Thursday July 22, 2010

Last weekend we drove to Carcross. It’s just about 64 miles away but we have to take our passport with us because it’s in Canada. The goal was to see a bear. Bears should be coming into the Skagway area soon (not the town, but to the bays and streams) for salmon. They aren’t here yet, but everyone who drives to Carcross or Whitehorse sees them along the side of the road. And sure enough, we found one! This guy was standing on the side of the road, pawing over rocks and nibbling on whatever he found underneath. We pulled over and parked on the other side of the road and watched him for awhile, and he didn’t even look up.




















As and extra bonus, the view was really, really beautiful. When we traveled this road into Alaska in May, it was covered in snow. That was gorgeous. This was a different kind of beautiful.





































There were waterfalls everywhere - some of them as tall as the mountains.


























Just outside of Carcross is an unusual geological area - the Carcross desert. It’s a tiny area of sand dunes, about 1 square mile. It’s a desert by definition of physical characteristics, not by temperature. The sand is from an ancient lake bed and is carried to this area by the wind. You’ve heard the expression “blink, and you’ll miss it”? Well, we must have blinked on the way up here because we missed it. But this time we saw the sign and turned around to see it.