Dempster Highway, Yukon

Out of Dawson City, we found ourselves faced with our last journey to the NORTH.  It was a sad occasion, north being our favorite direction in the whole world, but we were going to make the most of it!   The road we drove, although we were unable to travel the full extent of it, was the Dempster Highway, Yukon Hwy 5.   This is a 456 mile long gravel road which goes all the way up to the Arctic Circle and then to an Inu’piat (Eskimo) Village called Inuvik on the Arctic Ocean.   It is, in fact, the only road in Canada on which one can drive to the Arctic Circle.   Services on the Dempster Highway are very limited, none at all, for the first 230 miles.   Fall had been coming on strong in the areas we visited in the last couple weeks, with cold temperatures and a bit of snow.  When we asked about road conditions on the Dempster, we were told there had been, in fact, heavy snow to the north and it was getting muddy and very difficult.   We decided to limit our travel therefore to just about the first 100 miles, encompassing Tombstone Territorial Park.  It would give us a taste of the far north, but hopefully keep us out of trouble!   As you see, we once again were lucky to have beautiful blue skies.    The scenery was spectacular and unique in our entire trip to this region.   

Due to our driving now in a northerly direction and with a significant increase in altitude, we rather rapidly moved from the boreal to the alpine, and then to the high arctic environment.  At the southern end of the road, forests follow the river valley.   Tundra plants in rainbows of color carpet the alpine areas in the rugged mountains.  And then, as Canada’s arctic reaches down from the north, the terrain becomes a treeless, windswept area.    

How to shrink a big truck camper...

Heading further and further north into the high arctic environment.   Here the mountains get smoother,
not carved by glaciers in the last ice age.   The land begins to form to dry grassland plateaus...

The hikes we took in Tombstone Territorial Park were very challenging climbs, but worth it!   The views were always incredible from the top. 

The first hike we took was the Grizzly Creek Trail up Monolith Mountain.
How's this for an elevation map of a trail???

Monolith Mountain

Bernie on the trail

Our destination was to the tippy top...and the trail was over all these
rocks!!

Rewarded with view such as this...

...and this

Bernie makes it!

Peggy rests at the top

Still enough energy for a little romance!

The second trail we took was up Goldensides Mountain

We were at a higher altitude now, so hiked in snow.

This is the tundra vegetation that gives the mountainsides their red color

"Tree" pose on a treeless mountaintop

Just plain happy

Perhaps the greatest thrill of all, however, was in getting to see the aurora borealis here one night!!    We camped that night at the highest point on the Dempster Highway which also happens to be the continental divide, separating rivers which flow west to the Bering Sea from those flowing north into the Beaufort Sea on the Arctic Ocean. 

Near the continental divide

Our campsite for the night

View from our campsite...and yes it did get very cold that night!

I had noticed on the map that we were located just over the 65th parallel, where we’d learned the aurora occurred most frequently.   In fact, some folks here don't even call them the "Northern Lights" because they are not occurring to the north, but directly above!    I had also noticed the skies were very clear, and I joked with Bernie as he got ready for bed, telling him I was going to see the aurora after working on the blog for awhile that night.   Time got away from me and it was 11:30 p.m. when I got ready to go to bed.   Just for grins I looked outside and OMG!!!    There it was!!!   Multiple rivers of green phosphorescent light swirling and twisting in the sky above, stretching across the horizon.   I immediately awakened Bernie and together we were mesmerized by the sight.   It was some time before I thought to photograph it, and my photos are far less splendid than what we got to see that night, but here you go….

Evening light at camp...sunset being at about 10 p.m. or so!

It was quite the grand finale for the northernmost point of our entire trip!   It was very cold here (low 20s F at night) and now we headed to the city of Whitehorse, where we'd heard it was a bit warmer and there is a microbrew!!!    Always need to have something to look forward to, eh?