pace, taking pictures as we went. In the first habitat, we saw Rocky Mountain elk foals with their proud parents. In the next, a field of shaggy wood bison, also with young. As we went on we saw two varieties of thinhorn sheep (Dall's sheep and stone sheep), muskoxen, snowshoe hares, Arctic foxes, a moose with calf, a woodland caribou and several mountain goats.

Throughout the walk, dozens of Arctic ground squirrels scampered and whistled their approval. The animal habitats are large, (the park is over 700 acres) and we could take pictures of the animals in their natural surroundings in many cases. Spring is a great time to see the animals with their young, but the trade off is that some of them are starting to look a little shaggy as they shed their winter coats. We took over two hours to walk the 5K route and we took over 120 pictures between the two of us. We stopped in the visitor cabin to check out and picked up a nature book for our grandchildren in the gift shop. We had several questions and the staff member on duty was able to answer all of them for us. A...

Our recent visit (and previous visits) have been pleasant. We did not see ALL of the animals but many were present (eg. Lynx required some very keen spotting and we were not able to see them this time but I have spotted them before). We were lucky enough to see a quiet moose (in a giant enclosure) way up close! Staff is knowledgeable, and went out of their way to follow up with us on an earlier question we had. Their care is also evident in these reviews as they follow up with many.

If you’re preparing to go, just know you are not a guaranteed view EVERY animal. But you have a much larger chance then seeing many of them here, compared to in the wild during a short visit to Yukon, especially if you’re not in a rush ! If you go multiple times, every walk will be different, sometimes animals will be excitingly close to fences, other times they will be off in the distance or hard to spot. If you bring your binoculars, there are lots of sitting spots you can take a rest and look at those animals off in the distance.

The walk is about 5 kms with some uphill (just don’t go against their walking direction recommendation like we did, it is much more work up the hill when it was intended to be going down!), but you could also bring a bicycle or take the tour bus...

I had a private guided tour of this Wildlife Preserve which is perfect during this raging Omicron strain. When I came here, the temperature was -39 degrees celsius so make sure if you do come here in winter, check the temperature carefully before coming. Fortunately for us, we were in our minivan so when we couldn't withstand the cold, we quickly ran back into the minivan to warm up and hide.

We managed to catch a view of the bisons, moose, mountain goats, sheep, caribou, all the herbivores, but the carnivores were hiding from us and we did not manage to see the snow fox, nor the lynx. I guess with the moose so close, it was a great day.

You can do your own walking tour but this place is huge so be prepared to spend at least half a day walking and be really prepared for the weather should it dip to really cold temperatures. We met a few hikers (visitors) and they got lost a little which is quite normal. Bring your phone and make sure it's fully charged and warm (else the battery will freeze and stop working).

All in all you can really have a great time here to see the animals and see how they adapt to the different seasons. This place also has a rehab facility so it's really doing a great job. A must to visit if you love wildlife...