Oct. 5 Drive from Fort Nelson to Edmonton

Grain Elevators near Grande Prairie, Alberta

The Mascot of Beaver Lodge, Alberta

Hay drying near Grande Prairie, Alberta

Hay bales near Hythe, Alberta

Over the last two days we have driven from Fort Nelson in Northern BC to Edmonton, Alberta. We left the mountains and entered the prairies. We over-nighted in Grande Prairie. The last crop of hay is being dried and baled. The relative flatness of the land and lack of tall trees makes this big sky country.

This will be the last post.

Tim and Joan

Oct. 3rd Drive to Fort Nelson, BC

We were underway at 9:00 and made it 15km down the road before our first photo stop. Today we crossed into BC, and the scenery is still very impressive. We stopped to photograph (and watch) 3 different herds of wood bison. BC keeps a wide shoulder clear of trees on their highways. The bison love to graze on the shoulders, It was fun to watch the young calves still feeding from their mothers. About halfway to Fort Nelson we stopped at the Liard Hot Springs. This is a BC provincial park and completely open to the public. Entrance was free today – although in summer it is $5.00 per car. Joan did not have a bathing suit, so I went in while she watched. We walked 700 meters through the woods and there was a changing room (unheated) but no other services. I changed quickly and hopped into the pool. It was lovely. I chatted with several people there ( 2 of whom were drinking something from a floating bar) They all seemed to be repeat visitors, most from quite a distance away. The most talkative lives 900km away and comes several times a year. He always visits on New Years day. The springs are open all winter and during the cold spells the trees are white with frost and ice.

After the hot bath we were on our way again. We have yet to see a moose on this trip, but today we saw a lynx, 4 elk, and of course the wood bison.

The walk through the woods to the hot springs

The floating bar.

Not too close

Northern British Columbia

The Elk were very shy

Oct. 2nd Drive to Watson Lake

Early Morning Frost

River Bank at Johnson's Crossing

Just another mountain in the Yukon

We are starting our trip home. We drove across the bottom of the Yukon east to Watson Lake. It was a leisurely drive but again we made far too many photo stops along the way.

Oct. 1st Drive to Atlin and return

We drove to Atlin and back today. Atlin was a resort town for the rich and famous from 1910 to 1936. The railroad ran a spur to Atlin and built a hotel and cruise ship to entertain rich guests. The scenery is spectacular. Fishing and hunting were also promoted. In 1936 the tourist industry collapsed and the town fell into disrepair. Lately it has been restoring boats and buildings and it is known as an artists' colony. The houses are somewhat quirky.

View from Atlin

Definitely different

Definitely Old

This cruise boat was dry docked in 1936 but is now usable.

Sept. 30 Drive to Fraser BC and return.

Joan in the cool mornings

Along the rail line

The rail line runs beside the lake for several kms

We are in Carcross for three nights to see the scenery in the south Yukon and Northern British Columbia. We drove to Fraser BC and back today. Fraser is a railway town left over from the 1898 Gold Rush. The White Pass and Yukon Railway is a narrow gauge railway built for the miners to get to Whitehorse from Skagway in Alaska. The railway still runs, but mostly for tourists. The road we took goes to Skagway, but I didn't bring the passports so we didn't cross the border.

The Aspen and Tamarack trees turn yellow.

Sept. 29th Drive to Carcross

Sun and fog early morning

Sunrise is after 8 a.m. and since we were on the road shortly after 8 we got the early morning sun shining through the fog. It was -9 this morning so the fog stayed until 10. We are heading south and the bright yellow aspen trees have returned to the landscape. Carcross is in the Southern Lake District which is very mountainous. Carcross has been around since the Gold rush of 1898 and is on a narrow gauge rail line from Skagway, Alaska to Whitehorse, Yukon. We took a leisurely walk through the town which is pretty small but has some interesting buildings.

More fog

Island in thick fog

Emerald Lake

Sept. 28th Drive to Keno and Carmacks

Today is Caroline's birthday. Caroline Ursula Baker (CUB) was named after the town Oberursel in Germany. As we drove to Keno today we spotted a mother bear and 2 cubs by the roadside. I backed up the car so I could get my camera, but a big truck drove by the bears and scared them. I only got shots of the mother and 1 cub running away. But we got to see a cub on CUB's birthday.

Keno is almost a ghost town. In the summer 28 people live in Keno and work the tourist trade. In the winter, 10 people live there. The town was the home of a silver mine from 1920 to 1988. When the mine shut down the people left and now the whole town is a museum.Things don't rust very quickly in the Yukon.   We had lunch in the Keno hotel and we appeared to be the only tourists in town. The hotel bar was straight out of the sixties. 

Cub

She Bear

Old Truck

Gone bust

The old bar

Sept. 27 Tombstone Territorial Park

First Light

It was another early start as I drove to Tombstone to attempt the Grizzly Lake hike. This time the weather was beautiful – cool but sunny. I started hiking a half hour before sunrise. I expected the hike to take 1 ½ hours to the first lookup and 1 more hour to the second lookup. The trail to the second lookout was much more challenging than the first lookout. The trail through the scree was difficult to follow since I was always looking down. I needed to look up every 15 meters to check I was still on the trail. When I went through areas of solid snow I used the footprints from a previous hiker (Anthony) to follow the trail. I found the checkpoint, took my pictures and headed back down. Going down was as difficult as going up. When going from a snowy patch to a rocky section, my boots were slippery for the first few steps. Also the sun had melted the mud in places and the track was greasy. In the end it took 2 ½ hours to ascend and 10 min less to descend.

Tombstone Mountain

In the afternoon Joan and I walked around Dawson in the sunshine, and we took pictures of the western style buildings.  Dawson is the second largest town in the Yukon.  It has 2,200 people and the main town is 8 blocks by 8 blocks with most buildings nicely restored.

Dawson  - Front Street

Sept. 26 Tombstone Territorial Park

Dawson City sits in a narrow valley. It shares the valley with the Yukon river, a large fast running river. Every morning when we get up, the valley is socked in with fog, due to cold and water. This morning was exceptionally thick, but we packed up and drove to Tombstone Park anyhow. Near the park we crested a hill and voila, the fog cleared and the sun shone brightly. It was the sunniest day we have had in the park. We planned to do a hike, but the trail we chose petered out before 1 km, so we drove the car from spot to spot stopping for picture breaks every 10 km. At one point we turned back due to a storm coming, and the storm never caught us. For the first time we were able to see Mount Tombstone.

Joan in front of a gravel pile for winter sanding

One of the many pyramid mountains in the park

Mount Tombstone with its head in the mist

A storm approaching

Sept. 25th Tombstone Territorial Park

Anthony

I was on the road at 6:00 this morning with plans to hike to Grizzly Lake and return. The weather forecast was cloudy with some sun around 11:00. Since sunrise is at 8:00 it was dark when I started. Within 15 km of Dawson I saw a bear on the road. The bear took off quickly but I could see it was all black. Just a black bear, not a Grizzly. When I got to the Dempster Highway, it started to rain. I did all 60km on the gravel road, in the rain, in the dark. I drove into the trail parking and was surprised to see another car already there. Since the rain was heavy I sat in the car for an hour and a half, drinking bad coffee and listening to my iPod. At 9:15 I decided to pack up and go home. The rain was solid and I couldn't see any mountains. I was peeing in the parking lot, when a girl walked in from the road. She looked like she had had a rough night – way too much alcohol. She walked by me to her car, checked the stuff beside her car and came back to talk with me. She got lost in the woods yesterday and had spend the night in the woods. When the light came this morning she had followed a river until it hit the road, and she walked back to the car. She had been with her boyfriend Anthony and his brother and she had lost the path on the way back. The gear beside her car was theirs and they must be out searching for her. She was going to walk back up the path to look for the brothers, but I volunteered to hike up and look for them while she rested. Off I went, and 1.5 km up the trail I found Anthony's brother. He was sitting under a large tree which protected him from the rain, with a small fire going. He was waiting for Anthony who was out searching. I gave him the news and carried on. About 2 km later I came across Anthony. He told me he had walked the trail to Grizzly Lake and back 4 times during the night looking for his girlfriend. I gave him the news and down he went. I went up to the lookout, and by the time I got there the rain had turned to snow. I took a few pictures, but I could not see the big mountains, so I descended. At least I was useful.

Snowcaps

Sept. 24th Tombstone Territorial Park

We drove the Dempster Highway all the way through Tombstone Park. The park stretches from km 51 to km 116. The trip took 2 hours because the gravel road is slow and we took many photo breaks. The park facilities are closed for the season so we ate lunch in the car. The temperature was plus 4, but the wind was strong as it whistled down the valley. After lunch we hiked up Goldensides mountain for 2 km and then back. We actually met 2 other tourists hiking the same path. That made at least 6 tourists in the 2,200 sq km park.

Peaks surround the valley

This lake is 3 km from the Continental Divide.

Mountains at the north end of the park

Joan hiking up Goldensides Mountain

Sept. 23 Top of the World Highway

Dawson is 105km from the US border. It is connected to the US by the Top of the World Highway. The highway follows an old indigenous path on the top of the mountains. The Highway is gravel and has some wonderful views of the valleys along the way. We started the drive in cloud and fog, but as we went up for the first 12km, the sun soon appeared, Again we found the driving to be incredibly slow as I stopped for photos every 10 km. It took us 5 hours to cover the 200km there and back.

Fall colours on the hills

US and Candian Customs are in the same building

Our reward at the end of our drive.

Sept 22 Tombstone Territorial Park

Storm Coming

We chose Dawson because it is close to the Tombstone Territorial Park. The park is still a hundred km away, mostly along the Dempster Highway. The Dempster Highway is a gravel road going 800km from Dawson to Inuvik. It is in good shape - for a gravel road. Today we did a hike through the woods to the tree line so we could see the mountains. When we cleared the tree line we saw plenty of mountains, and a rain storm coming our way. Instead of lunch we quickly descended to the car and drove through the park to several other viewpoints. We did not get rained on, it just snowed a little.

The Dempster Highway