Postcards from the Yukon

In Postcards From..., Travel, Wilderness by David14 Comments

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Sitting beside Kluane Lake, near Destruction Bay, the water an almost-perfect mirror. To the south the mountains and Mount Logan, Canada’s highest peak. I’m in the Yukon for almost a month, including the time it’s taken to get here and will take to get home. I’m here, with my girl, Cynthia, and my Jeep, Emily, to chase the fall colours and to have an adventure. I’d love to make some photographs too, but the adventure comes first: a chance to do exactly this. To sit and breathe deep, to think, to read a book, and to listen to the loons whose call has spoken to my soul since I was a kid.
The colours are amazing here, though we’re a little early yet for the aspens to turn gold and the low brush of Tombstone Territorial Park and the infamous Dempster Highway to go red. So we’re taking detours, seeing what else there is to see before heading north up the Dempster to the Arctic Circle and then into the Northwest Territories.
We’ve spent hours in the fireweed, the first vegetation to grow back after a fire, and the colours, which is what this trip is about photographically, have been amazing. Backlit, they glow from within, turning them into the fire after which they’re named. I’ve been pursuing my series of expressionist and abstract images, a few of which are posted here, through intentional camera movement and in-camera multiple exposures. Surrounded by glory, I’m having the time of my life.
We go to sleep, reading Farley Mowatt, and listening to the loons after long evenings by the campfire – twilight lasting well past 10pm – with alarms set for midnight and 2pm in hopes of seeing the aurora. So far the skies have been stormy, or starry, but have yet to do that dance of greens and blues that we’ve come so far to see.
In a couple days we’ll head to Dawson City, then depending on colours, either to Keno City and Mayo before looping back up to the Dempster and Tombstone, or straight there to spend several days on our knees with our cameras and the colour.

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Comments

  1. I’ve been to Kluane Lake over 15 years ago. It’s one of the most beautiful region I’ve seen. The silence and the energy from the open space is pure food for the soul. Perfect place to recharge the batteries.

    I wish you a good time.

  2. it’s not just the trip you make but the travel on the inside that makes one full. I hope that you see the lights before you return home. (even here it’s a relative question).

  3. Love them all (and envy the three of you), but the first really grabs me. Intimations of fiery feathers….

    Drink deeply, Mr duChemin…!

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