Grizzly Bear Sighting...Up Close!

From Whitehorse, it's an easy two hour drive, about 96 miles along the historic Alaska Highway, to Haines Junction. The highway community of Haines Junction is nestled at the base of the St. Elias Mountains and the junction for the Haines Highway south. So the scenery changed dramatically as the 7,000 to 9,000-ft. summits of the Kluane Mountain Range parallel the highway; also the St. Elias Mountain Range just to the west contains many of Canada’s highest peaks, including Mt. Logan at 19,550 ft.

We were fortunate to be coming down the highway and experience our first Grizzly Bear sighting! It appeared to be young and was next to the road eating yellow flowers. As we slowed to observe I got out my Nikon D700 with a 80-200mm telephoto lens. Stopping, I parked and turned on my hazard flashers about 15 to 20 yards from the animal really expecting it would run off. Instead it acted as if I wasn't even there and continued its meal. From my driver's seat I captured a few images just over the hood of the truck. At this point I thought, what the heck, toot the truck horn and see what it does, hoping it would at least look up at the sound. Much to my surprise It never looked up and frankly appeared to care less about our presence. I rolled slowly by so Sean and Kathy could get their photos and we continued on keeping a sharp lookout for other wildlife. We were driving towards Kluane Lake located in the southwest area of the Yukon; it is the largest lake contained entirely within Yukon at approximately 158 square miles and 50 miles long and home to the infamous community of Destruction Bay.

Our destination was Congdon Creek Campground at Mile 1071 on the Alaska Hwy near Destruction Bay; a very pretty campground for dry camping with some sites close to the lake. It is first come, first serve and big rig friendly. The tent area is enclosed inside an electric fence because of bear activity. Really?! There are pit toilets as well as free fire wood. There are some pull thru sites but not all are big rig friendly since they have a very sharp turn to them or have trees close to the site. We were fortunate to get two pull thru sites near one another.

The campground is outside Destruction Bay which is a small community on the Alaska Highway (historical mile 1083) in Canada's Yukon on Kluane Lake. It is populated mostly by non-aboriginal residents; community residents provide Yukon government services in the area (school, highway maintenance), including nearby Burwash Landing, and some tourism-related businesses along the Alaska Highway. The name is derived from the wind blowing down structures erected by the military during highway construction in 1942–43.

We camped here for one night on Friday, June 28th but we sure could have stayed longer. The setting here was stunning and peaceful; I enjoyed the quiet interrupted only by the lapping sound of the lake nearby. But we are now so close to the goal and getting a bit anxious about the next leg of the trip. From Destruction Bay to Tok, Alaska we heard reports that this would be the worst part of the highway. With another day without cell coverage or internet, it adds to the uncertainty of our situation. Questions like; How fast can we safely drive? How long will it take? Is there road repair happening on Saturday?

Ultimately, it doesn't matter because we didn't come this far to turn back around now. Our intended plan is to get to the US Border crossing and into Alaska on Saturday, June 30. This is a journey of 232 miles and over four plus hours of driving. Yeah, but tomorrow we will be sleeping in Alaska!