Eternal Spring

Lake Louise
Annie probably knows these. I forgot to ask.
Surveyor Lake campground, B.C.

May 22, 2006

What a glorious time to go north. We seem to be following early spring. Annie has identified over seventy species of blooming wild flowers, eight of which she has never seen before. She has also spotted numerous species not yet identified. Some of the unidentified, I am including with this post. If anyone can help, let us know.

Laramie was like March in Washington D.C.. Plums, crab apples, pears, forsythia, and cherries decorated the streets with color. The Aspen in Grand Teton National Park were covered in tiny yellow green leaflets. We thought we would run out of wild flowers, get too far north, but it is spring even in Lake Louise where we are camped tonight. The rivers are running near flood stage; unseasonably warm weather and rain.

There are other reasons for heading to Alaska this time of year. With one notable exception, the crowds which frustrate the summer traveler do not exist. We have no problem finding camping sites. Most campgrounds are virtually empty. However, one should check holidays in other countries. We got to Surveyor Lake Campground in Kikomun Provincial Park about forty miles north of the Canadian border around four in the afternoon. The place was packed. Most of the adult campers had their kids with them, and there were a lot of older teens camping there with their older teen friends, with all the attendant nuisances. We got the last camp site, literally. Canada celebrates Victoria Day on the last Monday before May 24. It is a national holiday and all the schools were out. They all go back to school and work Tuesday.

In addition despite our fears of snow and freezing weather, The weather has been perfect. We wear jackets in the mornings and evenings and when the clouds and wind pass by. Still we have been too warm as much as we have been cold. However, the Canadians tell us that the weather is uncommonly warm for this time of year.

I suppose that we can go north only so long and then we must turn south for eternal fall. That is the plan, you know.