Tuesday, August 17 - We got an early start this morning and headed toward Whitehorse. Right out of our (very nice) campground was a photo op for the Five Finger Rapids on the Yukon. We had seen pictures of this when we toured the Keno sternwheeler in Dawson City, a tough river navigation area. Very pretty, though.
I even got Collins out of that driver's seat and up to the observation deck to see this view!
Actually, all 6 of us got out for this. As we drove on, we passed lots of mountains, creeks and rivers. We went through a wetlands area that is part of the Nordenskiold River system and is an important part of the migration route for many waterfowl, including trumpeter and tundra swans and ruddy ducks (whatever they are). There were supposed to be beaver, muskrat, moose, mink and fox in the area, but of course we saw nothing. Oh, I take that back. Collins saw a dead black bear cub along the side of the road, but the rest of us didn't even see that.
It was all very pretty, with little ponds and marshes, and I probably will have a crick in my neck tonight from looking for moose, to no avail! There really should have been at least one moose in one of these ponds.
We are now in elk country too. David thought he heard a moose bugling about 3:00 a.m., somewhere around the campground, but it could have been elk. It also could have been David dreaming again. He had one wild dream a while back about bears coming into the camper and him trying to shove them out with the broom. It's possible that he's dreaming about moose now.
Nevertheless, there is a herd of about 50 elk who live here year-round. We went through some elk hunting areas, and some "buffer areas" (whatever that means).
Our target this morning was to make the Braeburn Lodge, with "world famous cinamon buns," because we had planned our breakfast intake around this treat. We got there about 10:30, and they were huge. We split one amongst the six of us!
As we got nearer to Whitehorse, we started seeing some really nice lakes. The area around the first one, Little Fox Lake, was part of a forest fire in 1998, and the burn-out was still very evident.
Fishing is supposed to be good near the islands, and it had lots of islands. This was a pretty good-sized lake, but then we next came to Fox Lake (as opposed to Little Fox Lake), and it went on for miles. It is probably 3-4 times the size of Roosevelt Lake, at least, and had a very pretty shoreline.
The leaves are just beginning to turn up here, and the mountainsides were lovely with different shades of browns, greens, yellows and oranges. I'm sure my picture doesn't begin to capture that beauty because it was too far away, but even along side the road were pretty flowering plants (weeds).
Just before we got to the intersection of the Alaska Highway (we are now leaving the Yukon Highway), we crossed the Takhini River, a beautiful emerald-covered river. There's a Takhini Hot Springs here, about 6 miles out of town, so we may need to soak in that before we leave this area.
We got into a campground here, then Joe and I headed into town to the Ford dealer to order a part for the RV (it is supposed to be in tomorrow around 4:00 from Edmonton). Collins found what he needed for his water heater, so he got that running, and David has a service appointment for his truck for Friday. Joe and I drove through town a little bit, it a very nice town, and stopped at a Mexican restaurant for lunch. They DO NOT know how to fix Mexican food up here. It was not very good. So back to cooking in the RV for dinner, I guess. We have lots of things to do here, so we should be busy for the next few days. But we do have internet and phone service again, so we can be in touch with the outside world from here.
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