Yukon Trip 2009 - Day 18 Part 3 - N.W.T. border

About 11 am on June 9th we once more reached the border between the N.W.T. and Yukon......
On the trip north we took photos of the N.W.T. sign, on the return, we do the Yukon sign

Stopped at the large rest area to take some final looks and toast it with a cup of coffee....while Ernie made the coffee I noticed some little birds hoping around, right in the rest area and on the tundra.....

American Pipits! We do get American Pipits down our way in the winter but this is their breeding area.

Another view of one of the American Pipits - we haven't had many bird pictures lately and this is a 'birding blog' after all so we'll make up for that right now!

An American Pipit with some Coltsfoot (that is the flower)...this was right on the bank of the rest area.

and a final 'Pipet' picture. On the other side of the road, where another side road went up to a micro wave tower, I spotted a Savannah Sparrow sitting on the top of a sign....so crossed the road to get a picture.....the sparrow flew down into the grass at the base of the sign, so I had my camera aimed at the grass, waiting for it to reappear......

but what appeared was this.....(there really had been a Savannah Sparrow - I have no idea where it went!) and I'm not exactly sure what this bird is....my first thought was 'Chestnut-collared Longspur - but they're only found in the southern prairies! So then I thought 'Smith's Longspur' and that is what I actually wrote in my journal....but looking at it now with my trusty 'Sibleys' on my lap - I'd say it is a female Lapland Longspur and if that is the case - I'd sure have liked to have seen a male!! (another reason to return)

That dark breast band is one of the indicators that says 'Lapland Longspur' - and aren't all those colors too perfect...you couldn't paint a better picture!

another view....talk about camouflage!

and just one more!

This picture is taken about a half kilometer from the border, we are now back in the Yukon...this is looking south west and this is Wright's Pass. The plaque commemorates a highway engineer named Al Wright, who was responsible for the routing of the Dempster Highway.

now heading in a south easterly direction that dark mound on the tundra is a 'Pingo'

a closer view of a 'Pingo' - Pingo's are a unique feature of Canada's far north. They are formed when a lake drains, leaving a core of water that freezes...the surrounding permafrost, as the lake drains, spreads inward toward the core, pushing the core and the surrounding earth, upwards. There are, apparently, about 1,450 Pingos in the Arctic, the largest one is near Tuktoyaktuk and is over a 1,000 years old and still growing. When a Pingo stops growing, vegetation takes root and eventually they just become another mound on the horizon.

heading back towards the Arctic Circle.....

While still 'North of 60' we saw a road leading off from the highway, going back to a clearing with a small hill on two sides of it. It looked like a good spot to spend the night. There all all sorts of places along the Dempster where you can just pull off and stay provided you are self contained and self sufficient....this is a view of the tundra in the area, looking back towards the way we had come.

the side road itself was lined with small trees, some of which looked like Alders...I spotted this Redpoll eating seeds in the gravel of the roadway. My first thought was that it was a Hoary Redpoll, but I am now thinking maybe a female Common Redpoll.....

Ernie walked the road later and got this picture....there is no doubt to the ID here...this is a male Common Redpoll. The problem was that these trees were alive with birds and both varieties of Redpoll can be found here.

walking on the tundra itself, the Labrador Tea, which is found everywhere in the north country, was in full flower. There are some of those 'Cloud berries' here as well.

a closer view of the flowers of Labrador Tea

a type of Saxifrage, very similar to any growing in our rock gardens back home.

We had just got set up and were enjoying the view when Ernie said "Why is there a truck stopped on the highway?" so got our binoculars and took a look. A Grizzly Bear! that is why!

While we watched, these two motorcycles arrived on the scene. The bear was still on the other side of the road when they stopped but came up onto the highway, took a step or two in the direction of the lead bike, then thought better of it and ran over to our side of the highway. We watched him from a distance and he meandered into the trees that were growing in a gully just across the tundra from us. Ernie decided it was time to get the bear bangers handy and I scratched the plans I had of wandering up the hillside behind us, since the bear seemed to be headed in that general direction!

after supper Ernie took Shantz and they did walk up around the nearest hill which was opposite to where the bear had last been seen. He found this wonderful Anemone there....we never saw one like it anywhere else...

and this Ptarmigan that doesn't match any pictures I can find...given coloration and time of year. My first thought was White-tailed Ptarmigan but I am now pretty much convinced it is a Rock Ptarmigan.

Ernie and Shantz came running back from this little expedition as though the Grizzly was after them....no not a Grizzly....MOSQUITOES! clouds of them! They both dove into the camper and that is where we stayed for the night, playing scrabble and watching a silly Cliff Swallow (no idea where it came from) trying to fight with it's reflection in our mirrored windows and later, a Short-eared Owl hunting out on the Tundra....tried for a picture but just too dark at the time, thanks to shade from the hill sides.

Yukon Trip 2009 - Day 18 Part 2 - enroute to border

After crossing the Peel river, we began the climb back up to higher elevations.......
The above gives a good over view of the land as we leave the taiga and re-enter the tundra....

we are now back in the area where we will encounter road construction and as you can see from this shot, there are some fairly large, loose rocks on the road. Note to how the road snakes off to the left and over the horizon.....

another view of the road heading off to the horizon.

I absolutely love the tundra! To some, especially if you were just rushing past in your vehicle it could appear barren and lifeless, when in actual fact it is anything but.......you simply have to stop and get out of your vehicle and take a closer look!

Now I apologize for this picture....I was balancing on a couple of rocks, bending over, trying to obey the cardinal rule of landscape photography - make sure your horizon is level! - and failed miserably! I also broke my own rule of always taking more than just one picture, so you get this rather crooked shot which was meant to illustrate exactly what I had said, that by getting out of our truck and walking a bit on the tundra, we found this delightful little stream that had these Arctic Buttercups growing beside it.

This was the only spot we saw this particular wildflower. If we'd just driven by, we'd have missed it entirely.

another area of wonderful tundra........this type more rocky and less 'muskeg'

and when you get out and look, see the wonderful, natural 'rock gardens'

Those tiny little pink flowers are Alpine Azalea.

a view from over head of nature's handiwork....

and a final, close view with a penny for size comparison of this diminutive wildflower.

another, less rocky area, provides a different variety of plants entirely.

more views of the tundra - I really can't get enough of it and after all ....how often are any of us going to see it, so please bear with me over the next few posts.....

and a final over view as we close in on the N. W. T. and Yukon border - part 3

Yukon Trip 2009 - Day 18 Part 1 - Inuvik return

So with the last posting, we had been camped at a very nice, but strange - in that we were the only ones and no one seemed to be 'attending' -campground about 30 km south of Inuvik. We went to bed that evening as planned but between the sun shining directly into our camper via the back door and then the fact that we started to hear vehicles driving into and around the campground, we became increasingly uneasy. We were parked in such away that we couldn't see the campground proper, and realizing that the R.C.M.P were 30 km away in town, that there was no cell phone service and not even any passing traffic as the ferries had stopped for the night, we realized we were in a very vulnerable position. After the 3rd time of hearing someone driving around we couldn't stand it any more and realizing neither of us were going to get any sleep as things were, we got up, got dressed, and decided to just drive towards the ferry...even if it meant sitting waiting in the truck for hours.

I took the above picture at 12:30 am when we decided to vacate the spot

We only drove for about 15 minutes when we reached Caribou Creek where we had had lunch on the way up. There was a day use area on one side of the creek and a small campground on the other, so we drove in there and instantly felt comfortable, there was also another vehicle parked there, one we recognized as we had been leap frogging each other for the previous week or so, so we parked, climbed in the back and instantly fell asleep - well after I took the above picture at approximately 1 am - just so you can see what midnight sun looks like.

Next morning after finally getting a good nights sleep, we were headed to the first ferry, knowing the road now we were comfortable driving it almost as fast as the locals do....basically there was about 90 km of the above ahead of us. To relieve the monotony we counted Snow-shoe Hares - 11 of them.

Made a brief stop at this small lake beside the road, just to take a look and the give the dogs a chance to have a bit of a walk.

This is the approach to the MacKenzie River. I assume the river must make a large arc to come back to Inuvik, must look at Google Earth one of these days and find out.

This is looking across the expanse of the river, from the other side. You can just make out a tiny white spec in the middle of the land....

That was these two highway maintenance trucks waiting to cross

This view is looking south west ...... We had been fortunate that we didn't even have to wait for the ferry, there were two vehicles just loading as we reached it, so we drove straight on.

off the other side and heading southward again towards the 2nd of the two ferry crossings. This picture shows you that dead trees aren't limited to B.C. I think these were Spruce trees, not Pine and the area would be part of the huge Boreal Forest

Just before reaching Fort McPherson we spotted some Sandhill Cranes at the side of the road....

It wasn't until our travels over the past few years, that I realized just how common Sandhill Cranes are, unlike Whooping Cranes, but it is still a thrill every time you spot them out in the wilderness.

The Peel River ferry was reached at noon.......

and quickly crossed - I love these 'on demand ferries!'

Since it was now lunch time we stopped at the first available spot, which happened to be beside a long chain of these mini-lakes or ponds, to make some lunch.

Part of the parking area was recently dried mud and there were all kinds of Sandhill Crane tracks in the mud, indicating that there must be quite the population of Cranes in the area.

also, very large Moose tracks (keys for comparison). The whole area was ideal Moose country and yet we never saw a single one.

While we were eating, this semi drove past, so just took this to show the dusty conditions encountered when ever a vehicle went by, which fortunately, isn't too often. We were now eager to be back to the 'scenic' area of the highway. I've indicated before that we wish to return to the Dempster, but when we do, I doubt we will do this section from the Peel River to Inuvik. Definitely if you've never done it, and you've come that far, then you should do it just to say you've done it....but now we have and I don't think we need to again.