31 July 2018. Dempster Highway

31 July 2018. Dempster Highway.

The Dempster Highway goes 500 miles north starting just 25 miles east of Dawson City.  We were planning on spending a bunch of time on it, dipping our toes in the Arctic Ocean… But I’m getting ahead of myself.

First Day on the Dempster, we are heading to Tombstone Territorial Park.

Entrance to Dempster HIghway
Oops – mud slide ahead, but it should be cleared by the time we get there – we are only planning on 80 kilometers today.
View along Dempster Highway – yes the whole thing is not paved.
The water truck drove down in front of us. Made us a bit muddy…
View of Dempster Highway looking south from our hike at Tombstone Park
View of the Dempster Highway looking north near KM 80
View looking west at Tombstone Valley. Tombstone Mountains in the back.
In between rain showers, we took a couple of hikes in Tombstone Park. Very Pretty place.
This is the kind of lichen that Caribou like to eat. We saw lots of lichen. No Caribou.
View of stream in Tombstone Park
Our camping spot at Tombstone Park.
The wildlife we saw today.

Well, we were relaxing at our campsite when we noticed a puddle of something dripping under the truck.  No, it was not the Air Conditioner condensing water.  It was orange.  Therefore, coolant.   It did not seem to be dripping from the radiator.  Chuck could not find any loose hose clamps or hoses.  We decided the safe thing was to turn around and head for the nearest Ford Dealer in Whitehorse- about 400 miles away.  So, no toes in the Artic Ocean for us. :(.  At least we didn’t have to deal with the mud slide…