nearly-arctic

just north of Dawson is the amazing Dempster Highway, the only highway which leads to the Arctic Circle. it's gravel, not pavement, but at the moment it has a nice packed-down ice & snow surface and yesterday we headed up. these photos are from Tombstone Park, where the Arctic tundra begins--not even two hours from Dawson. though it seems so white & desolate, there are moose tracks everywhere, ravens flying past, and while we didn't see any caribou, we saw several lovely foxes--one, sunning himself outside his foxhole (this photo is shortly before he dove into his den...and yes, we politely stayed in the car & didn't get out to disturb him).