Conrad Yukon Government Campground Carcross, Yukon Canada

Mileage:  42,713

Time is particularly distorted for us.  I know that it is Thursday but that doesn’t mean too much to me.  We are three time zones away from home.  Today is summer solstice.  In Atlin the sun rose at 4:35 am and it sets at 11:18 – 18 hours and 42 minutes of daylight.  Even after the sun sets, the sky is stained a dusky lavender blue and it never really gets dark.  You can’t see the stars and there is no moonlight.  It is light enough all night to make your way around.  We wake when we are rested, eat when we are hungry, and go to bed when we are tired.  We don’t pay too much attention to the clock.  This is so very different than our ordinary scheduled lives.  This is a picture of what it looks like here at 1:00 am.

As we left Atlin this morning there was little traffic.  In the 100 km that we drove north, we only saw 5 or 6 pickup trucks.  We did see a lot of evidence of recent moose traffic…though no moose.

Driving in this area, you can understand why it might be important for families who live here to own guns.  We are not gun owners and we never will be but here there might be a need to protect your homestead, children, pets, or livestock from coyote, bear and other predators.  Groceries here are very expensive.  These people are from humble means.  They might need to hunt to fill the freezer.  Traveling is supposed to open our minds and give us new perspectives.

Our wildlife sightings today included a black bear, a pair of bald eagles, a chipmunk, a big blonde grizzly on the way to Carcross and another near town.

At the beginning of the day, I wasn’t sure where we were going to end the day.  I had options circled in Tagist, Carcross, and Whitehorse.  We decided to stay a little south of Carcross at Conrad Yukon Government Campground.

The campground sits on the Tagist River with the Pelly Mountains surrounding it.

Carcross was a much nicer place after 3 pm.  All the tour buses from the Skagway cruise ship port were leaving for the day.  We biked around the quaint little village of shops and down to the lakefront beach.

We headed to the Bistro for a tasty lunch of bison burgers and Bonanza Brown beer.

Back at the campground we took a short hike down to the water’s edge.