Congdon Creek Campground Kluane Lake, Yukon Canada

Mileage:  43,218

We were here in Haines – note the orange highlighted area.

To get back to the Alaska Highway we had to drive north and go back through border patrol into Canada again. At the border the officer told us that there aren’t too many people who come from the eastern US to do this trip.  Tim had noticed that we are meeting lots of people from the western states but hardly anyone from the east coast.  The road took us from Alaska to British Columbia to Yukon.  There is only one road in and out of Haines.  Fortunately for us, the Haines Highway was such a gorgeous drive and we got to see it all again.  We traveled along the Chilkat River Eagle Preserve and back through the alpine tundra with the glaciated mountains as our backdrop.

We saw a mama merganser duck and her ducklings.

We also saw a fox and some tundra swans.

At the beginning of Kluane Lake there is a large, flat, dusty area that goes on for miles.  We stopped at the Thachal Dhal Visitor Center and learned that the surrounding area used to be a river.  In 2016 the glacier feeding the river diverted its course and the large open area is a dry riverbed.  The river is just gone.

It was time to decide where to spend the night.  We found another Yukon Government Campground – Congdon Creek Campground on Kluane Lake.  Kluane Lake is glacier fed and beautiful.  The Milepost – Alaska Travel Planner had this to say about Congdon: “no tent camping in July – August due to bear activity” and also this “Closures possible due to bear activity.”

Yes, we are camped at Congdon.  It is really lovely and peaceful here.  We have had a fire all evening and we have seen bunnies.  We decided not to grill our dinner but we did enjoy a picnic of smoked Coho salmon.

A chipmunk!

There is a tent enclosure designed to keep tent campers inside and safe and the bears outside with electric fencing.  We met a couple who was going to stay there.  They do a lot of back-country camping and in their experience bears in the back-country are usually skittish.  Bears though that are used to foraging in campgrounds, living among people and possibly being fed are aggressive.