9 days at Kluane Lake, Yukon – Part 1 of 2
Although I’ve gotten ahead of myself with a couple of posts, I would still like to share our 9 days at Kluane Lake with you. I’ve gathered 65 photos so will do it in 2 posts. Although we didn’t do anything major, there was a fair bit of variety, and Kluane is such an amazing, spectacular, powerful area.
Getting the motorhome ready to go was a rather overwhelming project and I almost quit a few times, but by 12:30 on Thursday, September 1st, Cathy and Bella and Tucker and I were westbound on the Alaska Highway. The weather forecast wasn’t particularly good for Kluane, but whatever. The motorhome allows us to be comfortable in any weather, and we don’t need activities to enjoy each other’s company.
Cathy suggested that we stop at The Bakery in Haines Junction for some pastries. She came back with sandwiches as well, so we stopped at the rest area just west of town for a lengthy break. I may well have been forced to take a break if we hadn’t done the voluntary one – 2 hours of driving is pretty much my limit now.
We got the best lakefront camp site at Congdon Creek Campground and after a short walk the pups and I went for a long nap. It was very windy, and the first photos I took were right at 9:00 pm, looking east at the Ruby Range from the beach right in front of us.
Site #9 has lots of room, and a decent view of the lake right from the rig.
I was fried when we got to Kluane, and I see in my journal that I slept for about 18 of the next 24 hours.
It was still very windy Saturday morning, but by 08:00 there was enough blue sky to give us hope for a nice day.
Behind us, the peaks of the Kluane Front Range, with fresh snow down to about 6,000 feet. The temperature was 8°C/46°F.
Saturday was another quiet day, but that afternoon we drove up to the head of the lake to the dogs’ favourite beach (that also makes it my usual camping spot when Cathy isn’t with me). They much prefer the fine gravel and sand here to the coarse gravel and rocks at Congdon Creek.
The kids weren’t very enthusiastic, but Tucker played ball for a while.
Back at the campground, the “Bear in Area” sign amused me. There are pretty much always grizzlies in the area – within a mile or so of Congdon Creek is consistently the best grizzly viewing in the Yukon.
A few minutes before 02:00 on Sunday, September 4th, an excellent aurora borealis display began. I wrote about this show a few days ago – see “A Kluane Lake aurora show“.
Our dog walk morning and evening was just around the entire campground, a simple 1.2 km. On Sunday morning I did an extended loop with the dogs, through a long-abandoned section of the campground. That made it 2.2 km, with lots of Fall colour and a section of beach added to the walk.
There is tens of thousands of dollars worth of buildings and equipment still in the abandoned campground and along the trail beyond, including this viewing deck.
Parks crews started keeping the trail maintained a couple of years ago, and it really is a lovely walk now.
Towards the end of that walk, I noticed that the bear-resistant tent-camping area with an electrified fence has been tripled in size. Since it was built I’ve asked a few people what they think of it, and with one exception everyone has loved it (the exception said he felt like he was in prison).
Campground time has become spa time for Bella – she gets up on the picnic tables and makes her wishes about grooming very clear. I love watching her and Cathy spend this time together.
By 4:00 Bella and I needed a break by the campfire 🙂
The wind finally died and by 6:00 it was gorgeous!
On Monday, September 5, the whole family had a lovely morning on the beach with a pot of coffee. It was only 8°C/46°F when we went down but the sun was warm and it had risen to 10°C/50°F when we came up at noon. Some new snow had been dropped on the Ruby Range overnight, but it all melted as we sat there.
That afternoon the mountains behind us got rain but we didn’t get hit with any.
We were feeling lazy that evening and instead of cooking dinner drove to Destruction Bay for burgers at the Talbot Arm. That gave Cathy a chance to phone her mom, too.
Tuesday, September 6 – the simple pleasure of morning coffee with a great view 🙂
And for some of us, relaxing in a cozy chair. Does that make it a Princess chair? 🙂
It was a spectacular morning and we finally decided to get the bikes off the RV and get out for some real exercise. I thought I might also hike up Williscroft Canyon again, though that didn’t happen.
The pups would be left alone for 2-3 hours so we drove them up to their beach for a good play first. They sometimes get really animated if I go into the water and call them but there was just enough of a breeze to make it too cold for that nonsense 🙂
The Slim’s River Trail West was our plan for the e-bikes, with Soldiers Summit a possible add-on if that went well.
The first 2.6 km are the gravel access road to the trail, but we only met one vehicle. The trail parking lot (out of sight to the left at this point) had about a dozen vehicles in it.
This is an excellent trail for the sort of riding we wanted, with only one hill of note. It’s fairly steep but doesn’t really show in the photo.
We had decided that Sheep Creek would be our turn-around point as it was last year. It’s a great spot for a portrait of the adventurers, too. 🙂
On the way back I did a little hike to an awesome view of the entire Slims River valley. It only took a few minutes, and Cathy stayed behind with the bikes.
As we got back near the car, we decided that had gone really well and we should keep going along the highway for a couple of kilometers and ride up the Soldier’s Summit Trail. The ATV trail along the highway provides a decent surface.
Though Cathy doesn’t like the sheer drop-offs on the trail past the Alaska Highway opening memorial site, she was a trooper and joined me.
The broad views of Kluane Lake, Fish Heart Island and the Slim’s River from that point are wonderful.
We put a total of 16.7 km on bikes, which was Cathy’s longest ride yet. Yay us! 🙂
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As always, you capture the sort of things on camera that I enjoy so much. Really love the look of that lake area and surrounding mountains… rugged enough, plenty of long views, some snow at elevation… and of course being able to get away for a few hours on the e-bikes and then heading back to the warm comfort of the RV, fur buddies and a real bed. Very glad you pushed yourself to do this trip and as always inviting your followers along to further enjoy.
Enjoy reading about all your adventures!
Thanks for “coming along” with us, Patsy 🙂