Back to the Dempster 2011 – Part 12b

In real time it is such a miserable cold, wet day that escaping back to the tundra is welcome!

We left the Arctic circle and continued on, heading to a spot where we had stayed on our previous trip.  This is the view from the camping spot which is really just the remains of a gravel pit, it is well off the highway but with the highway visible so you don’t feel completely isolated.

set up now and enjoying the view…there is the Dempster in the distance…

In the evening Ernie walked along the highway and took this shot looking back at the camping site – I would never attempt this as we’d seen first hand, the previous trip, how a Grizzly Bear can just appear out of no where ….Ernie and Shantz made it without incidence this time…

I stayed much closer to the campsite, with one eye on the surroundings at all times – and will now post a bunch of pictures of the vegetation on the tundra as this is one of the things I find so fascinating…the variety of plant life….  This is Potentilla and you find this hardy shrub all over the place…even up here north of 60…

a profusion of colour…there is Bear Berry, Blue Berry, Cloud Berry, Cranberry, Labrador Tea etc. etc. etc.

another shot…that is Cloud Berry in the lower right hand corner…

this is looking directly down on the tapestry….

a more distant shot of the general terrain…

Ernie took this picture which shows the profusion of Blue Berries – of course it is this wealth of berries that draws the bears…that and the Caribou that we had heard were near the Yukon/N.W.T. border which wasn’t all that far off.  Two legged hunters were also attracted to the area, in fact we had a visit from a couple of hunters who thought we were friends they were going to met up with…

I’m going to continue on with foliage pictures – after all this is what we travelled all this way to see and may very well never see again…  The bright red is the Bear Berry, the green is the Bog or Creeping Cranberry…

more Bear Berry…also some spent Fireweed.

Bear Berry and Cranberry…

Crow Berry, Blue Berry, and a Cloudberry leaf right in the middle…

Something had been digging here….good reason to be concerned and keeping an ‘eye open’…

There were Mushrooms here too, although not in the numbers there had been in the southern part of Yukon…

and here is a final shot of the colourful tundra.  The next day we would reach the most northern point of this particular trip, and start the return journey…

Back to the Dempster 2011 – Part 12a

It has taken me a while to get to this next entry…partly because I had over a hundred pictures to edit and go through, but mainly because in real time, Yukon weather seems to have come to my neck of the woods and we’ve been dealing with lots of snow and sub zero temperatures…the system now seems to be moving back up north where it belongs so I’m able to start getting caught up…so here goes…

We would get up to sunshine so pulled out of Engineer Creek Campground and headed north…this is just a general scene of the terrain….little trees, most only a few feet high

We did come across a White-tailed Ptarmigan on the road…the only one we saw and the best picture we managed.

another scene…with Ogilvie Mountains and the Blackstone River….

another look at some of the mountain features…

climbed up onto Ogilvie Ridge where we stopped…you can see the highway ahead….

View of the back side of the ridge…

You are literally ‘on top of the world’ at this spot…

Here we are looking back the way we’ve come – that is the Blackstone River down there…

It was Shantz who spotted this Fox up on the hillside…

Ernie actually captured the best picture of it because he was closer and madly trying to catch my attention…by the time he did, the fox had realized we were there and was moving off…

and looking ahead although the highway doesn’t go over this way at all ….

the fall colours were starting to show up here…

we hadn’t realized it while we were parked, but as soon as we pulled onto the highway a big flock of Sandhill Cranes started taking off ….heading south.

now headed to Eagle Plains…spotted this bear up on the hillside…

but we were paying too much attention to the road at this point because it was mud…very deep mud…the truck got put in 4 wheel drive and still it slipped and slide up the hill…

and finally Eagle Plains was reached.  This is it.  We are at the fuel pump…the motel and restaurant are in the distance (we had lunch in the restaurant with another couple we had first met up with back at Boya Lake)…there is also an RV park just past the Motel/restaurant.  This is the first ‘civilization’ you come to and the last you’ll find until you reach Fort McPherson in the N.W.T.  We learned that an extremely heavy rainfall during the night was the reason for the condition of the highway.

Next stop – the Arctic Circle – our second time in this location (the friends we’d had lunch with took the picture – we took theirs – their 14th time here!!!)

There you have it – the tundra at the Arctic Circle on the Dempster Highway on August 25, 2011.

some detail – the red is Bear Berry…

here are some Blue Berries and Crowberries..

more Bear Berry…

and I’m putting this in for everyone who thinks driving the Dempster just isn’t possible without some rugged equipment.  This set up was coming back from having been in Inuvik.  Obviously they are from Switzerland and they had had the set up shipped over to the east coast of the states, had travelled across Canada, visiting all the north…were heading next to do the west coast of North America and then headed for South American.  They said the only time they encountered problems was if it was really muddy because the mini was so low to the ground.

And I’m going to break off here because we’ll be going a bit further down the road and staying in a spot we stayed in before…and there are just too many pictures to put them all in this one posting….

Back to the Dempster 2011 – Part 11 (I think)

I’m going to try  to take my mind off of all the things that are going wrong in real time as we are, caught in a bit of a deep freeze – something we aren’t really used to or completely prepared for down here by the 49th parallel.

Back in August we woke up to sunny skies at Tombstone Territorial Campground..

Temperatures had been cool over night to the point that there was ice on the picnic table…

left the campsite and headed up the hill …stopped at the lookout – this is the way we are headed – that is the North Klondike River down there…

 

that is looking back at the campground…nestled down in the middle there..

and note the dusting of snow on the mountain tops – it was the 24th of August.

This stretch of road across the tundra is one of the most scenic of the entire route, at least it had been during our spring trip – it had also been alive with wildlife…this trip, this female Moose was the only wildlife seen…

We stopped at various points along the way.  This is Chapman Lake and is the northern end of Tombstone Territorial Park.  You can see the foliage is starting to get it’s fall colour…also, the sun hadn’t lasted for very long…

a close up of some of the Tundra Plants…Bear Berry mainly…also Crow Berry…

Here is another look – Ernie off there in the distance – actually he is on the road..

Found these little mauve flowers which I think are Bitter Fleabane..

Two Moose Lake was another stop…in fact I think you get to Two Moose Lake before you get to Chapman Lake…at least it was still sunny at Two Moose Lake!

There were quite a few ducks on it…Bufflehead and Scaup…no moose…

another look at Two Moose Lake…

Continued on into the Ogilvie Mountains….this is looking back the way we had come…

The road ahead…

all that is left of the Yellow-mountain Avens this time of the year..

 there are some pretty interesting rock formations along this route…

more rocks…this is where we saw Dahl Sheep the spring trip – none this trip.

arrived at Engineer Creek Territorial campground – what a muddy mess!

selected a site that wasn’t too bad for mud…notice the aspens are quite yellow here…this is a tiny campground and was pretty much filled up come night time.

that mountain behind the campground is called Sapper Hill…

This is Engineers Creek and that water is the recommended drinking source!!!  there is no other supply of water at this campground.

This is the Dempster Highway by Engineers Creek campground.  It is really the only place to go for a walk although a little scary….you’ll see I had reason to be nervous when we are on our return trip!

I should know what these are but right now I can’t think…just thought they made a neat ‘fall’ picture…

and here is a last look at the area around the campground…the only birds seen were a Gray Jay and an Orange Crowned Warbler…