Heading North

 We headed directly north stopping in Tacoma to wait for the traffic to clear before we tackled Seattle. Everyone should visit the Glass Museum in this city watching the artists at work in the Hot Glass Shop, and walk through town to see Chihuly's installations. It is one of our favorite spots.

 Scamping in British Columbia.

  Incredible wildflower season. Wet summer with intense periods of sun.

 
  Heading into Northwest Coastal Indian or First Nation tribal areas. The Hooligan (Ooligan), or Candlefish trading developed the Grease Trail. The fish contains so much oil people used it to burn for lighting. Many coastal people came inland to settle along this trade route.

These totems are in people's yards and are a living tradition. A young woman explained how her people married, had celebrations, based on what clan they belonged to. If these rules aren't followed there are consequences. She was part of the Grouse clan and that totem was outside of this photo.

 Along the Cassiar Highway we saw at least eight different black bears. The first one was spotted after having seen the skid marks on the road. It had been recently hit and killed. After that we became much more watchful of any animal's sudden appearance.

 Sneaky little camp robbers, red ground squirrels.

 Whitehorse, Yukon.  The Beringia Museum is a must. Great exhibits about the Arctic and current excavations taking place. My textbooks always showed the Bering Sea Landbridge as a narrow passageway. Not so, it was more like an entire continent of grasslands.

The narrow Mile Canyon on the Yukon River in Whitehorse was treacherous for the 'Goldrushers'. The intense green is from the glacier flour.

 Then there were those Can Can Ooo-La-La gals.

 We learned about Cookie S'mores. So much easier than graham crackers and Hershey's chocolate!

 Kluane National Park and Reserve in the Yukon.  First hit of wide open sweeping country, with huge mountains. This is the sister park to our Wrangell St. Elias National Park.