Broken Camera

Last spring i went back to Utah for some more exploring. This time around my area of concentration was going to be the more remote areas of Capital Reef National Park, since i've been to most of the easy to get to places. I also wanted to take a look around the Escalante River, possibly driving down the Hole in the Wall Road.

 

I rented a Jeep, but they didn't have it upon my arrival in Grand Junction, so they gave me a new, full size Silverado instead. I didn't want something that big, but the truck was a comfy ride and had a lot of power. It worked great in the sand.

The second bit of news for me was that on the day i arrived there was a freak blizzard. The whole region was getting pounded by snow and high winds, and the temperature plummeted 30 degrees overnight. Power was out in several of the small towns where i  planned on staying.

I decided to stick around in Grand Junction for a day or two, and visit Colorado National Monument, a little park i'd always ignored (pictured at left). This turned out to be a blessing, because not only is the park worth visiting, but i found out when i stopped for my first hike, that the brand new hiking shoes i had purchased for the trip turned out to be two left-foot shoes. I hadn't tried them on since i left the original store.

The good part was that they had the same store in Grand Junction, and i  was able to exchange them for a proper pair of shoes the next morning.

 The horse preserve. There's a nearby coal mine too.

I had never been on the interstate through south central Utah. It had some nice scenery too. Here the interstate cuts through the San Rafael Swell.

Afterwards i tried visiting a Wildlife Preserve outside Grand Junction with wild horses living in it. I thought if i was lucky enough to see wild horses, they might look pretty cool in the snow. The road though, was made of that super slippery grey clay that makes up the Book Cliffs. The road was very icy, and where it was melted it actually felt more dangerous than the ice. I was only able to get down the road a few miles before i came to a locked gate. Apparently that road becomes impassable in snowy weather.

 A view from Boulder Mountain across Capital Reef to the Henry Mountains (the last mountains in the contiguous U.S. to be put on the map. The video features the mountains from a similar distance on the other side.

My 8 days in Utah were cursed by continuing bad weather. High winds and temps in the 20's created frigid wind chills, and large sandstorms. A few days i devoted to sightseeing from the vehicle. I went on a 60 mile dirt road through capital reef, checked out some roads near the Henry Mountains, Dirty Devil River, and White Canyon, saw some interesting ruins, and revisited the Needles District of Canyonlands for two days. The Needles did not fail to impress, once again.

Down a selectively chosen dirt road near Escalante i came across a promising hiking area.

The farther i walked the more the place molded itself into my favorite type of terrain. It was close to sunset though, and i had to get a hotel room, so i decided to come back later.

Two days later i stopped by in the morning. I walked considerably farther, until i got to this place. There was a way down, but by this time i was sick with a cold, and i could tell that i really should enjoy the hike down this canyon later in the spring, or summer, or fall.

Unfortunately i don't have any pictures of most of those activities, because my camera broke on that 60 mile road trip through Capital Reef. The camera bounced off the armrest in the truck and hit the carpeted flooring. It was only a two foot drop at most, but it must have hit at just the right angle, and at the moment that the truck was bouncing back upwards. It would no longer take pictures, and it was the morning of the 4th day of the trip!

 

 The last photo i took before the camera broke. It broke somewhere in view up the road.

It would, strangely, take video without any problems. The problem was with the shutter. So i have put together a video of some of the places i visited during that time. The locations are places i visited with the truck. I decided that since it was broken there was no reason to carry it along while i went hiking (and i noticed the difference in my backpack).


Spring Roadtrip 2010 from Adam Elliott on Vimeo.

Ghost Towns: Silver City, Yukon Territory

Kluane Lake is the largest lake in the Yukon, and is close to 40 miles long. It used to flow into the Pacific Ocean but just a few thousand years ago a glacier damned it's outlet. Over time the lake filled up until it eventually created another outlet, flowing north towards the Yukon River. The glacier receded but the flow of the lake has been permanently altered.

On the southern shore of the lake, next to Destruction Bay, is a ghost town called Silver City. The Kluane Lake area was the site of a short-lived gold rush in the early 1900s. Dawson Charlie, one of the discoverers of gold in the Klondike, staked the first claim on 4th of July Creek in the summer of 1903. By the end of that year 2,000 claims had been made in the Kluane region.

The North-West Mounted Police followed closely behind the prospectors, setting up summer camps in canvas tents on Ruby Creek, Bullion Creek and Pine Creek in 1904. A permanent detachment was established at the outlet of Silver Creek where a small community, called Kluane or Silver City had sprung up. The NWMP barracks, a district mining office and a post office were among the buildings in the new community.

Silver City was also notable because it was the end of the road from Whitehorse. Further travel required getting on a boat and using the rivers. This is the way it remained all the way up until 1942 when the Alaska Highway pushed the road the rest of the way to Alaska. When i first moved up to Alaska in 2001 this portion of the highway, which took all day to travel, was still dirt. Today the road is much improved, but there are still some gravel sections.

As far as Silver City, half a dozen large buildings remain scattered among the trees. A Bed and Breakfast operates nearby, and also an arctic studies research station.

The Three Guardsmen

We have better satellite imagery of Mars than we do of Alaska and much of the North. As a result, using the imagery can be quite annoying when trying to glimmer an idea of the terrain at issue for a planned off trail excursion.

One of the hikes i wanted to do while visiting the Haines area i found using google earth. Sometimes a glacier pours into a valley that acts as a pass, and the ice flows both ways. I've never seen one of those glaciers in person, but i noticed one on space imagery about 7 miles from the Haines Highway. It looked like a high tundra hike and, and one route that would be considerably shorter, involved walking up a low profile glacier situated on a beautiful mountain.

This was the mountain i wanted to either hike over or hike around, to the glaciers on the back side. My picture doesn't do it justice, but it's a fantastic, iconic mountain when viewed from the right angles.

Instead i decided to climb the one on the right of this photo. I went up the back side, which was less steep. It is named The Three Guardsmen.

So i left Haines, and after miles of scenic driving on the way to Haines Junction the mountain came into view. It looked great, and i found a parking lot with an official looking trail leading off in the direction i wanted to go. But there were two problems. One was a sign on the trailhead indicating that there was a bear in the area. That didn't settle well with me since i would be alone and certainly off trail at some point. The other issue was storm clouds in the distance that seemed to be heading directly towards the mountain.

I went back to the van and ate lunch, watching the storm get closer and larger, until i was convinced to change my plans. The storm seeemed to be moving west to east, and back south the weather looked great. I saw some interesting looking mountains back there too, so i decided to go see what i could do on one of those.

As the storm approached it cast a strange light on the glaciated mountains across the valley.

 After struggling up hill for a good hour or two, i came upon the surreal vision of a bed frame in the middle of nowhere! Now that doesn't happen every day. Maybe it was for a Pink Floyd album cover photo shoot. I solved the mystery in another hundred yards when i climbed over an earth bank and found the remains of an old mining camp. I think they had built the wall as shelter from the ferocious winds i was currently experiencing.

I didn't know it at the time, but the mountain i chose, was called the Three Guardsmen. I didn't know it even had a name, but both it, and my original choice of mountain, have been icons to the native population for thousands of years. The spatial relationship of the mountains were landmarks on a native trading route from the interior to the coast, and they kept the route a secret from outsiders for many years.

Up on the highest ridge there is this huge ass pile of rocks. At first i thought it was a rock glacier, but the more i looked at it, the more it looked like a pile of mine tailings, bulldozed into place.  But geeze, it's a HUGE pile of rocks, and i just couldn't figure out where all that rock came from. It probably accounts for about 20 percent of the top of the mountain. Maybe the snow was hiding something?

After an initial steep climb up the Three Guardsmen, i found an old mining road and followed that until it wandered off on a long switchback. Later i met it again, and it certainly made progress easier. Meanwhile, the wind really picked up, the sky darkened, and that blasted thunderstorm looked determined to get me wet.

 The storm had followed me 9 miles. There was some thunder. I felt threatened....

I had found an old miners camp, but there were no longer any standing structures to offer shelter. So i stopped and put on all my rain gear. That was just what the storm was waiting for, because after i did that the wind stopped, and the dark clouds that had filled the sky mysteriously dissipated into nothing.

So i took my raingear back off, and continued up the steep, upper portion of the mountain. Finally reaching the top revealed a violent, wild looking valley below, as well as a fantastic view all around. I found evidence on the ridgetop of more old road and structures, and i began to wonder just how big this mine had been. Later i tried to find something about it on the internet but i didn't have any luck.

The valley on the other side of the Guardsmen was rugged and wild. Notice the large landslide in the middle of the valley. It had forced the stream to carve a path around it.

Farther up the same valley the landscape was alluring. I had no idea what was behind those snowy slopes. Too bad my time was up. Below you can see a closeup of the "distant" looking peak in this picture.

It was another situation where i had spent a long time getting to a place that offered far more distant and attractive goals, but it was getting late in the day, so i turned back. As i drove back to Haines Junction i noticed that a lot of smoke was moving in, so much smoke that i decided to cancel my planned flight tour and head home a day early. As much as i wanted to go see Mt. Logan, i just don't see the sense in paying so much money to spend the day staring through smoke.

Mining artifacts above and below, and the southern peak of the mountain. In this area i found a cliff wall covered in green crystals, and some cable and piping sticking up out of the rock.

The clouds had cleared and left me with a large and impressive view of icefields glaring in the sun on the hike down. In this picture you can see the talus pile on the left, with streams coming out of it crossing over the broad plateau where the mining camp was. You can even see a bit of the old road. From the edge of the flat shelf the mountain descends steeply down the the valley floor.

All in all my trip to Skagway and Haines was fantastic. The scenery greatly exceeded my expectations, the flora was considerably different than what i have in Anchorage, and in going i found all kinds of new things to do if i visit the area again, which i would at the drop of a hat.

Haines Junction at around 11:00 pm.

I got to Haines Junction too late, so i ended up with this awesome hotel room. It had no ventilation or climate control, so the fan on the bed has been placed as far as the cord will let it, in an effort to get it close to a tiny open window (the size of a shoebox), hopefully blowing air in. In the bathroom you could not straighten your elbows out in the shower with your back against the wall. But if you were in one of those situations where you need to use the toilet and the sink at the same time, it was well suited for that activity. And yes, there is a gold plasma pattern all over the mirror.

Skagway and Haines

Skagway and Haines are only separated by 15 miles of water, but they are nearly 350 miles apart by road. So it's best to take the ferry. Both towns are steeped in history.

Skagway marked the beginning of the route to famous Klondike Gold Rush of 1896. Within two years of the discovery of gold Skagway became the most populous city in Alaska. For several years during that time Skagway was lawless, and run by groups of con men who created a well oiled system for cheating newcomers out of their money as they arrived in town. The city and some of it's residents, like Soapy Smith, bore numerous similarities to the famous Deadwood television series.

 

Today a remarkable amount of that history has been preserved, and the bulk of the downtown area is a kind of living museum. Cruise ships arrive regularly, and during the day the streets are jam packed full of tourists. Then, at 7 or 8pm the boats sound off their enormous horns, and the tourists hypnotically file back into the ships, like the Eloi in The Time Machine. The town is transformed. Residents, now off work, begin to live their lives, relaxing, riding around on bikes in the empty, quite streets. It's very nice at that time of day.

 The streets are peaceful after the cruise passengers leave.

 The original headquarters of Soapy Smith.

Unfortunately all these beer bottles were empty.

The White House B&B, where i stayed the second day in Skagway. It was far better than the previous night's accommodations.

The unfortunate thing about Skagway is that the entire economy appears to be based on tourism. All of the buildings downtown are either gift shops, restaurants, or museums. The White Pass railroad is a major employer, but it too has devoted it's operations almost entirely to tourism. Outside that small downtown area there is virtually nothing. Still, it's a very nice town.  With the whole White Pass area a few miles away I wouldn't mind spending an entire summer there, maybe even longer.

 Some pictures of the pioneer cemetery in Skagway.

  

The view from my room at the Chilkoot River Lodge

 Coincidentally, they day i stayed in the Chilkoot Lodge happened to be the day of an annual race where contestants get into makeshift rafts and race the last mile of the river down to the ocean. The guys in the lower picture managed to hit every rock in the river.

I took the ferry to Haines, and felt a world away when i arrived. Although Haines does have it's own tourist industry, it is also a functioning town in other ways. Downtown looks more like a downtown of any other tiny city, but around the edges you'll find other industries, like logging and fishing. I get the sense that Haines could survive in some form if the tourists stopped coming.

Portage Cove

Fort Seward is visible from afar, but up close many of the buildings appear to be in disrepair.

After the quaintness of Skagway i wasn't too happy with the hotel selection in Haines. I did find one incredible place to stay, and i couldn't believe it had a room available. It was called the Chilkoot River Lodge, and it only had 3 or 4 rooms. Having just opened, it still smelled brand new on the inside. Situated directly above the Chilkoot River, you can catch fish, and then walk right up to lodge, cook the fish on a large grill, and eat it on the spot.

The Bald Eagle and the otter in these pictures were having a duel over a fish carcass. The otter won, i think because i spooked the eagle when i got too close. While i was taking pictures i didn't notice the quickly rising tide. By the time i was done the camera bag i left on the beach was in the water. It ruined one of my extra batteries.

I only stayed in Haines for one day, but it was a long one. I had wanted to take a flight tour over to Mt. Logan and Lituya Bay, the site of the larges megatsunami ever recorded. I didn't get to go because it was the 4th of July and either the flights were already full, or the pilots were taking the day off. Instead i hung out and enjoyed some of the small town festivities, including an impressive fireworks display late in the evening. I couldn't figure out where such a small town could get enough money for such a big show.

I decided i would try and take a flight tour from Haines Junction, in the Yukon. I called and made reservations the next morning. I had already been up that way a few days before on the way to Whitehorse, and met a French Canadian pilot who seemed enthusiastic.

Fourth of July firework celebrations in Haines.