Kluane National Park, stars and a little bit of northern lights

16.09.2014

Sunshine and blue sky! Oh my God - we are so lucky again!! It's cold but clear. We have a quick breakfast at Glo's Grill next to the Alcan Motor Lodge in an unheated room (only one more guest, the bus driver of the Japanese group). Outside, Haines Junction lies in all its glory: A street intersection that is silent even on a Tuesday. 

Hectic weekday in Haines Junction... ;-)

The architectural highlight between the gas station and a hotel with crooked curtains is “The Muffin”. A kind of monument to the local wildlife. The artist seems to have tried to make a kind of rock. The result is a pink piece of stone that strongly resembles a cupcake or muffin - with animal decorations.

After breakfast, we go back to the Visitor Center because the First Nation part practically closed yesterday when we arrived. In 1942/43, the First Nation simply took away the land on which they had been settled for thousands of years. Apparently, this happened everywhere. Children were taken away and placed in white families, owning property was prohibited. This is reminiscent of slavery or the Third Reich. And when you consider when this happened here, it is even more remarkable.

Tlingit pearl jewelry

We drive along the Kluane Range to Silver City, which is a dilapidated settlement from gold rush times. Wonderfully spooky and overgrown. There is still an old car chassis here, and in the decaying wooden houses, you can still see cannon stoves. 

Further down the road is a B&B above the Kluane Lakes. What a view, what a landscape! 

The sun is shining, the lake lies blue in front of us, yellow aspens, birches and green firs stand photogenic in front of us. 

We drive along the Kluane River to the Visitor Center, which is also “closed for the season” with beams and red-white plastic tape. Unfortunately, the toilet is also closed. On the steep slope of the mountain behind it, you can see some Dall sheep high up. We drive on a incredibly bumpy road with deep puddles, rough stones, and bumps to a hiking trail, after chatting with two Germans. They are properly equipped with bear spray, a bell on their belt, and a thick stick against bears. Well, we'll take a little walk and hope that we don't meet a grizzly bear. The Kluane National Park is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Large parts of the park are not accessible by hiking trails, and at best the indigenous people know sled and transportation routes here. So if you want to hike here, you can go on the few real hiking trails or walk off the beaten path. The latter, of course, increases the probability of encountering bears.

The hiking trail “Sheep Creek Trail” starts behind a memorial plaque for a woman who was attacked and killed by a grizzly bear here in the late 1980s. Maybe it's better to sing out loud? It goes uphill quite steeply and the Dall sheep don't get any clearer. Backward offers a nice view of a wide valley. 

We soon turn around and bump back to the main road, along the Kluane Lake and then on the highway to Haines Junction. Today the liquor store is open and we are amazed at how big it is. In fact, inside the liquor store is the counter for the civil office! We buy a 6-pack of beer and a bottle of wine and then drive to a nice little forest trail where we walk for another hour, enjoying the views of the mountains and walking under incredibly yellow birch trees that are a real feast for the eyes against the equally incredible blue sky. Squirrels scold us because we disturb their peace.

Afterwards, we search for a higher place outside the town to watch the northern lights tonight. When we find it, we drive back to the hotel and check out the dinner options at Glo’s Grill again. The items we choose from the menu they provided are no longer available. There is only one baked potato left, liver is all gone, and the only available vegetable is beans. Burgers are always an option - but I can't stand them anymore. I order a sandwich with some kind of meat and drown it in a spicy sauce. The restaurant will be closed in the next few days, who wants to go grocery shopping there? Besides us, there is only one couple (also tourists) there. Haines Junction is not a melting pot in the evening either :-D

Our food supplies are depleted. Except for a few bread chips and candies, we have nothing left. Tomorrow we will drive 500 km to Tok and pray that the general store will be open so that we can at least get a few crackers or maybe even apples. The bakery here in Haines Junction is also already “closed for the season”. Since it is the only bakery, there is no bread here either. Since we will be staying for two nights in a hotel near the Matanuska Glacier, where it is also unclear whether you can get food there, I decide to write an email to the hotel. Online they offer that you can get breakfast and dinner with advance registration, which I then order for us for the two days. On Google, it doesn't look like there is a store near the lodge. So we have to find something in Tok, at the latest, from which we can live until Saturday if necessary. Since we constantly cross the border and never take (fresh) food with us, stocking up on such things, if possible, is also not advisable if it is not allowed across the border. Tomorrow we will once again be driving from Canada to the USA, but then we will be staying in Alaska. Our hope rests on Tok.

After a short night's rest of 1 hour, we get up again at 1:00 am and drive to our viewpoint. It's pitch black, below freezing, and only when the moon peeks over the treetops can we see the silhouettes of the firs in front of us. An incredible starry sky spreads out above us. The Big Dipper - also found on the Alaska flag - is always visible.

The camera's sensor sees more than the human eye. What can be recognized as possible Northern Lights is clearly confirmed in a photo.

However, this night is not even close to being comparable to the one in Whitehorse the other day, and we soon retreat to the warmth of our room. There is still hot elderberry tea and then all blankets and socks to warm up the chilled body.

Distance covered: approx. 160 km