Advertisement
Published: September 2nd 2007
Edit Blog Post
Fireweed has gone to cotton
We heard the saying:
When the Fireweed goes to cotton, summer is forgotten. This year we had the long spring, by being in the south during the late winter and gradually working our way north. Spring continued on our trip to Alaska. Now fall has arrived and we hope to enjoy a long season of color.
One of my goals was to see the Northern Lights. We’ve been learning about them and tracking the solar activity that would make them appear in the night sky. One of the other key ingredients is enough darkness to be able to see them. People have been telling us that some of the best Northern Lights they’d seen were at the end of August. I was concerned that this wouldn’t be a good year, as the full moon was also going to occur at the same time as the increased solar activity. There’s a great website at: http://www.gedds.alaska.edu/auroraforecast/ and that is where we were getting our info on location and nights for possible good viewing. Besides the darkness and solar activity, it also needs to be a night with few enough clouds to be able to see the night sky. I was feeling that the odds weren’t looking too good. I was excited to discover that there
was going to be a lunar eclipse on the night of moderate solar activity.
Local people were starting to mention that someone they knew had seen the Northern Lights, but the viewing had been brief. Their advice was that they appear and disappear during the night, so keep looking and to get away from the city lights.
Dempster Highway
Drove to the junction of the North Klondike Highway and the Dempster Highway. We camped there, at the only campground, the Klondike River Lodge. It was $15 for dry camping and they also have hook-ups available. It was nice and open, so we had a good view of the sky. George checked the air in our car’s spare tire and found that it was real low, so he filled it up. He also topped off the gas tank ($5.30/ gallon) as there’s nothing on the Dempster for a long ways. We weren’t planning on going too far, but we’ve been cautioned to be prepared. We’ve seen plenty of cars with spare tires and gas cans strapped to their roof, but assume they are going the full length. Traffic was light and we traveled no faster than 40
miles per hour. Whenever we’d see an approaching vehicle we’d slow down, so any stone being thrown would have less impact. Only the first 5 miles are seal coated and the rest of our drive was on gravel that was in very good condition.
The weather has been great. Clear blue skies with a forecast of 0% probability of precipitation. We headed up the Dempster to see what we could see. At mile 44 we stopped at Tombstone Mountain Campground to take a hike. We started in a high brush, went through some woods and ended in the tundra. We really didn’t go as far as it sounds, the landscape just changed quickly. I felt apprehensive walking where the brush or woods were thick, as the campground had been closed last week due to bear activity. It was a nice walk and we could see the fall colors. We did a lot more talking, than usual, to make certain that we didn’t surprise any bears.
Then we got back in the car and continued up the Dempster. We drove to the highest point on this road which is 4,265 feet at North Fork Pass Summit. We continued a
little further until we came upon a river that was part of the Artic watershed. It was interesting to see the plants get shorter and shorter the further north we traveled. The permafrost is closer to the surface, so only certain types of plants are adapted to these rugged conditions. The weather was different once we got into the mountains. There were more clouds, including some dark ones. We even got a few drops of rain and of course it was cooler. The blue skies were waiting for us when we got back out of the mountains.
Northern Lights
We set our alarm for 2am so we could check on the Northern Lights and the lunar eclipse (a bonus). On our first glimpse of the sky, we were uncertain if we were just looking at unusual clouds. Then they started dancing and we knew they weren’t clouds! We checked out all the different windows to see the different directions. Periodically I’d open a window and hang out to see a different angle and behind us. They were everywhere! There were ribbons and curtains of white, greens and occasional pink. It was better than I imagined. We could
lie in bed and watch them through the windows. That was nice, as it was quite cold outside, so we could enjoy them from the warmth of our RV. The light show went on for quite a while. I’d drift off to sleep and wake up again to see if they were still there. Finally about 4am it seemed to be over and the sky was getting brighter. The lunar eclipse was nice to watch and we had a clear night for star gazing. I finally found the Big Dipper and the North Star, which is certainly high overhead up here.
Tatchum Creek
We camped at the Yukon Government campground by the creek. The nights are cold, which is a good excuse to start the day later. We both have kinks in our necks from watching the northern lights and falling asleep in odd positions while watching them. On our walk we saw four Chinook salmon that had successfully made it over the 1,500 miles from the Bering Sea up the Yukon River and into Tatchun Creek. It’s good to see that some do make it to their destination. They were staying in the one area over
Five Finger Rapids
This was a perilous stretch of rapids for the Stampeders heading down the Yukon River to Dawson City. the gravel, which is the kind of area they use to spawn in.
Whitehorse Fish Ladder
The last time we were here was early July for Canada Day. It was too early for the salmon run. Now we’re here for Labor Day weekend and it’s the very end of the salmon run. There was one male Chinook salmon in the tank waiting to be allowed through the gates. They count the salmon that come up the fish ladder. The fish that are from the hatchery are marked, so they can also count the number of hatchery vs. regular salmon returning. The salmon count was down significantly this year and Chinook salmon fishing was banned as of early Aug. They speculate that it is from a variety of reasons, including that the Yukon River is higher than normal, so it is a harder current for the fish to swim against.
Housekeeping
The backup camera on the motor home has been limited in what it could see, ever since the top of the world highway. George cleaned the outside of it one day, with limited success. Then he took the panel off to get into it
from the closet. Lots of dust came falling out. He cleaned everything and now we can see out the back again! It’s nice to know that the car is still following along.
Weather
We’ve heard on the radio that some areas have gotten down to 32 Fahrenheit at night and we’ve talked to people that have had to scrape frost off their car windows. So far our lowest the nighttime temps have been in the upper 30’s. Today our daytime high was in the upper 50’s. The weather here changes throughout the day. Every afternoon that we’ve been in Whitehorse there have been some scattered clouds with rain and rainbows! Today we talked to a local person, who told us that normally by this time there is snow on the peaks of the mountains that surround this area.
Plan
Head to the Cassiar Highway.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.208s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 17; qc: 74; dbt: 0.0646s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.2mb
Phyllis
non-member comment
cold weather
Everyone has been enjoying your adventure. The pictures add a lot. I hope you stay ahead of the snow on your way back!