North Pole Ak to Haines Junction, Yukon

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Thursday September 6, 2007 In the morning it was pouring rain, reminiscent of our early summer days in Southeast Alaska. We were on the road before 8:00 am, which was pretty good considering we had been up until 2:45 am watching the aurora. The forecast was good and the sky was clear so we decided to try to get another glimpse of the northern lights. We were watching the sky from inside CT and were about to give up when I spotted a faint green streak in the sky. It was 1:20 am. (Those of you who know Frank may be surprised at the late hour he was actually up!) This time the aurora was faint and didn’t shimmer and barely danced, but it was there. Photos weren’t too great.
We were out of Alaska and the rain by mid morning. We did see 2 moose cows and 2 calves (different places) off the highway. I wasn’t looking forward to the part of the Alcan Hwy that goes through the Yukon; the monotonous scenery of stunted black spruce and the bad road conditions was not very appealing. What a difference 2 months can make (at least scenery wise-- -the road was still bad). Autumn colors were at peak. Gold aspens and creamy birch trees lined the roads and were interspersed among the green spruce. The tundra on the top part of the mountains was paprika color with pools of gold trees here and there. Ponds were outlined first with bright green grass then cream and russet grasses. It was a long day (12 hours) but the ride was beautiful. Interestingly enough, I didn’t take many photos. We traveled 491 miles

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Photos

Ready for Snow
This is an ATV equipped with Alaskan options.

Power Lines in the Yukon
The poles are tilted every way, some almost flat!