6/12/18 - Kluane National Park & Preserve

The drive on the Alaska Highway west from Whitehorse kept getting more spectacular.  The mountains were getting bigger and closer and whiter.  

These are the St. Elias Mountains up ahead in Kluane National Park & Reserve in Yukon, Canada. 

We stopped for a break at Historic Canyon Creek Bridge, built by Sam McGee and some other guy for the goldminer's stampede in the early 1900's.  (You probably know Sam McGee's name from the Robert Service poem--this was the real guy.) There's a new bridge just behind where I'm standing, but this is most of the original.  Looks a lot more interesting than the replacement.

Haines Junction is on the edge of Kluane National Park. Once we turned northwest, we could see more of the mountains in the park, although we weren’t actually in the park at that time.  I’d missed the Visitor Center as we went through town, but I plan to stop on the way home.

I have no idea how George can do it, but he can take pictures while he’s driving without taking his eyes off the road!  Frequently he takes pictures of what the same ones I do, and mine are blurry from the bounces on the road and his horizon is still level.

I don’t know the name of the mountain, but look at all those glaciers!

The park map shows the St. Elias Mountains—the far side is the Icefield Range and the side near the highway is the Kluane Range.  There seem to be only two roads into the park, both noted as “rough, narrow 4x4 road”.  There are a few hiking trails, but it looks like an awful lot of work to me.  I like hiking, but tend to choose shorter, less strenuous—and definitely warmer—trails.

Just across the Slims River bridge is the Thachäl Dhäl Visitor Centre.  The picture of the building in the brochure looks forest green, but it must be faded.  I told George to get ready to turn at the green building.  He didn’t think it looked green.  We finally made it into the parking lot.

Talk about location—the Kluane Range is behind it, across the road is Kluane Lake and beside the building is Sheep Mountain (now called by it’s old name Thachäl Dhäl).

Sheep Mountain is named for the Dall Sheep which are very common here.  There are powerful telescopes and binoculars on the deck next to the visitor center, lined up to see the sheep high up on the mountain.  Sheep count today was 30.  You’re going to have to trust me on this, (and maybe squint and close one eye), but the White dots are actually Dall Sheep.  The little tiny white dots are lambs.

Sorry, but this is the best I can do for long distance with this camera.  I’m well aware that there are cameras who could make them not only visible but really bring out the wow factor.   This is real life, long distance, and it's actually more than I could see just with my eyes.  And there are really quite a few animals up there—not just signs advising you to look for the animals.  I’m happy.

More pics in Flickr:  Kluane Natl Park & Reserve