Day 27: Bear Show & Fantastic Mountain Worlds - back to Yukon/Canada

8.8.2024

At 7:30 the alarm rings.

Heavy-hearted, we leave our favorite site at Chilkoot Lake and are about an hour later at the weir, where Lulu is reliable!

The weir is not visited by fish counters, which is why Lulu makes herself comfortable there. She jumps in and out of the water repeatedly, swims and occasionally catches a dead salmon from the water.

We watch Lulu's show for about 2 hours, then we part from our favorite river and drive on. Again today, 10 suns are in the blue sky - almost too bright for photography - luxury problems 😂

We learned in the last 2 days that you are not allowed to park or stop at the level of the weir for safety reasons, as bears keep coming from the forest to the weir - and vice versa - crossing this part of the road. As you can see, no one cares today. As soon as Lulu is there, everything else is irrelevant.. 🙈

In Haines, we drive past the Hitch RV Park again to the gas station. We fill up quickly, check the oil (all good) and go on.

We drive along the Chilkat River for a while. There is not much to see. On the way to the Eagle Preserve, we stop at a viewpoint and meet an angler who has just caught a salmon from the water.

We walk the short trail of the Eagle Preserves to the viewpoint with binoculars, but come to the realization that there seem to be bald eagles everywhere here - just not here! Crazy! In the parking lot, we meet a local couple who tell us that no eagle has been seen here for years. Good thing I saw a 'Bald Eagle' on almost every second tree by Chilkoot River 🤭😂

At the next parking lot, we stop again, as there is a huge bus. On a wall, there are about 40 pairs of shoes with name tags. The bus driver is lying in the sun and tells us that he is waiting for a rafting tour group.

For lunch, we stop at a scenic point on the Chilkat River, then head towards the border.

After the obligatory questions about CBD and alcohol, we are allowed to continue driving and whoosh - back in Canada! And not as expected in Yukon, but in BC (which has surprised us several times, where British Columbia has its borders everywhere😅 ).

Now it's steep uphill. The scenery is truly amazing! I could stop constantly and take road photos. We pass two cyclists and stop on the Haines Road at a pullout to admire the mountain panorama.

Just as we want to continue, we are caught up by the cyclists. An Australian couple from Adelaide. We admire their cycling performance, pushing their way up the pass here. They tell us that they have run out of water because they always have to boil the water from streams and now only have hot/warm water in their canisters, which is not really drinkable right now. We invite the two to some ice-cold water & ginger ale, give them 2 full water bottles, and say goodbye. They are more than grateful, and the Australian is especially thrilled about the old ginger ale 🤭

They want to reach Million Dollar Falls today.... Respect! That's still a few kilometers (with many 'ups and downs', as we will soon find out).

Our next stop is the Haines Highway Summit. The pink fireweed welcomes us here - along with hundreds of blow flies.

Baa, how did they get here???

We hadn't seen any mosquitoes during this vacation and now blow flies? Well, better than mosquitoes. The flies are annoying and settle everywhere (face, hair, ears), but at least they don't bite.

We take a few pictures, but flee back into our camper quite quickly again. On we go!

The landscape is unbelievably beautiful!!

Almost 40 km later, we are in the Yukon, shortly after arriving at the Million Dollar Falls Campground.

This was the best decision not to have come here yesterday. The distance to here was really clear, and it is just half-past three in the afternoon.

We park the camper van in front of the campground and walk past some campsites to the waterfall, where a squirrel greets us in the tree.

We reach the waterfall over wooden bridges, which is truly worth seeing!

The campground is almost empty. We only see a handful of occupied campsites (also the Million Dollar Falls CG is first come first serve.)

After exploring the waterfall, we proceed towards Kathleen Lake.

As we drive around the curve towards Dezadeash Lake, it suddenly becomes extremely windy! Crazy, it was almost calm a moment ago. The trees are bending and my husband has to hold the steering wheel tightly. It’s crazy!

Shortly after, we reach the Kathleen Lake / Kluane NP and turn left. As we have a campground reservation here, there is no rush to get to the campground. We drive past the campground to the Day Use Area. We actually thought about jumping into the lake today, but today’s +28 degrees don’t feel very hot anymore with the wind.

In the Day Use Area, there isn’t much going on. We park the camper right by the lake and take a walk along the shore.

We still walk sheltered, but as soon as we reach the end of the sheltered area of the peninsula, it blows quite hard, and the lake has waves as if we were standing at the sea. Crazy! But the panorama is just awesome! We relax on the red 'Canadian chairs' and enjoy the view.

On the way back, the wind dies down and I treat my feet to a cooling in the lake. Wow, it’s cold!!!

My husband has firmly resolved to go swimming, but more than wet legs is not achieved. I watch the duck dance 'Hui! Ahh! Brr! Ihhh!' but can't keep my feet in the water for longer than 10 seconds consecutively. We are really wimps.... especially when a local jumps into the lake beside my husband and gives us the feeling he’s bathing in hot springs. Crazy.... We European softies can’t keep up 😂😂😂

At the campground, we find our name on the information board. To our site, we have to go completely around the CG. The loop and access road to the park & CG are gravelled - like almost everywhere in Yukon and Alaska.

We 'sneak' to our Site 27 - again a perfect and dreamy site!!! Generously with its own 'terrace', where the table-bench combination and fire pit are located.

Here too, there is free firewood. My son and husband are competing in chopping wood. After 1 hour, they have chopped enough firewood for the next 2 weeks 😂

We enjoy our last evening in the 'wilderness', watching the many squirrels racing up and down the trees beside us, grilling burgers, and sitting outside by the fire for a long time, while bats flutter overhead.

How practical that it is still almost bright at midnight.

For the statistics:

Campground: Kathleen Lake Campground (Kluane NP)

(31 CAD ~27 €); Site 27 (nothing)

Distance driven: 260 km

Hiking: 6 km

Photos: 757

Weather: Blue sky & sunshine, +28 degrees