At 4:45 am, we were awakened by the caravan of RVs starting their engines (to get in line for the ferry). So, despite the yucky weather we left Dawson at 6:45 am. Here are some of the shops along the Main drag in Dawson, as we head to Tombstone Territorial Park.
The official sign saying Yes, you are on the Dempster Highway. This photo was taken later in the trip.
After 25 miles or so, we get on the Dempster Highway, a multi hundred mile gravel road to the northern Yukon Territory. But we only have to go about 40 miles.
The Park straddles the Dempster Hwy. The Park, the equivalent of a state park in the US, is just exactly the size of our nation's most visited Nat'l Park, the Great Smoky Mtns.
If you are looking at the road surface, well, it may not be raining, but it will be a muddy drive, for sure.
This just tells you where we are heading.
Yeah, our trailer got really muddy.
Super muddy..... This was the last photo we took this day, as it started raining some more. So we went to the Park Visitor Center (Great Rangers there!!), came back to camp, took a nap, and with outside temps in the mid-40's, decided we would read books for the rest of the day.
Whoa, despite a bad forecaset for Monday, things looked pretty good. The first thing we did was to drive up the Hwy to a viewpoint of Tombstone Mtn and the North Klondike River Valley.
A somewhat closer view.
Looking back at the valley in which we are camped (camground in the left of the photo.)
Closeup of the Visitor Center and campground.
So, the weather was still holding when we got back to camp, so we decided to take a hike along the North Klondike River, which one can do from the campground.
Just in case I was uncertain as to where we are going.
When one gets away from the river for a bit, the ground cover is exceptional.
A closeup of the reindeer moss.
A side trail finished, we continue working our way up the river valley.
In some swampy areas, there were even a couple of boardwalks.
Aufice (pronounced "off - ice)" which is ice that builds up when the river is partially frozen. Here we are in Late June and it is still there.
One can see how blue it is from the compression over the season. Sorta like a mini glacier.
Roger taking a photo of the aufice.
We got to near the end of the maintained trail, decided we were going to drop down into thick willows, and figured this was a good turn around point.
Later in the day, we walked down along the Beaver Pond trail, but not much going on.
