Yukon and Alaska Bound, Part 25. Keno Hill in Spring

Keno Hill in the Spring

Panorama from Keno Hill

Liz, Susan, Anders and Mike.

Keno City.

Continuation from the blog post of Keno City.


After visiting and having pizza with our old client Susan we took Mike's advice and drove up Keno Hill.




The bumpy road is very steep and we were lucky it was dry.




Keno Hill's elevation is from about 3100 ft. or 940 meters to 6000 ft. or 1825 meters above sea level.




The panoramic views from the top are amazing over the McQuesten River valley and the Wernecke and Ogilvie Mountains.




In 1950's, the United Keno Hills Mines erected the original Signpost up here.

The sign post on Keno Hill.

Arrows on the signpost are pointing to the various countries which visited for the International Geophysical meeting.



Today is the 12th of July, spring time on Keno Hill.



I have never seen so many beautiful and delicate spring flowers.

The tundra sparkled with all kinds of colours and shapes.


Be careful, some of the flowers are extremely poisonous even-though they are exquisite, like the blue Northern Monkshood. Do not touch!

On our way up Keno Hill.

So Many Flowers.

So Many Flowers.

Liz and Anders on Keno Hill

So Many Flowers.

So Many Flowers.

So Many Flowers.

So Many Flowers.

Northern Monkshood is very poisonous.

More Flowers

More Flowers

More Flowers

It is cooling off a bit.

Hoary Marmot

Hoary Marmot

Butterflies visit this high meadow in warm weather during July. We did not see many, it was a cool day.




We did see some Collared Pikas and Hoary Marmots. The marmots blend so well into the rocky landscape, only when they moved did we spot them.




Please respect all flora, and fauna of this very special place!




The Keno City Alpine Interpretive Center has excellent information  and displays about the plants and animals up here on Keno Hill ( just to the right of the museum ). Pick up the information before you drive up to the hill!




Mountains of gravel and an old building, like the Sheep Camp minesite. here on Keno Hill remind us of the very busy mining activity in the past.




There are some prospectors and miners still active today in these hills on a smaller scale.




If you have time there are some marked hiking trails up here. Wear good hiking gear and practice bear safety!




Anders just loved to walk and lie down on the alpine tundra.




Lightning Creek, visible from the top, has currently some active placer mining operations manly looking for gold because of the low prices of silver.




The drive down from Keno Hill has spectacular views. There are not many tall trees, manly short shrubs, flowers, wild Rhubarb, and just one Lodgepole Pine about midway down the hill.




The future of this area is very dependent of the prices and needs of silver and gold.




For the economy of Keno City and maybe even Elsa and Mayo one would hope for another boom time.





For the beauty, the animals, and plants of the area one only can hope that time stands still.





To be sure to see this very special place as it is today with its genuine people and amazing landscape, visit soon. It is a treat!




Keno City has a nice municipal campground, no services.




We stayed down on Five Lake Campground in Mayo, because we did not know how the 60 km gravel road conditions were up to Keno.




As long as it is dry like today no problems, even the narrow spots would be fine with the trailer.




In rain, even with just the truck it could get very messy.




We arrived happily back at our campsite, full of new impressions and with a little more knowledge of the demanding life of mining in the Yukon.




For more pictures from Keno City and Keno Hill, have a look at our album.

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