Mud, dust, and history at Kluane Lake
After a somewhat disappointing couple of days down the Haines Highway due to weather, our four days at Kluane Lake were wonderful. I’ve already told you about our flight to Mount Logan and our discovery of Cultus Lake, but we had a lot of fun on the other days as well.
For a bit of a change of scenery, we went to the beach along the Alaska Highway where it first drops down to the head of the lake to play. Bella actually prefers it, as much of the beach at Congdon Creek has larger stones that she doesn’t like walking on.
Continuing on past that beach, we drove along a long-abandoned section of the Alaska Highway, where this Gulf sign is all that remains of the gas station.
A beautiful morning at Congdon Creek Campground, seen from lakefront campsite #7, which is the one we get for most of our visits.
A calm morning in the RV, with Tucker asleep on the bench in front of me, Molly asleep beside me, and Bella asleep on the couch 5 feet away. And Cathy all by herself in bed 🙂
Back to exploring, we returned to that abandoned section of highway. Just past the gas station sign is the remains of the Sheep Mountain Motel. There must have been more to it in its heyday (the 1950s?), as this building sure wouldn’t have done much to attract people.
There are a few cabins along that section of the old highway, then it ends at Silver Creek, where a lot of work was done starting about 25 years ago to control the flash floods that occur every few years.
“It was here at Slim’s Flats on 20 November 1942 that a formal luncheon was held following the Alaska Canada Highway dedication ceremonies at Soldiers’ Summit. Fifty years later, 20 November 1992, the ceremonies and festivities were reenacted.”
We decided to take the dogs out onto the newly-enlarged Slims River flats for a play. There’s lots of parking at the Soldiers Summit trailhead and the viewing area across the highway.
Out on the flats. This is wonderful barefoot walking – it’s so nice to get off the gravel beaches for a while. Tucker has turned into rather a ball-chasing maniac, and it’s perfect for that.
Is that a close-up of the mud on the flats, or an aerial photo of some “Badlands” desert region?
The fine-sand beach on the windward side of what used to be an island (Fish Heart Island).
While there’s a lot of dry sand and silt on the flats, there’s also some wonderful mud, and we can count on Bella to find the best of it! 🙂
Bella tried hard to convince Tucker to come and play in the mud with us, but he was having none of it.
Dirty and exhausted – life is good for Bella!
Bella may enjoy getting muddy, but like any princess, she also loves getting cleaned up 🙂
When the wind kicks up, those flats are nowhere near as much fun to be on! And we seem to be getting a lot of wind this summer.
This trip didn’t end very well. As I was driving back to the campground after our last outing on Tuesday, a police SUV kicked a rock into the windshield of the Tracker. I took it in to a glass shop in Whitehorse, and they said that it was too big to fix. That windshield was only 3 months old 🙁
Back home on Tuesday afternoon, I had two days to get ready for the next trip – I was meeting friends from Alaska for 3 days of hiking in the White Pass.
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