Yukon Trip 2009 - Day 22 Part 1 - Klondike Highway

On June 13th we awoke in Dawson City, after a cool, rainy night that offered our best nights sleep in ages. After breakfast, while it was still cool and showery, we did the rounds of some of the gift shops. Managed to avoid temptation for the most part and have regretted it ever since as there was a wonderful amber necklace I loved and some 'native' dolls that I thought about for my grand daughters, but figured they, being raised on Barbies and glitter wouldn't have been impressed - now I feel I lost the chance to find out......after a bit of shopping and topping up the fuel tank we headed out of town, back down the Klondike Highway towards Whitehorse.
We stopped at the site of an active mine to give the dogs a break, and that is where we found the first Fireweed in flower.

Fireweed is the official flower of the Yukon.

I guess, officially, we were now headed for home, although we still had 2 1/2 weeks left and home was a long way off. Stopped here, at Gravel Lake for lunch...still a dark, drizzly day.

Saw this brown 'Black Bear'.

Most Black bears are 'black' but there are a small percentage of them, this rich cinnamon color.

The amount of wildflowers that had appeared in the week and a half we'd been further north, were amazing! Here we have carpets of blue Jacob's Ladder, interspersed with the yellow Arnica.

This interesting looking plant is 'Pale Corydalis'

a closer look of this Corydalis....sometimes called 'Rock Harlequin' - I can see where the 'harlequin' comes from.....

and a closer look at some of the Arnica - you are probably getting tired of flower pictures by now, but bear with me because as soon as we get back to the Alaska Highway, the flowers are going to disappear - why that should be so I don't know!

We pulled into Moose Creek campground and were enchanted by the mass of lupins in flower! We weren't however, enchanted by the number of mosquitoes! Even the Milepost warns you to bring bug repellent to this place.

a closer view of the wildflowers lining the campgroung - Blue lupins, Pink Wildroses and yellow Arnica.

the forest floor, behind every campsite was a carpet of color.

and a final look.......before getting back in the truck and heading further south.

Part two

(I should mention that my internet service provider is experiencing problems at the moment and my 'high speed' is anything but.....up loading pictures is a very long, slow frustrating process at the moment which is why I'm not getting updates done as quickly as I would like)