Thursday, July 30, 2009

Yukon Trip 2009 - Day 19 Part 1 - to Arctic Circle

We survived the night camped out on the tundra - no Grizzly tried to tear down the door or anything, woke to 16 degrees with a high over cast and were on the road by 9:00 am.
I had taken the above picture sometime during the night, probably around 1 am....a last look at that midnight sun that had rounded the corner so the hillsides beside and behind us were no longer casting shadows.

The above shows our camping spot....I had walked down towards the highway while Ernie did the last minute things with the jacks and the stairs.

Spotted another (or the same one) male Common Redpoll......


and since they are a rare occurrence back home (I've seen them once in 12 years)....a second photo is in order.



a final view of the wonderful tundra in the area......




and these Eight-petalled Dryas....related to, but slightly different from, many of the Dryas or Mountain Avens we have seen...and will continue to see...for a while yet.


In just the few days since we had been through here the tundra had really blossomed! This was the view from road as we started on our way, heading back to the Arctic Circle.


A closer view of some of those wonderful purple azaleas that we saw earlier, further south on the Dempster....




and an even closer view, with the White mountain heather - breathtaking!



and then not much further along....Poppies! there had been no sign of them on our way north either, not here, north of the Arctic Circle.


I think these are the Macoun's Poppy again and not Iceland. Macoun's are native...Iceland are escaped cultivers....

and back to the Arctic Circle - part 2

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