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Tuesday, July 24, 2018

The shores of Kluane Lake, Yukon

Another gorgeous day in the Yukon, which along with Alaska is experiencing a northern heat wave. Yesterday was 28C (83F) and sunny where we are.

We drove from our beautiful boondocking spot near Snag Lake down to the community of Burwash Landing, and then to Destruction Bay. Lots of gorgeous scenery along the way...

Here are a few pics of the scenery as taken from the highway...





The White River is kind of muddy!





This is the fireweed... Yukon's official flower.


We made it to Burwash Landing. We had been without internet for almost 24 hours (I know, the horrors, right?) and I was surprised that I wasn't picking up a cell signal as we got closer to town. We went into the Kluane Museum of History (which is really well done for a small town museum) and the lady said that the cell service had been down since 2am.

While we were in the museum, it started working again!

Kluane Museum of History.

They have a lot of stuffed animal displays that are quite well done.

Caribou.

Wolverine.

Native handiwork.

Not bad. Worth the $5 CAD ($3.85 USD) admission price.

We found an unsecured wifi signal coming from the local First Nations band office and got caught up on some things, then went for a walk along the shore of Kluane Lake.

Kluane Lake.

We noticed that the water level in Kluane Lake seemed really low. It seems that in 2016, the water flowing from one of the glaciers changed directions and now drains into a different river system that doesn't feed the lake.

In doing some research, they are blaming this on climate change. However, the local First Nations say the lake is only reverting back to the way it was 300 years ago! I guess the climate was changing back then too!

Kluane Lake.

The walking tour pamphlet says this boat was built in 1931.

There are other boat skeletons too.

The Burwash Landing Resort has seen better days!

The local Catholic Church.

History of the church.

I had seen mention of a campground run by the First Nations, but it's closed up now. We tried to get down there just to park, but they had barriers up. So, we carried on south towards Destruction Bay and looked for a boondocking spot, but we didn't see anything worthwhile until we actually got to the town of Destruction Bay.

Our spot last night. (GPS 61.253942, -138.800451)

Nice view out the side window.

We went for another stroll along the lake shore.

Lots of mountains around.

Killdeer.

Heading south again today towards Haines Junction and Kluane National Park. Hoping to do some great hiking in the mountains over the next couple of days!

I've been forgetting to include a map recently... here's our route since we left Dawson City...

Route since Dawson City.

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Good deal on this Stainless Steel Cookware Set...


And in Canada...




8 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Yes, the views are fantastic and there are so many of them too! :-)

      32°C, is starting to get a little on the hot side of things, it's not bad a breeze goe along with that.

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  2. Yes, we saw muddy rivers too in Alaska. The river's current were swift carrying lots of soil & probably rocks. The fireweeds were blooming at the very tippy top which meant winter was coming soon. A week after we left in late August, it snowed and buried the visitor center at Denali National Park where we had been. At night, it was cold including cold mornings. Surprisingly when we were there in winter, it wasn't as cold although the lakes and rivers were frozen on top. Cars were driving on frozen lakes. The Iditarod race started at Willow from a frozen lake top. I didn't realize I was walking on frozen lake until I overheard someone talking about it. There must have been a foot of snow on top of the frozen lake so we couldn't see it. Anyway, love the scenic drive.

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    Replies
    1. It seems that the larger rivers are the muddier ones, as you mentioned usually they are swift moving and taking lots of earth down with them.

      Yes, fireweed usually tells you when you are coming to the end of summer. It is also the one of the first plants to bloom in the springtime and the blooms will start at the bottom of the plant and work their way to the top by the end of summer. Looks like we still have a bit of summer left as the tips of the flowers aren't in bloom yet.

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  3. Did Ruth lose her right leg walking on the beach?. It seems to be missing in the photo.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lol, it does look like that doesn't it but no, I still have both of my legs, Kevin must have caught me in mid stride! ;-)

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  4. Gorgeous pics as usual! Learned something new about the fireweed and how its flowers signal when summer is ending. Will have to pay attention to that detail the next time.....I think they are very pretty! In one of our travels, they were about two feet high! Thanks for the info. Safe travels!



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, glad that you are enjoying our pictures and posts.

      We are always learning something new as we travel along. Until a few weeks ago, we didn't know that about fireweed either.

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