Just got home from North Yukon and wanted to share some pictures.

Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share (MPSIMS)
#1

I was there for a week for work. Fly in and fly out to an outfitters camp near the Snake River in the Peel Watershed. This was the first time I’d been to the Yukon and I’m glad to have had the experience. The logistics of getting there were pretty involved - fly from Calgary to Whitehorse, Whitehorse to a tiny town called Mayo on a small plane, then a two hour helicopter ride over the mountains to the camp.

The scenery is breathtaking and much different then what I’m used to here in the Rocky Mountains. Trees are stunted and sparse, the water is the brightest colour of blue I’ve ever seen. Lots of wildlife and easy fishing (we took the helicopter out to a mountain lake one night and caught our limit of Lake Trout in the first 20 minutes).

It was warm (+10C at night to +24C mid-day) and there were more mosquitos than I’ve ever seen. I was in a bug suit most of the time. The sun was setting around 12:30 am and rising around 3:30 am, so it was bright 24 hours a day.

The mountain along one side of our work area.

Me!

Rare bit of snow we found (for keeping samples cool).

Typical twisting river (not sure which this one is, could be the Snake)

Fishing lake - picture was taken around midnight.

One of multiple rivers on the flight in.

Amazing ranges! And another.

Flight out last night. Sad to leave. :frowning:

Got home this afternoon at 1:30 and head to Houston tomorrow at 1 pm. Nothing like a shock to the system!

#2

Beautiful pictures!
What were you doing there?

#3

Nice pics! Sounds like a good time as well as work. And Aww, ye’re makin’ me homesick! Looks quite a bit like much of Idaho. I miss green. And water. :frowning:

#4

I’m working on a multi-year reclamation project up there. I was a short term guest more than anything - got lucky to get an invite for a week!

#5

Great pictures, EmAnJ! I was just telling a friend how great it is to be out in nature. You got to do it BIG TIME.

-D/a

#6

Awesome pics!

#7

That’s probably the Stewart River, not the Snake, unless you flew further north than Mayo.

#8

Colour me green with envy. I hitchhiked there in my youth, made it to Dawson City.

It was an awesome place to spend a few weeks roaming around and camping, cooking over a fire. Spectacular!

I still haven’t seen all the province’s in this big country, but I’m sure glad of the amazing time I spent in this one!

Great photos, thanks for sharing!

#9

Yes, we were 300+ km NE of Mayo.

#10

Then most likely the Snake, which I think is one of the largest rivers in that region. Lots of beautiful water in that part of the world.

#11

May I ask, what’s up there to reclaim?

#12

Nice… did you stop in Dawson or Whitehorse?

#13

It’s an old iron ore mining site. Hundreds of claims were staked, but after about two or three years of drilling in the 60’s, the site was abandoned because it was decided it was uneconomical to get the iron ore out. There is a runway, debris and an old fuel tank on the site that we’re cleaning up. As you can imagine, the logistics of the project are significant - everything has to be flown in and out.

Whitehorse. We stayed at the SKKY hotel - I have to say, it’s one of the nicer hotels I’ve stayed in!

#14

Beautiful! I’m going to be driving through the Yukon in a couple of months, but just from Whitehorse south. Any tips for things I absolutely shouldn’t miss?

#15

Thank you for sharing the photos. The Yukon Territory is one of the most beautiful places on earth.

I don’t think we got as far NORTH as your location, but we drove thru on our way out of Alaska across Canada to Maine in Spring, 2011.

I miss those WIDE EMPTY HIGH PLACES! :frowning:

#16

Wow.

Alaska’s a bucket-list destination for me - I got a buzz just looking at these pictures.

#17

Just beautiful. A friend took his motorbike up the Dempster Highway a couple of years ago, and I can’t wait to get that far north myself. Very inspiring photography!

#18

Pretty much everything north of Whitehorse. I kid. It starts getting more boring south of Dawson Creek, though. You might try taking the John Hart Highway starting at Watson Lake.

bup: While the Yukon Territory forms part of the Alaska border, it’s not actually in Alaska. But I’ll assume you knew that. The scenery in BC and The Yukon is amazing, but it’s really quite different than that of Alaska. In general, you’ll also see much more wildlife in Canada than in Alaska.

Le Ministre de l’au-delà: The Dempster is a good drive. Canada does a good job of maintaining their dirt roads, and the Dempster is nice and wide. You also get to cross the Peel and MacKenzie Rivers by the free ferry system. The scenery is good, although there is better to be seen in BC and YT. You can camp at Eagle Plains just south of the Arctic Circle, and you’ll want to take a side trip to Ft. McPherson to visit the tent and canvas company (beautiful stuff).

#19

Looks like this question has already been answered, and to be honest, I don’t really have any input! This was my first time this far north and I only saw a very limited part of it.

Have a good trip and take lots of pictures!

#20

Wow, those are beautiful pictures. I envy you.
Errrr … … what were you using for bait? :cool: