We are near Watson Lake, Yukon Territory, Canada. I hope to get this posted today, as we will probably be out of Internet or phone range for several days, although we may have service tomorrow.
Cottonwood Campground is on the shore of Kluane Lake and we enjoyed the beauty here. The morning we left, a float plane landed. We think it was scheduled to take some of our neighbors on a sight seeing flight.
We left Cottonwood Campground on July 18 and headed for Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. The wind was down and not blowing glacier dust down the valley, so we could get a good picture of the lake and mountains from our campsite.
We stopped at the Tachal Dhal Visitor Center for Kluane National Park (Canadian), hoping to see sheep on Sheep Mountain. But they weren’t visible that morning, so we continued on.
The scenery is beautiful, so we enjoyed the drive. One guidebook we rely on is called Milepost and I believe they have just about everything along the highways in this part of Canada and Alaska documented. It suggested we stop at Sulphur Lake, which is supposed to be stopping place for migrating birds and have lots of eagles’ nests around the lake.
It’s a pretty lake, but we only saw one bird. It was an eagle, but too far away to get a decent picture. But we enjoyed the view. I even took an “artsy” picture of it:
The road to Sulfur Lake was single lane and a mixture of gravel and soft sand, which dead-ended at the lake. With a lot of luck and four-wheel drive, Steve managed to get the trailer turned around and got us back up the hill to the Alaska Highway.
We stopped for lunch at Haines Junction and visited the Kluane National Park headquarters. The building houses the National Park headquarters, the local visitor center and the First Nations heritage center. In fact, that seems to be the governing model for most of the area. The First Nation people have subsistence rights over most of the land, including hunting in national park areas, but also have responsibility to help maintain the land and wildlife. As an example, there is currently a ban on fishing certain types of salmon in the Dawson Creek area to allow the fish to repopulate. The First Nation people agree and help administer the ban.
All along the way, we encounter bicyclists, mostly solos, some pairs and some groups. This is such rugged country, I’m not sure bicycling solo is a smart thing to do. But some of the groups are on really long trips. Note the sign on this bike we spotted at lunch.
Our next stop was Canyon Creek Bridge, which is an old bridge being restored next to the newer one that is used for the highway traffic.
This area has been a trail for the First Nation people for generations before the Al-Can highway was built. Originally, wood bison (otherwise known as buffalo) roamed this area and are now being reintroduced. We didn’t manage to see any in the wild.
It was on to Whitehorse and time to catch up on some chores. Steve did laundry and got the oil changed on the truck. He also visited the Copperbelt Railroad and Mining Museum, where he got to ride on a mine train.
Much of the economy of the Yukon and British Columbia rests on mining as well as tourism. They still mine a lot of gold here, as well as other minerals and jade.
Monday we took in the Yukon Wildlife Refuge outside of Whitehorse. It was nice to see some of the animals up close that we had only seen in the distance. And even nicer to see animals that we would never get to see otherwise.
The Arctic Ground Squirrels seemed to think my toes were food and headed straight for me until I screeched and moved. They weren’t expecting food to move and veered away. But since this happened at several of our bus stops around the refuge, I don’t think I was imagining things.
Elk are not native to Canada and were introduced during the building of the highway to provide more sources of meat. They have not thrived very well.
The snowy owl is elusive, but posed politely for us. She’s injured and can’t fly.
Mule deer have migrated north into Canada and seem to thrive.
This big horned sheep is taking a nap. I’d have a neck ache!
The musk ox looks prehistoric.
The lynx is good at camouflage and Steve had a hard time getting a good picture.
This mountain goat found a shady hillside.
The artic fox was also elusive. This is his summer fur; his winter fur is white.
The pens for the large animals were appropriately large. This was as close as we were going to get to a moose at the refuge.
The wood bison was last on the tour. They were also in a large pen and keeping their distance.
The wood bison were thought to be extinct and then they found a small herd, I think in the Northwest Territory (of Canada), east of the Yukon Territory. They’ve been breeding them and repopulating them to areas where they used to roam.
We left Whitehorse on Tuesday and drove to Teslin. Here’s some of the beautiful scenery along the way.
Our campground in Teslin gave us a pretty good view.
And then one of the locals dropped by for a visit.
It was a great way to end the day.
Deb
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