TO TOK – 386 Miles
Last night I waited for the daylight to disappear, but at midnight I was still looking out the window at a light blue sky and a few clouds but no sign of darkness. I finally gave in and went to bed. To me, a first-time visitor to the far North, it seems there is something bizarre about a light sky at midnight. I hope I can soon get over it and get a reasonable nights sleep.
We topped off the fuel tank before leaving Whitehorse and thought we would end up in Beaver Creek for the night. The weather, as well as the road, was ever-changing throughout the day.
We made a stop in Haines Junction to spend some time at the Kluane National Park Visitor Center. Their RV parking is not the best, but there is room for large rigs. As you enter from the main road, take the gravel road to the right instead of the paved road to the left. It lines you up better in a big rig. You can Easily spend an hour here.
The movie they show is BEAUTIFUL. By making this stop and seeing the model of the whole National Park, it later makes it easier to identify the peaks, the glacier locations and better understand the landscape as we drove along the lower border of the park. Well worth the stop.
The history of this area is somewhat heartbreaking. After the construction of the highway the First Nations people who lived in this area for generations suddenly found themselves restricted to where they could hunt or in fact live. The Alaska Highway was the dividing line, and they had to remain in the lands below or east of the highway. Since that time, many generations have passed, and although the tribes that reside there now are working alongside the parks officials these days, the younger generations don’t have a great deal of the knowledge of the land that their ancestors had, and some of the information has been lost. It seems that now, however, they are trying to teach the language in schools and listen to the elders and what they can recall of the past so that it can be documented.
Destruction Bay
By the time we suffered through many areas of rough patched pavement, we felt like Beaver Creek was too far away. We bailed off the highway near Destruction Bay on Kluane Lake (kloo-wah-nee) at CONGDON CREEK Campground. It’s boondock camping. No dump and the water that is available advises boiling for 5 minutes. $12.00 Canadian to the iron ranger. There are two loops in this campground. One has many lakeside sites with a few being suitable for large rigs but the second loop in the trees has many pull-throughs that are quite large. We chose the lakeside loop.
There is also an area for Tent campers. Since this is a well-traveled area for Bears, the tent camping area is protected by many rows of Electric Fence.
We were happy to be able to spend the remaining part of the day exploring North and South along the lake. We spotted Bighorn sheep up on the hillside just south of the campground above the Thachal Dhal Visitor Center. Probably a herd of 100 or more. Even my 600mm could not bring them in for a decent picture. We were told about three weeks ago; the herd was all along the highway. Mmmmmm, I would have been filling up memory cards for sure if we would have seen that. This area is the primary winter and spring range and lambing area of the Dall Sheep.
Kluane Lake is massive and beautiful. Signs show this is a high crosswind wind area, but today it was smooth as glass until late afternoon.
We stopped at the nearby airport and talked with the owner of the ICEFIELD DISCOVERY service that can take you on a glacier viewing flight. We may consider that on our way back.
The sun is still remaining high in the sky at Midnight. I know, I should be getting over that by now. My friend Dona says, just close your eyes and go to sleep. Ha! Maybe I should have bought one of those eye masks.
