Leaving Alaska and On To Yukon

Here I sit in Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Cooling my heals once again. An error in judgement on my part has stranded me here until Monday while I wait for a couple new tires from White Horse. I had one of my two questionable rear tires go soft on me on the way here. I should have replaced them in Fairbanks, but I thought I could squeeze a few more miles out of them. If I had thought about it I would have realized it would be quite a while before I got to another large city.


It could be worse. The place I'm heading, Tombstone Territorial Park, is closed for a couple days. They had a bear go through and tear up a tent or two (depending on who you talk to). Hopefully that situation will be well under control by Monday. Dawson City isn't a bad place to get stranded either. It's an old gold mining town. They still mine gold here, but it's mostly geared toward tourists. This campground isn't too expensive and it has free wifi! More on the town later.

Sorry to say the Rock Ptarmigan eluded me once again. I got a lot of exercise looking for it, they like the higher elevations, and I did get some other photos.



I actually got these shots of Willow Ptarmigan the night before. This is what they normally look like although I think it's a young bird and it isn't quite to adult plumage.


Here's what a Willow Ptarmigan looks like when a magpie gets too close. Pretty scary!



Some more Willow Ptarmigan. Two of them are showing us the white wing feathers that they have year round. Soon the rest of their feathers (except for some in the tail)will turn white to match.


While looking for the elusive ones I took some time to photograph this Arctic Ground Squirrel. They look and act a lot like Prairie Dogs.


On the bus I had more opportunities for Bear photography.

I still have a few opportunities for Rock Ptarmigan in the next couple weeks or so you never know.

So far on this trip I've seen well over 509 different species of birds. Before that I had seen just 483 in my entire life. Over 100 of this year's birds were lifers, they were new to me. In the few years before that I think I've averaged around ten lifers per year. So up to this point I've had an extraordinary year for birds. Judging from that it's easy to think the next dozen or so birds will come just as easily, and I'll break the 600 barrier in no time at all. However, if you look at the birds I have yet to find and compare their ranges with the areas I have yet to cover, you'll see it won't be easy. In order to make 600 before I get home I'll have to find some pretty hard to find birds. Not to be overly pessimistic, you can buy me a 600 bird pin if you want to but you might have to hold on to it for a while.

In case you missed the last time I posted the link to my online checklist here it is: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pJQ2RUBJzY2rh9XKfysIVYg



The add on, Loggerhead Kingbird doesn't automatically add to my list. Anybody know how to fix that?

From Denali NP I went back down the Denali Highway. the weather was wet and cool like the Alaska weather I know and... know. It did make for some interesting photos though.



This is a great time of year for berries in Alaska. These low growing Blueberries where everywhere.





I got quite a few of these close-up "landscapes".




I got quite a few wider landscapes as well. The white growing around the edges of the pond is called Alaska Cotton or Arctic Cotton.



Some wildlife shots too. Eight swans a swimming? These are Tundra Swans.

From there I headed west through Tok again and on up to Chicken. The story goes that they wanted to call it ptarmigan but they couldn't spell it. Whatever. I heard it described as quirky and I guess that's about right.


This is "downtown" Chicken. The rest of the town consists of a couple gift shop/RV park type businesses a post office and an airstrip.


Chicken was a gold mining outpost. This is an old dredge that is gradually falling apart in the river. They also have one that's partially restored. They offer tours of that one.


The road from Chicken to Dawson City is very beautiful. Part of it is known as the "Top of the World Highway". In this shot you can see the US/Canada customs.


I got some more Caribou shots along the way.


To get to Dawson City from the west you need to take this Ferry across the Yukon River. It's pretty convenient and it runs 24/7.


This is a view of town and the Yukon River from Midnight Dome just outside of town.



This is the view from King Solomon's Dome, a bit further out of town. It got it's name from the fact that six of the richest gold bearing rivers in the Yukon start here.



Here's a young Spruce Grouse I found there. Camo is working for this guy.



The real draw in Dawson City right now is the World Gold Panning Championships! Really! There are teams here from all over the world. Yesterday I got some gold panning tips from a couple guys on the South African team. A white guy and a black teenager named Surprise. Pretty interesting.


The panners are each given a bucket of gravely sand with a set number of tiny gold flakes in it. They stand in tubs of water and pan out the gold as quickly as possible. The shortest time wins, but they get five minutes tacked on for each gold flake they miss. Some guys do it in less than a minute.


Here you can see a judge and the fans in the bleachers. One group even did cheers.


They raise their pan when they're done.



Here are some of the panners that aren't competing at the moment. You can see their custom gold pan cases on the ground.

It's Sunday morning now and the finals are this afternoon. It should be pretty exciting.

I found a little Evangelical Free Church in town and that starts in about 20 minutes so I better get going. Thanks for reading and for all your support. Good to hear from some new commenters (if it wasn't a word before, it is now) too. Take care.

Steve