Jen’s Journal – August 28, 2019

Day 60: Kluane Lake, YT

Sunny and chilly.

First thing in the morning, we went to the Visitor Center for Kluane NP, just two kilometers from our campsite. It was just around the mountain. At the Visitor Center the mountainside was receiving sunlight and we saw upwards of 100 Dall sheep, in smaller groups on that mountainside.

We learned that beautiful Kluane Lake lost over two meters of depth in 2016, when a glacier dam broke and its water was diverted away from Kluane to a different river. The drainage from the glacier was diverted elsewhere.

We continued down the Alaska Highway toward Haines and took four short hikes along the way. The first was up the mountain to the point where the Alaska Highway dedication took place in 1942.

At Kathleen Lake we learned that when another glacier dam broke long ago, the resident sockeye salmon could no longer swim to the ocean. So they adapted to living in fresh water.

Then we hiked up Rock Glacier. Basically we hiked up a huge pile of rocks, that we were assured by all the interpretive signage, have stabilized for hundreds of years.

We stayed at Million Dollar Falls Campground along a loud rushing river, where the black flies chased us in from our campfire. Check it out: Tom shaved!