Day at Kluane National Park

It's almost 11pm and way past my bedtime.  Today was a busy day.  We had to be ready for our excursion at 6:45am.  Our excursion was an all day one that last for 9 hours.  I guess we knew that when we booked it, but I had forgotten that it was that long and started that early.  But, you only get to explore the Yukon Territory once in your life, or more than once if you are lucky.

After breakfast it was time to meet our tour in the lobby.  I'm used to large groups on excursions. They told us that there were only going to be 9 people on our big bus and then we all would break off once we got to our destination to do our different excursions.  Our excursion was a boat trip on Kathleen Lake at Kluane National Park (pronounced clue-on-ee).  There was another couple on our boat from England.  They were really nice and prepared with binoculars, video camera, and a camera.  While we were on our 2 hour boat ride, we saw a big brown bear on the side of a mountain.  We were pretty close to it, but far enough away that we were very safe, seeing as how we were on a boat in the water.  I did get a few great pictures of it.  Anyways, moving on.....we were in the boat for 2 hours before it was time for lunch.  Oh, I forgot to mention that it took us 2 hours to get to our destination of Kluane National Park.  Actually it was probably more like 2.5 hours plus the 2 hour boat ride.  Moving on again.  After our boat ride, it was time for lunch.  While we ate lunch the guides brought out bear skins of a black bear and grizzly bear for us to feel.  Of course when they mentioned that some people try them on and take pictures, I wanted to do that.  I'm trying to get fun Christmas card pictures.  After excursion time, we had 1 hour to spent at some visitor center and another 2 hour bus ride back.  The buses are nice, but I just wanted to be back to the room to take a nap!  I was tiyurd!!!

After dinner we had to wait around until 8:30 for our Frantic Follies that was included as part of the tour.  It was a really cheesy show that they put on.  I did get some good pictures though. One of our New Zealander friends sat next time me.  Frantic Follies is why I am up way past my bedtime.

We have to have luggage out at 6:45am and be ready to go by 8:00ish am.  I'm gonna be exhausted, but I guess it's worth it.  Tomorrow we are headed to Dawson City.  It is supposed to be smaller than Whitehorse.  We don't have any excursions planned that take the whole day.  Maybe we can spend a little time getting some rest.  In the meantime, I guess I should get some rest now.