I arrived back in the Yukon from my San Francisco trip just before midnight on Thursday. On Friday, I ran a bunch of errands and did some shopping and then headed towards home. The plan was that I would secure us a site in a campground along the way, and Jeff and Hank would drive down with the camper to join me.

The summer is SHORT in the Yukon, so we’re trying to fill every second with our favourite summer activities.

This summer has still been cold and wet. I got to the campground a few hours before Jeff and Hank did, so I made a fire and tried to stay warm.

We’ve never stayed in Tatchun Lake Campground before. It’s 7km off the Klondike Highway, to the east, north of Carmacks. The road is gravel and it felt much longer than just 7km.

I took a picture of the sign when I pulled off the highway so I knew how far I’d need to travel to the backup options, in case the first campground was full.

It wasn’t, so I secured site 18 for us.

Fortunately I had a lawn chair and fire making implements and snacks, but not much else.

I listened to some podcasts I had downloaded for the drive and sat by the fire.

Eventually the odd sprinkle turned into steady rain so I had to sit in the back of the truck for a while.

Thank goodness Jeff found me before it rained even harder! Because it did, and chased us into the camper for the night.

This campground is nice. There is no traffic on that gravel road, so no road nice like some parks have. The campground is significantly higher than the lake though, so there weren’t any good spots on the lake, or even with a view of the lake. The sites are large and the trees were nice. The only birds seemed to be white-winged crossbills, by the dozens (at least it sounded like it). The bugs weren’t too bad (mostly too cold!)

There is a nice dock, if you hike the short path down to the lake. One of the campers had launched their boat for fishing. (The boat launch is about 2km earlier along the road in.)

Jeff had a map showing a hiking trail, but it has seemingly long been neglected and abandoned. I eventually found it off the back of site 20, I think, but then someone camped there blocking our access before we explored anymore.

It’s a shame how the parks department has pulled all the water pumps out of these parks. We always bring our own, but what is wrong with telling people to boil it for use? It must be limiting for some who wouldn’t think to bring any, but at least there was a lake source for water here. Also how they have seemingly deprioritized things to do (like hiking). Jeff walked Hank around the campground loop and on the road a few times. Trail maintenance isn’t that hard or time-consuming. 🤷‍♀️

Saturday was sunny on and off, but maybe only 15°C or so? We kept the fire going all day.

Overall, it was a nice, relaxing weekend around the campfire, giving us lots of time to plan out our next few years of adventures!