Autumn along the South Klondike Highway – from oranges to gray
I’d been watching the Whitehorse and Skagway weather forecasts for the past few days, watching for a day that offered sunshine in both places so I could take the bike down. Yesterday was that day.
Heavily layered to keep warm, I was away from the house just after 08:00, which turned out to be about half an hour too early, as some of the photos I wanted were still in shadow. But at Carcross I parked and walked back onto the bridge to get this shot – a good start to the day.
Between the awful weather we had this summer and working too much, I did very little hiking this year. I really want to get back up to the Venus silver mine. Oh well, next year.
The Fall colors were really good all along Windy Arm in particular, but shadows wiped out most of the photo ops I’d expected. In the next photo, the highway climbs the ridge between Windy Arm and Tutshi Lake.
Tutshi Lake was a good spot to stop for a portrait. The wind was cold and I was really glad that I had so many layers of clothes on, because I didn’t feel it at all.
A few clouds started to form as I reached Log Cabin, they were much thicker at Fraser, and as I headed down the hill from the summit at 10:20 it got just plain nasty, with an icy rain and visibility of perhaps 100 yards.
That wasn’t quite what I’d expected!
This is why end-of-the-season cruises are cheaper – the passengers on the Star Princess weren’t seeing much at all today. The Celebrity Century was also in port. Two more ships arrive on Saturday, 2 more next Tuesday, and then that’s it for the year. Many businesses will start closing today, though, and there won’t be much open by Tuesday.
I didn’t stay long in Skagway. It was sunshine I wanted, so I even skipped lunch – just grabbed a few photos, fueled up and headed north.
I did make a U-turn to catch this train , though 🙂
Back into the sunshine at Summit Lake! While the highway was in sunshine, though, the railway line was in heavy clouds for a few more miles.
I stopped to go for a walk at Summit Lake.
I don’t understand why people pile rocks up like this – I dont understand why they think this is any different than spray-painting “JJ & MG July 2012” on the rocks. I knocked over about 40 of the largest of them.
The view of Summit Creek with the piles of rocks that had been in the view gone 🙂
Time to get rid of the first layer. Although the wind was still cool, it was far too warm for longjohns.
This little valley, completely hidden from the highway is very different than the rest of the White Pass. It’s just a few yards behind me in the photo above.
I had planned on having lunch at the Yukon Suspension Bridge – I haven’t tried their new restaurant yet. But when I got there, there were 2 busloads of people being fed, so I turned around and went back to Shallow Lake for another walk.
Ahhhh, that’s more like it! I really need another few days like this before Father Winter arrives. This was shot at 2:30 pm with the temperature at about 20°C (68°F).
I love this spot.
Mushrooms are at their peak right now – I could easily spend a good part of a day just shooting mushrooms.
On the way home, I made many stops for photos. This was along Windy Arm, at 3:20 pm.
This is the road down to the silver-mining ghost town of Conrad.
Bove Island.
A look back at Lime Mountain.
And finally, Spirit Lake.
What a great day that was! And we apparently have more good weather coming.
About The Author
