Wednesday, May 24th -

We are enjoying shorter days of driving.  As usual, we got an early start to our day. The sun doesn’t set until 10:30 or so; it’s light until after 11:00pm. The sun rises above the horizon by 4:30am.

Our wildlife of the day is this snowshoe hare almost completely in his summer coat. We saw a moose beside the road. Unfortunately, the moose won the agility contest and got into the cover of the woods before I got the camera to snap a picture.

 

We took a short hike on the Spruce Beetle Trail. Here is Norman at the overlook. The trail has very good signs explaining the spruce beetle, its life cycle and its place in the ecosystem.

 

After that, we drove to the Sheep Mountain Visitor Center. They have scopes set up so visitors can get a good view of the Dahl sheep and their lambs. There are over 4,000 Dahl sheep in the Kluane National Park. The white dots in this picture are one family of sheep.

 

Next we hiked the Soldier’s Summit Trail. This trails end point is the spot of the Alaska Highway’s official opening in November of 1942.

 

The Al-Can Highway is beside Kluane Lake here (and for many miles more). The lake still has acres of ice.

 

We are near Beaver Creek this evening having driven farther than we expected to find an RV park with water. The spring has been cold enough that many campgrounds are just opening and don’t yet have water (like ours last night). We have found a lovely spot with trees, showers, a small store and water.