Forest Fire!

Yesterday, we planned on driving as far as the town of Dease Lake. But at our first stop of the day at Boya Lake Provincial Park, we spoke to the park operator and she said "oh, you won't want to stay in Dease Lake, it will be a zoo". Apparently there was a bad forest fire burning at the nearby community of Telegraph Creek, and that area is under a full evactuation order.

We had all day that we could drive, so we weren't that worried. We stayed at Boya Lake and had breakfast and went for a 3 km (1.9 mile) hike to get the blood flowing.

Goodbye Yukon!

Wow... that was a great trip to Canada's north, wasn't it?

It was on June 5th that we arrived in the Yukon, and we crossed the border heading south into British Columbia yesterday, on August 5th. So while we figured we would be approximately two months in the north, we didn't plan it to be exactly two months!

Fantastic views above Carcross, Yukon

We wanted to get our hike in early, and we had overnighted at the trailhead, so we were on the trail at 8:15am.

We've been using a great website called Yukon Hiking and they listed this trail as "moderate". Well, maybe it's moderate to a 25 year old, but for us we would have rated it "difficult". We sure wouldn't want to do a hike any more difficult than this one!

Good thing we didn't meet any oncoming traffic!

We went into downtown Whitehorse on Friday morning, filled up the fuel tank, and emptied the holding tanks. Also did some stocking up at both the grocery store and the liquor store, There aren't many services along the Cassiar Highway so we wanted to be prepared.

Then, we headed back down the highway that takes you to Skagway, Alaska. Only as far as Carcross though! I had read about a fantastic hike in the area, and we wanted to have a better look at the town as well.

Ready to hit the road!

We've been parked up at our friends Art and Jean's place in Whitehorse, Yukon for the past 4 nights. They've let us use their water hose to give Sherman a much needed clean up!

Even though we had used a pressure washer when we were up in Tok, Alaska to get rid of some of the Dempster Highway mud off Sherman's underside, there was still a lot of it that I didn't get at the time.

Day trip to Skagway, Alaska

I can understand why people choose to live in Whitehorse. Especially in the summertime, when you've got so many daylight hours! There is just soooo much to see and do within a two hour drive.

Yesterday, our friends Jean and Art took us in their truck for a day trip down to Skagway, Alaska... only a 160 km (100 mile) drive each way.

July Expenses

Well, not a bad month considering we spent almost a thousand dollars on fuel! We knew that was going to be our major expense up here in the north, so it's not that much of a shock.

We spent a total of $2,069 CAD ($1,600 USD) for the month.

Here's how it all broke down...

Chinook salmon in the Yukon River

The Yukon is still experiencing a heat wave. It's beautiful though... sunny, clear blue sky and the temperature yesterday was about 28C (82F). Supposed to be the same today.

We had parked up in downtown and I took the bikes off to go for a ride to the fish ladder. They have a nice cycling and walking path here in Whitehorse that runs on both sides of the Yukon River.

We are back in Whitehorse!

We left Whitehorse on June 15th, so we've been off exploring the Yukon for about six weeks. And of course, that included a few days in Northwest Territories and Alaska as well.

Since we left Whitehorse, we have driven about 3,700 kms (2,300 miles), and much of it was on dirt roads!

Much better than a busy campground...

We headed further south in order to do more exploring of Yukon's Kluane National Park. There were a couple of other hiking trails along the way we wanted to do. The first one was listed as "a short 0.6 km hike to the rock glacier", so we stopped there and got to the trailhead where the sign said it was 1.6 kms each way. Hmm.

So, we went back and got some water and set off to do it anyhow.

A steep hike in Yukon's Kluane National Park on the King's Throne Trail

We had made plans to meet up with Dan and Isabelle at 9:00am down in the day use area at the Kathleen Lake Campground in Kluane National Park.

We left our motorhomes parked there, and we set off on the King's Throne Trail. There are two sections to the trail... the first part leads to "the seat" of the King's Throne... and then the trail branches off to the summit of the mountain. But the summit is 19 kms (12 miles) return, and it's a rated as a difficult day hike.

Doing some camping in Kluane National Park

There's not a whole lot to see in Haines Junction itself, other than the visitor's center and the fact that it's a fairly scenic location. But, it does have an interesting little church as well that's worth a stop...

Up close on the Kluane Icefields and Canada's Highest Mountain

Wow. What a day we had yesterday! I don't even know how to come up with the right term to describe it. We thought the scenic flight we did in Yukon's Tombstone Park was spectacular (and it was!) but this may have been even better!

The largest non-polar icefield in the world is located in Yukon's Kluane National Park. The ice and snow stretches for further than you can see, and in places, the ice is over 700 meters thick.

To see it all up close is a very surreal experience!

Grizzly bear sighting!

You may have noticed that we haven't mentioned a lot of animal sightings lately. That's because we haven't seen any! Well, that's not totally true. We saw a couple of caribou off far in the distance on the Top of the World Highway. And a few rabbits and other small mammals. But other than that, we hardly saw anything all the way up to Tuktoyaktuk and back... and we hadn't seen a bear for over a month!

Until yesterday...

Money in Monaco – a quick traveller’s guide

Even if you’ve never heard of Monaco, you’ve probably heard about Princess Grace. She was an American actress named Grace Kelly, and she won the heart and crown of the Monaco monarch, Prince Rainier III. She was a big Hollywood star from age 20 to 26, when she retired from acting to marry her Prince. Also, Monaco citizens are called Monégasque. This is the ethnicity and language of indigenous natives, though Italian, French, English, and Occitan are also common tongues.