Carcross Campground Carcross, Yukon, Canada

Mileage:  47,234

At a scenic turnout we saw this tremendous beaver dam.  It is a magnificent work of engineering.  The water level at the top of the dam was about 18 inches above the lower level.  The dam was working to flood the surrounding area, making it marshy and muddy.

Another large dog-like animal print…

Today we arrived in Whitehorse.  This was our opportunity to get our groceries and other chores done.  The last thing we did was to go to a truck tire place.  We wanted an expert to look at the tires.  The guy, Danny, was great.  He knew tires.  He checked the air pressure and filled the tires and did a visual inspection of each tire.  Tim feels so much better knowing that the tires are good.  We have put almost 9,000 miles on the tires this trip and some of the miles were on pretty rough road.  We were finished around 3 pm.

Having finished everything on the list it was time to move on.  Skagway was one of the side trips we did not take on the way north.  We talked to a couple the other night and the woman insisted that we should go.  The scenery she said was worth the drive.  So, we are headed toward Skagway.  The scenery is gorgeous so far.

To get there we have to go through Carcross again.  The town of Carcross used to be called Caribou Crossing…so named because a herd of caribou migrated through here every fall.  There was another town called Caribou Crossing and it was causing lots of confusion.  Now this is Carcross.  There are still caribou here but in much lower numbers.  The local native people and the Yukon government are working together to help revitalize the herd.

We stopped at Carcross Desert.  Not a real desert because it is not hot or dry here.  These sand dunes are left behind by an ancient glacier.  They look really out of place among all of the mountains and lush greenery.

We are staying at Carcross Campground, another government campground.   Once we were set up we went to Carcross Commons to The Bistro for dinner.  We walked for a short while after eating and watched a pair of bald eagles over the water.

We went for a drive and looked at the mountains in the distance.  There was a low-lying cloud over the mountaintop that was an odd color.

We noticed that it was billowing up from below and then we knew that it was smoke.  This was a wildfire.  We drove about 10 miles to investigate.  The fire and smoke spanned a distance of more than 4 miles.  The area with the greatest amount of smoke had visible flames.

There were hundreds of other smaller fires and smoking areas and great swaths of blackened and charred mountainside.

It was both fascinating and sobering to watch the power of all that fire. The flames are all on the other side of the lake.  We have no idea how long they have been burning.  There is no way that firefighters could get resources there to put out the blazes.  We had heard that wildfires are usually left alone unless they threatened homes and businesses.  Fire is a necessary part of the ecosystem here.  90 percent of the wildfires are caused by lightning strikes.  We have to go past this area again tomorrow on the way to Skagway.  It will be interesting to see what things look like by then.