Four days camping and playing at Kluane Lake, Yukon
My regular readers may have noticed that we haven’t been out in the motorhome much this year. There’s a lot going on, but last Friday we finally got away to Kluane Lake for a much-needed break.
After a few delays (I had initially planned on going out Tuesday), the fur-kids and I left home at about 10:30. Cathy would come out to join us that evening after work. The first photo was shot west of Whitehorse right at Km 1446 of the Alaska Highway (measured from Dawson Creek, BC).
The rest area at Km 1566, just east of Haines Junction, is a common photo stop for me (and dog-walk spot). After a long spell of wet weather, the warm sun was sure welcome!
I posted the next photo on Facebook with the comment “In a few minutes we’ll have no phone or internet until Monday afternoon. #Yukon quiet…”
We reached Congdon Creek Campground just after 1:00. I thought we would have no chance of getting one of the lakefront sites, but one of our favourite sites was available and we were soon set up.
After some beach play and a nap, we went back to a beach with fine gravel that would be more fun to play on. The water level of Kluane Lake seems to be still dropping slightly – that gravel bar is new this year.
That beach was great to walk and play ball on, and we spent an hour or so there.
On the way back to the campground we stopped at another beach where a creek was pouring a lot of silt into the lake.
Tucker enjoyed chasing his ball down the creek 🙂
That water is as pure as it looks. I wish it was a whole lot warmer, though – I’d sure like to be able to swim in it!
Looking west at Km 1662. There was a Trumpeter swan feeding in the lake there, where a growing sandbar is creating a nice sheltered area for them.
A large storm cloud caught my attention as I was about to turn into the campground, and I decided to drive a few miles further to get some photos of it and other clouds forming over the lake to the west.
That extra few miles turned out to get me more than some cloud photos! Cathy and I have been watching these two grizzlies for 3 years now, since about 3 weeks after they were born up Congdon Creek somewhere. This is their first summer without mom, and will probably be their last summer together. It’s been wonderful watching them grow up.
Cathy arrived much later than I’d expected, and then friends from Whitehorse arrived with their 3 dogs, who are pretty much part of our pack. Molly (the cat) likes to pretend that she doesn’t like Rosie, but I think she’s still just making sure Rosie knows who’s boss 🙂
Saturday morning was grooming day for Bella, and when Adam saw the big pile of her wool beside the picnic table, he decided to strip some of Rosie’s. Bella enjoys it – Rosie not so much! 🙂
After it was all done, we could have knitted a new dog about Tucker’s size! 🙂
Much of the rest of Saturday was taken up by a hike up the Slims River that I’ll tell you about in the next post.
Going by the weather forecast, I had expected Sunday morning to be not very nice, so this view out the RV kitchen window was very welcome.
We had some great beach plays with the dogs on Sunday. Well, 4 of the dogs – the fifth one is 17 years old and his play days are pretty much over, though he does get silly occasionally. A dog from the camp site next door joined us for a while, too.
After our friends departed in the early afternoon, Cathy and I decided to hike the Soldiers Summit trail again. The smell of the wild roses at the trailhead was wonderful!
The wind was very strong and was creating quite a dust storm out on the Slims River flats, but most of the trail is fairly sheltered from the wind.
We walked past the Soldiers Summit commemorative site, out to the highest point on the old road. Few people go that far, but the views from there are spectacular.
The wind there made staying unpleasant so we quickly retraced our steps.
The next photo shows the commemorative site which is most people’s destination.
Parks Canada’s red chairs – red Adirondack chairs set in particularly quiet and scenic locations all over Canada – provided a perfect location to enjoy the majesty of this place.
Far below us, the dust storm got really wild at times – not a good day to hike out to Fish Heart Island!
We watched a small band of Dall sheep – 3 ewes and 2 lambs – walk across a slope high above us on Sheep Mountain.
We love Kluane Lake. The power of this place is so incredible when you slow down and pay attention.
We made a stop at another beach on the way back to the campground. It was too windy to really spend much time there, but we both got the same feeling about this spot…
We haven’t spread our husky Monty’s ashes yet – the right place and time has just not happened. But I brought “glass Monty” with me on this trip because he loved Kluane, and we’ve now decided that this is where we’ll have that memorial next time we’re out.
Cathy went home Sunday night, but the kids and I stayed at Kluane that night. When it started raining lightly the next morning, we headed home, too.
About The Author
