Klondike Country

This was the place at the heart of the famed “Klondike” gold rush in 1896, and is still filled with remnants from that rich history.  Along the ‘Top of the World Highway’, 200 miles along a mountaintop from Dawson City, Yukon to Tok, Alaska, the artifacts are as plentiful as the amazing auroras.  I also spent some time bushwhacking through Tombstone Territorial, and another trip back there is high on my list.

Choose your own adventure!  Finally got to see some of those elusive purple auroras.  Had to shoot this sign dark, otherwise you’d be able to read all the dumb chicken related town names, found in Chicken, Ak of course..

I found this curious Grey Jay, aka. Whiskey Jack aka. Canadian Jay, along the Top of the World Highway.  She even came in for a landing, had me feeling like Snow White.

An enormous gold dredge beached in Chicken.

Tombstone Territorial Park has some of the most impressive mountains I’ve come across. Unfortunately circumstances and time restraints stopped me from exploring around here as much as I’d like, but that’s for another time I suppose.

I loved the little line of autumn following a tiny stream down the mountain, though bushwhacking through alders is the pits.  About 10 miles, I ran into a grizzly.  Part of me would have rather been eaten than find my way back through this devilish undergrowth.

These are tailings, the raw earth dumped out the dredge after its done its thing refining out the gold.

They stretched on for miles!

Another gold dredge, and why preservation of historical structures is important.

 

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Land of Fire

Iceland is a diverse and ever changing landscape of volcanic activity.  Five geothermal plants generate a vast majority of the country’s heating and power need. The land is also rancid with volcanic features, such as fumaroles, hot springs, and the original geyser, Geysir. The red skies in some of the images below comes from the eruption of the Bárðarbunga volcano high up on the Vatnajökull, Iceland’s largest glacier.  

Auroras Over Iceland

Hope this post isn’t too green for you, I got incredibly lucky had many night of amazing light shows.  Never realized how fast they move, and it was the thrill of a lifetime to finally get to see this wonder snake its way across the sky.  I shot a bunch of time-lapse stuff too, and will have some great videos to accompany this soon.