Since writing this, I’ve learned more about the protection of the park through the Wilderness Act of 1964 and have a better attitude! Maybe we’ve gotten used to having glorious nature to ourselves. In Yukon, especially, we’d pull off the road to camp, with stunning views and walks on the tundra in every direction—no one […]
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Musk Ox and More in Fairbanks
We were in Fairbanks for almost a week, but, because it had been more than a month since we’d been in a city, we had so many errands to run that we hardly had enough time to sightsee. We did squeeze in some fun, though. Musk Ox & Reindeer Research Station The Large Animal Research […]
Crossing into Alaska near Chicken
This photo says it all! Although, I don’t know why I’m using an exclamation mark, since this whole trip has been lovely, and Alaska seems like it will be just another nice leg. We will see. Top of the World Highway To get from Dawson City, Yukon, to the border crossing nearby, we drove along […]
Canada Day on the Klondike
The confluence of the Klondike and Yukon rivers is where the Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin have gathered for thousands of years, and in the early 1900s it’s where gold was found—which began the big Klondike gold-mining boom. Travelers like us who go through famous Dawson Creek to the south call this “Dawson City,” but I’ve noticed that […]
A Big Deal over One Dead Toe
I found a street sign in an rv park up here in Dawson City, Yukon, that says “Margaritaville.” Really, could there be a place on Earth less like whatever Margaritaville is like? It’s true that even here you can order a shot of tequila at the bar. But, it doesn’t come with a wedge of […]
The Price of Adventure (at Tombstone)
On our way to Tombstone Territorial Park in Yukon we drove a short stretch of the Klondike Highway and then the infamous Dempster. Up here there’s constant roadwork in the summer, and by roadwork they mean, “bulldozing the old road and pushing a pile of dirt beside it for a new road.” I was too […]
You Keep Watching the Tundra, Then You Remember to Look Up (at Tombstone)
I said this to Tracy yesterday while we were hiking along the mountains in the northern part of Tombstone Territorial Park, here in the Yukon, a little east of Fairbanks. The sub-arctic tundra here is so beautiful—moss and lichen and flowers—a deep cover that insulates the permafrost right below. Even if the ground weren’t captivating, […]
We Live on a Giant Rock in Space
You’ve had a significant epiphany, right? I’ve had a very few, and I remember each one. The time I realized that the meat in my mouth used to be alive, and it dropped right out of my mouth, with no meat entering again for 15 years. The time I was part of a herd (I […]
Faro: Named for a Card Game
Faro, Yukon, is a tiny little town born from mining, but not the kind we’re used to hearing about up here near Alaska. Yeah, people panned for gold along the Pelly River (Pharaoh/Faro is an old French card game they played), but the big deal was lead and zinc. As in, the world’s largest open-pit […]
An Interior Check, Where the Exterior Is Commanding
I do this about once a year: realize I’ve written a lot about where we are and what we’re doing but nothing about how we’re doing. If you’re curious about previous years’ internal check-ins, here’s one from 2020 in Florida during the our first winter on the road, here’s one from that first summer in […]
