The hike takes you up the old original road grade of the Alaska Highway on the hillside overlooking Kluane Lake.
There were wild flowers growing all along the trail, in such profusion and variety that I was pretty much stunned. The soil here is all glacial moraine so it is pretty much sand and gravel. Yet it supports a huge variety of flowers. There is everything, from this Prairie Sagewort (Artemisia frigida) which has leaves that smell like sage
To a lovely little Western Moss Heather (Cassiope mertensiana) that at first I thought was a juniper.
There were lots of Yukon Beard-tongue (Penstemon gromanii) all along the trail.
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There were wonderful little Alpine Asters (Aster alpinus) too.
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My favorites were these pink Cut-leaf anemones (Anemone multifida rubra).
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The cut-leaf anemones (Anemone multifida) come in a creamy white too.
I'd never seen Oxytrope before this trip but it turns out there are a whole bunch of different varieties of it growing in the far north. This is Northern Oxytrope (Oxytropis campestris).
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These lovely blue flowers are wild flax (Linum perenne).
There was plain old yarrow (Achillea millefolium).
And there was this lovely Three-toothed Saxifrage (Saxifraga tricuspidata). Don't you just love the red polka dots on the petals?
I can't tell you which anemone formed this seed head but who cares, isn't it fun?
The trail winds it way up the hill until you get to an official looking area with signs and flags and displays. This is where they 'cut the ribbon' to open the Alaskan Highway in November 1942. All the signs in the Yukon are in English, French and the local First Nation.
The opening of the highway made for huge changes in this part of the Yukon. Before the highway there was almost no contact between the First Nations and the rest of the country. After the highway, their lives changed immensely.
From here you can continue on up the hill since trail/roadbed continues on and on. We met some folks who had just gone to the curve up a ways and they said it was worth the walk so we went on to at least see the view. Here's a view of the lake and a little island in it.
This end of the lake is interesting because once upon a time (not that long ago in geologic time) the lake emptied into a river on this end. Then something happened (I don't remember what) and the flow got blocked. The lake began emptying to the north instead but the old river bed is still there.
Here's the terrain to the south.
Here's the little island again closer up. I loved the different colors in the water here as the lake swirls around where it used to empty out.
On the way back I discovered this patch of Draba (another flower I'd never seen before). I can't tell which variety it is.
Then I spied this butterfly sitting in the middle of the trail. It stayed still long enough for me to photograph it.
In this same section of the trail we saw some Prairie Cinquefoil (Potentilla pennsylvanica).
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And a Nootka rose (Rosa nutkana).
This hike was an all-around very satisfactory hike. It had a nice elevation gain without being arduous, the views were lovely and the flowers were a wonderful surprise. We even met some interesting folks to talk to (retired innkeepers from the Canadian Rockies).
Having seen about all we were going to see of Kluane given our capabilities, we decided to motor on up the Alaskan Highway for the rest of the day.
Here's map of our route.
View Larger Map
The lake was mirror-still as we set out and I took a series of reflection photos from the car window.
We stopped for lunch at a rest stop featuring the Kluane River, another big wide braided river. Here's the view of the mountains complete with Fernando and Rosita.
There were lots of Mountain Arnica (Arnica latifolia) in bloom here.
Further down the road we stopped to take photos of the St. Elias Range.
Then as we came around a curve and there was a black bear! He turned tail and quickly disappeared into the bushes but I had time to get a couple of photos.
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I also got a good shot of a healthy Black Spruce (Picea mariana). When they grow in the wet permafrost areas they're very scrawny looking but these were pretty healthy and about as tall as they get (about 30 ft.). Notice how short the branches are. They grow all over the Yukon and interior Alaska.
Not long after this we reached the Alaska/Yukon Border. There's a nice turnoff here so that you can stop and take photos, which we did.
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Walter had a great time playing with the International Border plinth. He wanted you to note that his left hand is in Alaska and his right is in the Yukon. What an International guy!
After all that fun we got in line to go through US Customs one more time. We didn't have any problems but they did ask if we had any citrus fruit. It turns out the Canadians had let in some suspicious citrus from China that the US didn't want in the country. We gotta protect the Alaskan citrus crop, right? I know, I know, once you're in Alaska you could take it home with you on the plane/ship to Florida or California.
We decided to spend the night at Deadman Lake Campground, a Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge campground. It was free! And we got a spot not far from the lake. It was a warm afternoon and the mosquitos were out. But I spied some flowers I wanted to photograph so I went out and got my socks wet one more time. What looked like a nice grassy area was bog!
Here's the Nagoonberry (Rubus artica) that lured me out to dance with the mosquitos.
There were Cloudberries (Rubus chamaemoru) in bloom too. The bears are supposed to really like ripe cloudberries.
Once my socks were wet I decided I might as well slog out to see the lake. It's really a pretty little lake.
Here's a panorama shot of the lake.
You could see mountains in the distance. They are probably the Nutzotin Mountains but don't hold me to it.
Here's a panorama shot of the mountains.
In Part XVII, we'll make our way up to Fairbanks and then on to Denali National Park.