Tuesday June 11, 2019 - Eagle Plains to Dawson City and the end of the Dempster
Well we made it through the 780 km Dempster dirt highway without a flat tire!
Each van held a spare tire and Tom had bought an extra spare for each vehicle as a second back up. We were so lucky. There was little rain so the roadway was dry. Unlucky for us in that there were clouds of dust kicked up by us and anybody passing us. We saw several bicyclists on the roadway and we don't know how they did it. In places the gravel is pretty soft so it must be so difficult to ride a bike on a dirt road like that. Plus what does one do when one sees a roadside bear. And the bears seem to like to be roadside.
We left Eagle Plains Motel at 7:40 this morning with 370 km of dirt road to travel. One cannot blast down the road. Often the dirt road is higher than the abutting land and times it is a road on a high cliff. You can't go too fast on a dirt road either. So one is lucky to do a steady 50 or 60 km. Here are some of the vistas today.
We stopped at several places that were reliable for a certain bird. We saw a Black backed Woodpecker today and a Canada Jay. The Canada Jay is a curious bird so it usually can be seen.
The Canada flying
Some notable stops were to see a Gyrfalcon sitting on a nest on a high mountain cliff . We saw the partner fly by and deliver a carcass of maybe a brown squirrel or something that size. The nest-sitting adult then fed three ravenous chicks. This was really special to see. Where is it in the photo below? If you look in the center of the photo there is a mushroom-shaped nest of twig and grass and on top of it (very small in the photo) is the Gyrfalcon. One can't see the chicks. The bird was very high up on this mountain and on this little cliff below the top.
Here is a cropped photo.
We saw another Black Bear and several Dall Sheep high up on a mountain side. We also saw a Townsend's Solitaire at the bottom of the mountain cliff the Gyrfalcon was nesting on.
Here is a photo of the Dall sheep way high on a cliff side of a mountain.
We had a picnic lunch again along the roadway and several people stopped to talk to us. We waved bye to a couple we met several times in the last couple of days as they drove by. They are heading back to Florida in their customized Ford 350 van.
The temperature fluctuated today from 16 degrees to 12 to about 10 degrees then to 18 when we finally ended our day in Dawson City. This is usual during the day. The temperature changes every 5 minutes.
Another stop we made was over a bridge with fast running water. We spotted a very pretty bird, a Wandering Tattler walking around over the wet rocks. Then we saw a bird fly up from under the bridge and it was one of my favourite birds, an American Dipper. The bird stood in the fast water and fished for small things. We saw him with a worm. He was far away but here is the photo.
We stopped in Tombstone Provincial Park Visitor Center and then we went to the park campground and saw a Northern Goshawk sitting on a nest in a tree by a fast moving stream. The Goshawk watched us too. Tombstone Mountain is the center of the photo. It was pouring rain when we drove by.
We stopped at Two Moose Lake to view an assortment of ducks on the water. There were Lesser and Greater Scaup, Green winged Teal, Surf Scoter, and Northern Shoveler.
The drive today was long and we had lots of stops, so everyone was tired when we pulled into Dawson City.
Dawson City has wooden sidewalks everywhere and it has retained many of the old buildings from the beginning of the gold rush and the prosperous early years. One of our questions, and maybe it will get answered once we talk to a local, is whether the town is build on permafrost. We think yes at is looks like some of the houses are built on pilings.
After a very good supper (I had Arctic Char), Louise, Sue, Emily and myself went walking with a map to find the main street called Front Street. The Yukon River is on the other side of this street. There are lots of shops and restaurants that are housed in the old buildings.
Dawson City is exactly what I thought it was going to be like. Many houses and business establishments are painted in bright colours and it really is a tourist town. We finished our evening walk (it is still daylight) with ice cream cones from the ice cream shop on Front Street. We walked for a while to stretch our legs after sitting so long in the car the past two days. I wonder if they make many movies here in Dawson City as it is a neat place to visit.
.
Each van held a spare tire and Tom had bought an extra spare for each vehicle as a second back up. We were so lucky. There was little rain so the roadway was dry. Unlucky for us in that there were clouds of dust kicked up by us and anybody passing us. We saw several bicyclists on the roadway and we don't know how they did it. In places the gravel is pretty soft so it must be so difficult to ride a bike on a dirt road like that. Plus what does one do when one sees a roadside bear. And the bears seem to like to be roadside.
We left Eagle Plains Motel at 7:40 this morning with 370 km of dirt road to travel. One cannot blast down the road. Often the dirt road is higher than the abutting land and times it is a road on a high cliff. You can't go too fast on a dirt road either. So one is lucky to do a steady 50 or 60 km. Here are some of the vistas today.
We stopped at several places that were reliable for a certain bird. We saw a Black backed Woodpecker today and a Canada Jay. The Canada Jay is a curious bird so it usually can be seen.
The Canada flying
Some notable stops were to see a Gyrfalcon sitting on a nest on a high mountain cliff . We saw the partner fly by and deliver a carcass of maybe a brown squirrel or something that size. The nest-sitting adult then fed three ravenous chicks. This was really special to see. Where is it in the photo below? If you look in the center of the photo there is a mushroom-shaped nest of twig and grass and on top of it (very small in the photo) is the Gyrfalcon. One can't see the chicks. The bird was very high up on this mountain and on this little cliff below the top.
Here is a cropped photo.
We saw another Black Bear and several Dall Sheep high up on a mountain side. We also saw a Townsend's Solitaire at the bottom of the mountain cliff the Gyrfalcon was nesting on.
Here is a photo of the Dall sheep way high on a cliff side of a mountain.
We had a picnic lunch again along the roadway and several people stopped to talk to us. We waved bye to a couple we met several times in the last couple of days as they drove by. They are heading back to Florida in their customized Ford 350 van.
The temperature fluctuated today from 16 degrees to 12 to about 10 degrees then to 18 when we finally ended our day in Dawson City. This is usual during the day. The temperature changes every 5 minutes.
Another stop we made was over a bridge with fast running water. We spotted a very pretty bird, a Wandering Tattler walking around over the wet rocks. Then we saw a bird fly up from under the bridge and it was one of my favourite birds, an American Dipper. The bird stood in the fast water and fished for small things. We saw him with a worm. He was far away but here is the photo.
We stopped in Tombstone Provincial Park Visitor Center and then we went to the park campground and saw a Northern Goshawk sitting on a nest in a tree by a fast moving stream. The Goshawk watched us too. Tombstone Mountain is the center of the photo. It was pouring rain when we drove by.
Besides the Cotton Grass there are lovely spring flowers. Here is one of the spectacular ones, Purple Saxifrage.
We stopped at Two Moose Lake to view an assortment of ducks on the water. There were Lesser and Greater Scaup, Green winged Teal, Surf Scoter, and Northern Shoveler.
The drive today was long and we had lots of stops, so everyone was tired when we pulled into Dawson City.
Dawson City has wooden sidewalks everywhere and it has retained many of the old buildings from the beginning of the gold rush and the prosperous early years. One of our questions, and maybe it will get answered once we talk to a local, is whether the town is build on permafrost. We think yes at is looks like some of the houses are built on pilings.
After a very good supper (I had Arctic Char), Louise, Sue, Emily and myself went walking with a map to find the main street called Front Street. The Yukon River is on the other side of this street. There are lots of shops and restaurants that are housed in the old buildings.
Dawson City is exactly what I thought it was going to be like. Many houses and business establishments are painted in bright colours and it really is a tourist town. We finished our evening walk (it is still daylight) with ice cream cones from the ice cream shop on Front Street. We walked for a while to stretch our legs after sitting so long in the car the past two days. I wonder if they make many movies here in Dawson City as it is a neat place to visit.
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