Muncho Lake / Stone Mountain

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Crossing the northern Rockies, the Alaska Highway passes through two BC provincial parks, Muncho Lake and Stone Mountain, only a few miles from one another. This is one of my favorite places. It's a long way from anywhere, the only access is several hundred miles on the AK highway, or by small plane on a gravel landing strip. Heading south, Muncho Lake is first; you kind of just run up on an overlook. This time of year (May), the lake still has a layer of ice over it:

The lake is s brilliant turquoise color due to copper oxide being leached out of the bedrock:

The shores are gravel, and the water is extraordinarily clean and clear:

A couple more miles south you enter Stone Mountain Provincial Park, which is known for a population of Stone sheep. The sheep (like most wildlife along the AK highway) have little fear of cars or people. I saw a group of 6 or 7 just beside the road, and got out to take some photos:

This youngster took a sip from the creek:

Before hopping over to go elsewhere:

Alaska Highway: Northern BC

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Through northern British Columbia, the Alaska Highway passes through what is best described as a crap ton of wilderness. Which really isn't unlike its track through the Yukon:

Of course, roadside wildlife is plentiful in both BC and the Yukon:

Before too long, the landscape gets more vertical as you begin to cross the northern Rockies:

International Year of Forests

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The American Black Bear (Ursus americanus) is the most common bear in North America, and its global population is greater than that of all other bear species combined. Though they share their range with brown bears (Ursus arctos), they are not particularly closely related - the black bear's ancestors have resided in North America for at least 4.95 million years, while the brown bear moved in across the Bering land bridge around 100,000 years ago.

I spotted this bear alongside the Alaska Highway in Canada's Yukon Territory. It cast me a few nervous glances as I was watching it, but went about its business. I saw a few other, more confident bears that were less concerned about my presence, but they all lacked the lovely brown patches this one has.

Epic territory is epic

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Enter Canada's Yukon Territory:

The Yukon is pretty incredible. It is larger than California, but with a population of only 35,000 (20,000 of which live in the city of Whitehorse). I would love to spend some more time there.

The 40 miles or so just across the border is the worst section of road along the Alaska Highway; the frost heaves are awful, which keeps the pavement pretty torn up. Gravel is used to fill in the cracks and crevasses in the road, but, like interior Alaska, this is a dry place, so that causes lots of dust:

Kluane Lake sits on the edge of a network of parks that makes up another World Heritage Site. Parks in the lower 48 states have tourist industries grown up around the edges, selling everything from guided tours to cheap t-shirts. Kluane is the polar opposite - there is nowhere nearby to buy gas. The sensation (which is fairly common in the far north!) is one of an unspoiled ecosystem which looks much the same as it did 10,000, or maybe even 100,000, years ago. I drove through just as the sun was low enough to be occulted by the mountains:

Continuing down the road, the evening light was pretty impressive on the landscape, which is completely void of any reminders of the modern world, save the road itself:

Alaska Highway: Eagle* Encounter

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The Alaska section of the Alaska Highway runs through a taiga sea of green, rolling waves:

It's dotted with numerous small, marshy ponds, which is prime hunting territory for several types of raptors. I noticed a juvenile bald eagle hunting one near the road, and pulled over to watch. The bird took interest in me and came over to circle right above the car a few times to get a good look, which works both ways, giving me a great opportunity to shoot this bird in the air:

Unrelated - There was a phone booth sitting on the side of the road, with no other buildings anywhere in sight.

*edit: I thought this was a rough-legged hawk when I posted this, and have corrected it.

International Year of Forests

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A cow and calf Moose (Alces alces) take a break from grazing on the tall grass to eye the weird biped pointing a camera at them. An adult moose needs to take in around 10,000 Calories per day to maintain its body weight, so a great deal of its time is spent eating - up to 70 pounds of vegetation in a day!

International Year of Forests

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The Canada Lynx (Lynx canadensis) can be found across most of the forested regions of Canada and Alaska; this one is hiding amongst the brush in Denali National Park. They hunt snowshoe hare almost exclusively. Wikipedia says: "They hunt both by ambush and by actively seeking out prey, varying their tactics depending on the terrain and relative abundance of prey species. If food is scarce and the lynx comes upon a large number of prey, it may go on a spree, killing as many prey as possible, then storing the kills."

Craned

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The cranes have been showing up, though not as many as usual. Apparently they've been flying right over Fairbanks to head on up to ANWR. A few have stopped at Creamer's Field, though, and I got out the telescope to shoot some close-ups.