Yukon Trip 2009 - Day 26 - Muncho Lake

June 17th we were up and on the road by 9 am, it was 11c and cloudy.
Hadn't gone very far when we spotted a few more Bison....even shaggier than the ones we'd seen the day before!

Just across from where the Bison were grazing there were these beautiful pink colored 'Indian Paintbrush'

Think it must be 'Raup's Indian Paintbrush' - very pretty what ever it's name!

Before long we came to Muncho Lake Provincial Park....there was a large parking area here with trails leading off in several directions......

Ernie and Shantz took one of the trails, which led to this lookout area. Muncho Lake would be off in the distance.......

and here is a view of Muncho Lake, another of those beautiful turquoise colored northern lakes. The buildings just barely visible about half way up on the left are the Muncho Lake Lodge

We pulled into MacDonald Campsite, on the lake, just to take a look and liked it so much we decided to stay. It wasn't a very large campsite but every site is right on the lake and there was only one other spot occupied when we stopped - although that changed as the day went on.

a view of the lake from the campsite, looking northwards......

there were quite a lot of birds here.....Robins had a nest in a tree one site over......

there was no doubting the ID of this RUBY-crowned Kinglet! I've never seen one display so much 'ruby'.....usually it is barely visible if seen at all!

and we were back in Yellow-rump Warbler territory as well!

this cute little (mommy) squirrel that looks so innocent right here, a short time after this picture was taken, raided the Robins nest and made off with an almost ready to leave the nest size fledgling!

If you walked down past the campsites, this is the view you see......

the area right across from the campsites was a riot of wildflowers.......

Primarily 'Yellow Lady's Slippers'

this giant flower (that is a dime for size comparison) is 'Butterwort' - I'm not sure why the name unless it is the yellow color of the leaves.

these little 'Greenland Primrose' lined the roadside bank ........

closer look at the Greenland Primrose

another view of the area the campground is situated in.......

more of those Mountain Aven's we'd seen up on the tundra were here.....

this is the road in the campground....we were at a site behind me and there were more way up around the corner....so very nicely spaced out.

Ernie took this evening shot of the rather barren mountains across the highway from the campsite.

Ernie and Shantz relaxing at the lakes edge....

One thing that amazed us at this location was the fact that there were full grown young Common Loon.....it was only the 17th day of June! We asked the park operator when the ice had come off the lake, and he said on June 2nd, but obviously Loons had arrived back, and found enough open water to build a nest, lay eggs (2 max.) and raise the young to this stage.....

Here is a picture of one of the young Loons with an adult....we watched these youngsters attempting to fly - back home we haven't seen young loons at this stage until mid August!

the weather had been 'off and on' all day, so we leave you with an evening shower and rainbow!

Campground fee: $15 Total distance traveled to date: 6,106 km