We set out at a leasurely pace thinking we would get to Dawson City tonight, tour Dawson for a day then head to the Arctic Circle, well, plans change... As we drove along we spotted a coyote running next to the road. He spotted us and turned and ducked into a culvert that ran under a side road, then after peering out, he came out the other side. As I was taking pictures of him he started walking along closer and closer to us, tongue hanging out and "smiling". Then he was about to dart infront of the truck and I thought possible into my open window! I let out a little "yelp" and said "go!" and we made our get away. I had all the pictures of him that I needed, thank you! He ran off. We crossed the Yukon River twice. At one place in the river called "Five Fingers" there was a beautiful overlook. It was a dangerous part of the river for the sternwheelers. They had to hook up to a cable and winch themselves over to the deeper channels of water through the large rock "islands". It must have been quite an engineering feat to see!
I started calculating the time it would take to get to the Arctic Circle and realized there was no way we could do it in a day. So we gassed up at the station at the base of Dempster Hwy. It was unmanned. It took Bob 15 to 20 minutes to figure out how to turn on the pumps. There was a little 2ft X 4ft booth to go in and insert your credit card. Next you had to complete a coarse in gasoline safety procedures. Once completed you got a code #. You then re-swiped you credit card and entered the code# that is specific to your card. Now you could turn on your pump. Very interesting! We proceeded out onto the Dempster. The entrance was through a small one lane bridge with a wooden floor.
The road is dirt but for the first 2 hours was in very good condition. Bob was comfortable doing 35 -40mph. We were heading out through snow capped mountain peaks About 1 hour in we saw a hugh animal in the brush at the side of the road. It slipped quickly in deeper and we could not make out positive I.D. but suspect it is the very large Yukon Moose. The largest type found in North America. At first Bob thought it was a grizzly standing on it's hind legs. It was huge! Onward the terrain kept changing and became like something we had never seen before. We rose above the treeline and the surrounding mountains and ice fill streams were awesome. (can't say that word enough) During this stretch of about 1 hour the road got much rougher and we often slowed to 10/15 mph. It was hard to average 25 mph. Then the road improved again and Bob was able to go 40 as the terrain got stranger! The mountains were stone but it must have been crushed by glaciers as it was gravely and loose. Next we came to the Sulfor Springs area and the river ran red/orange as its waters percolated through many minerals. The guide post said "do NOT drink" from it. About 10 miles more before we stopped for the night we finally saw our Grizzly Bear!
It was walking down the road as we approached. It turned off road and we thought we had lost it. It had turned into what may have been an old stone quarry during road construction. It was only about 50 yards away. Bob stopped and I took a many photos. There were tufts of animal fur in clumps around the stone pile. Possibly caribou or snow-shoe hare hide bits and pieces. At first I thought someone had left trash! Not so. It was a good end to an 11 1/2 hour drive. And an exciting way to end the day. We approached the Engineer's Creekside park/campground and were happy that it's bar/gate was open. We were the only ones there and crashed for the night. 11pm and lots of daylight!
The road is dirt but for the first 2 hours was in very good condition. Bob was comfortable doing 35 -40mph. We were heading out through snow capped mountain peaks About 1 hour in we saw a hugh animal in the brush at the side of the road. It slipped quickly in deeper and we could not make out positive I.D. but suspect it is the very large Yukon Moose. The largest type found in North America. At first Bob thought it was a grizzly standing on it's hind legs. It was huge! Onward the terrain kept changing and became like something we had never seen before. We rose above the treeline and the surrounding mountains and ice fill streams were awesome. (can't say that word enough) During this stretch of about 1 hour the road got much rougher and we often slowed to 10/15 mph. It was hard to average 25 mph. Then the road improved again and Bob was able to go 40 as the terrain got stranger! The mountains were stone but it must have been crushed by glaciers as it was gravely and loose. Next we came to the Sulfor Springs area and the river ran red/orange as its waters percolated through many minerals. The guide post said "do NOT drink" from it. About 10 miles more before we stopped for the night we finally saw our Grizzly Bear!
It was walking down the road as we approached. It turned off road and we thought we had lost it. It had turned into what may have been an old stone quarry during road construction. It was only about 50 yards away. Bob stopped and I took a many photos. There were tufts of animal fur in clumps around the stone pile. Possibly caribou or snow-shoe hare hide bits and pieces. At first I thought someone had left trash! Not so. It was a good end to an 11 1/2 hour drive. And an exciting way to end the day. We approached the Engineer's Creekside park/campground and were happy that it's bar/gate was open. We were the only ones there and crashed for the night. 11pm and lots of daylight!
We also stayed at Engineer's Creekside Campground. I remember seeing some very large bear footprints next to the brook, but did not see any bears. A First Nation native was camping next to us and said he had spotted a pack of wolfs across the creek from us. It does make you think about closing the camper door at night! Great pictures...Keep them coming!
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