In August, we headed up to the Yukon for three weeks of camping, hiking and wildlife encounters. In Whitehorse, we visited Alison who kindly shared her home with us, showed us around town and took us whitewater rafting on the Tat. From Whitehorse, we headed down to Skagway, Alaska and took the ferry across to Haines. We stayed there for a couple of days, exploring the inlets, watching wildlife and hiking. Then we drove North, through BC and back into the Yukon (where we saw the first of many grizzly bears) to Kluane National Park. In this park, we decided to go on a multi-day hike along Slims West to Observation Mountain. If you like grizzly bears, this is the place to go. This is also a great place to go if you like route-finding, quick mud, crazy “creek” crossing and complete isolation. And the scenery is stunning. Unfortunately, due to the stress caused by our grizzly bear encounter (and constant signs of fresh bear droppings, diggings and paw prints), we did not summit Observation Mountain. Instead, we walked back out from Canada Creek Campground where we spent one restless night. We were relieved to make it out without seeing another grizzly and headed back to Whitehorse to recover from our adventure (and to get our flat tire fixed).
Here is a link to photos from the first leg of our trip. If you want to see the full size photos double click on the slideshow.
To see a map of where the photos are click HERE (Hybrid mode is the best) or even better use Google Earth
The second part of the trip was much more relaxing. We drove from Whitehorse up to Dawson City where we panned for gold, met some crazy miners and watched can-can girls dance at Diamond Tooth Gertie's Gambling Hall. We also drove up the Dempster Highway, past the Arctic Circle and all the way to the North West Territories border. Our favorite part of the trip was camping in Tombstone park and hiking in the tundra just off the road. From Dawson, we took the "Top of the World Highway" into Alaska, drove through Chicken and then slowly back down to Kluane National park, where we sun tanned on the shore of Kathleen lake (spooked a black bear) and hiked up King's Throne. Then, it was time to fly back home, but not before briefly stopping in Calgary to visit George (who cooked us a fabulous meal).
To see a map of where the photos are click HERE or as before take a look with Google Earth
Thursday, September 27, 2007
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