We are on our way up the
Dempster Highway. We are totally prepared for this part of the trip. This is the reason we have 3 spare truck tires with us. You can drive for hours before seeing another soul on this road, so be prepared for every emergency.
We are crossing the North Klondike River, looking at one peak of the Ogilvie Mountains. This is Antimony Mountain. It is 2,040 meters high and about 30 km away.
This is the North Klondike Range, which shows signs of glaciation. Triangular shaped peaks, u-shaped valleys, mounds of rubble and steep-walled ridges are some of the effects of glaciation.
All summer long they work on repairing the roads. They get the water they need for the repairs and to keep the dust down from the streams that are near where they are working.
Rock Glaciers are rock fragments that move much like glaciers and have a core of ice underneath them cause them to move and undulate.
After talking to the staff at the interpretive center, we found out that they hadn't seen a bird in months, they were very excited to learn that we had seen ducks in this pond, it meant that fall was here, as the birds were returning on their way to their winter homes. km 69
Tombstone Interpretive Centre at km 71.
A woolly mammoth tooth on display at the interpretive centre.
Loon
a marmot
a martin
Northern Hawk Owl
a Merlin
The Tombstone Range viewpoint area at km 74.
The Tombstone Range is caused by a tough rock type called syentie, an igneous intrusion which punched upward into overlying sedimentary layers about 90 million years ago. As the intrusion cooled, steep shrinkage cracks developed; during the ice age, valley glaciers plucked slabs from the base of the mountains, leaving impressive vertical faces.
North Fork Pass summit and watershed divide. This summit is the highest point on the Dempster Highway. this is the Continental Divide. Rivers to the north flow into the Beaufort Sea by way of the Mackenzie River system and rivers tot he south are part of the Yukon River watershed that flows into the Bering Sea to the west. Land here is near continuous permafrost.
Should be called "No Moose Lake" or "Plenty of Duck Lake" km 102.6, very pretty, but not a moose in sight!
Looks like a rhinoceros to me.
More of the continuous road reconstruction.
The northern Boundary of Tombstone Territorial Park at km 115 of the Dempster Highway.
Chapman Lake is the largest lake on the Dempster Highway. It was named for Ernest Chapman, a trader, trapper, and prospector. km 116
Red Creek and Sulpher Springs km 168.3
For the next 25 km you will see and smell this highly mineralized area.
Red Hillside is a hillside covered with a pink coloration. the slope is covered with shattered red shale. The red coloring is due to the iron oxide in the rock. km 180
Tors and Tortured Rock. Protruding from the slopes of rubble are towers, spikes and minarets of rock. Known as tors, these features are the products of frost shattering. Water seeps into cracks and joints in the hard bedrock, then freezes and expands, forcing the rock apart until it falls down the slope. The remaining larger, more solid blocks remain. Tors are found only in unglaciated terrain.
Fires are still burning in several areas, set off by lightning from a storm a few nights ago.
We all thought it looked like a face of an owl in the rock, especially from far away.
km 191.8
Engineer Creek Bridge km 195
More Tors and Tortured Rock
Ogilvie river km 195.5
The Notch km 214
Elephant Rock Pullout km 221.2
Elephants were once common in the Yukon, in he days of the woolly mammoths, which was as recent as 8,000 years ago. Nature has cared a tor into the shape of an elephant with a defined trunk.
Eagle Plain Plateau. We are leaving the North Ogilvie Mountains eco-region and entering the Eagle Plains eco-region. km 245.5-347
Ogilvie-Peel Viewpoint km 259 this viewpoint provides on of the best panoramas of the northern fringe of the Ogilvie Mountains. the valley of the Ogilvie and Peel rivers continues eastward for about 180 km, passing between the south end of the Richardson Mountains and the Ogilvies.
In the foreground, you can see where this year's fire was.
Here you can see some results of previous years' fires. With endless days of intense summer sun, it is not uncommon for temps to reach the upper 80 or 90's. During these hot times, thunderstorms occur bringing with them lightning, but little rain. The burn in this area is from July 1991. It ended with the snow fall in mid august. It covered over 5,500 hectares and was only one of many fires that year in the area.
Those are the Richardson Mountain in the background. km 347
We stayed in Eagle Plains for the night, population of 9. km 369
Tomorrow, we will attack the second half of the Dempster Highway in hopes of reaching Inuvik in time for our 3 pm tour. We have to leave by 5:30 am in hopes of getting the first ferry.
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