May 28, 2015

By leaving Tombstone Territorial Park early this morning for our trip to the Arctic Circle, we had hope to see and photograph many animals. Once again, we came away empty…well, not quite. I did take a few photos of ptarmigans who were in their “between seasons” feathers and Jerry got photos of a very nervous black bear.

The main valley running north from the park campground is Blackstone. It is lovely tundra with streams and small lakes, many of which were still covered with ice. The main river, the Blackstone, had enormous fields of ice which were from 2 to 4 feet thick. One of the lakes we stopped at is called Two Moose. While neither moose showed, we did see a variety of water fowl and a river otter.

A fox teased us with a quick dart across the road before vanishing in the scrubby growth along the river and a bald eagle was kind enough to lead us down the road but did not hang around long enough for good photos. The arctic squirrels are cute, miniature prairie dogs in appearance and the red squirrels are very small but vividly colored.

About half the trip to the Arctic Circle from the Tombstones Park, is gorgeous. The road winds through alpine terrain following rapid streams. The mountains are steep and tortured, some volcanic, some sedimentary, all very rugged. We spotted two Dall ewes high on a cliff face. This section of the drive holds many “oh wow” moments. The second half of the drive climbs to a plateau covered in permafrost stunted black spruce and road meanders along this plateau all the way to the Arctic Circle. Many areas show the ravages of wild fires with the spruce skeletons standing like some monstrous grass fronds for miles and miles. In fact a wild fire was burning quite close to Eagle Plains, our fuel and lunch stop. We had planned to camp for the night here as well but the smoke was too thick and the fire was too close for comfort. Tonight, we camped in Engineer Creek Campground. It has a great view of Sapper Mountain, one of those contorted mountains I mentioned earlier. Tomorrow we will drive to Dawson City.

I do believe that Dempster Highway is a great road and kept well maintained. When we read about it before arriving in the Yukon, we were expecting a rough, gravel road like we have in Big Bend Ranch State Park, slow going at best. Instead, all the gravel roads have supported speeds 90 km or 55 mph.

 Forest fire near Eagle Plains and here we are at the Arctic Circle.