We are experiencing fall already in Alaska! As we drove north from Anchorage on Tuesday (August 25) we started noticing the changing colors. The furthest northern point on our drive was Tok, Alaska and then we started heading south through the Yukon Territory. The first picture shows the beautiful fall colors that grace the countryside along the way.

The second picture is in Wrangell St. Elias National Park on our backpacking trip there. You can see our tent, it's a little yellow dot in the valley. We had good weather the first day but soon were overcome with rain and cold, so we ditched the place a day early. Also, this park, established by Jimmy Carter in 1979 is a shared use park with hunters and ATV'ers, so the trails are torn up. We were two weeks into the hunting season (sheep and moose) so the animals had literally headed for the hills and were nowhere to be seen. Not the most successful backpacking we've done, but interesting, always interesting.

The drive through the Yukon Territory into Haines, AK was full of tremendous views of mountains and lakes. The third picture is Kathleen Lake in the Kluane National Park (Canada). Haines is also a beautiful city in a beautiful setting, with two inlets coming in from the ocean and surrounding the town, and a full 360 degrees of mountains all around. We hiked Mt. Riley to get this view. Haines is also a rainforest so this amazing mushroom is real! It looks like it comes from a Disney movie but is really growing in our campground about 6 feet from our tent. Our poor tent is wet all the time and we hope it doesn't give up the ghost before the trip is over. We are expecting drier weather soon, very soon... Love to you all, Ruth and Brian