Day 2, 9/13, Friday. Contemplating on plan B and C, due to the heavy smoke. Downloading another map took awhile. Had a big breakfast. Repacked. Consolidated food. Left late. The road to the airport is all paved, lined with dug rocks. Gold mining is still a thing here. A minute after we turned north on Dempster Highway, the pavement stopped. Not too bad, could still drive ~40mph. Saw 13 RVs and 5 cars in the hour driving to the Tombstone Interpretive Center, some of them carrying an extra spare tire -- this got me really worried.The center has a large parking lot, 2 out-houses, bathroom inside, exhibits that we didn't have time to checkout, bear cans to borrow (I have my own). Asked for a backcountry camping permit. The young lady said we should book online at least a day ahead, and had to attend the orientation at 9, 11 and 1pm. It's too late now (just past 1pm) for us to hike in today, because the 8 mile trail has loose rocks and takes typically 6-10 hours. She showed us the elevation profile, which shows steep incline and the top is 1750. I mistook it as elevation gain in meters, and got a bit worried. Had to convince her that we are strong hikers. She checked the registry and said that we are lucky that there are available sites at Grizzly Lake. And because they were not busy, she could give us the orientation then. Basically she showed us what the trail looks like, and what's expected at the camp. We had to sign a piece of paper on both sides, and also input our info on her tablet, including address (why?). Country names are alphabetically ordered, so USA is near the bottom of the long list. Finally we got our yellow paper permit with a cotton thread, CA$12 * 2 nights.
Drove back to the trailhead (~10 minutes). Ate lunch. Packed for 3 nights, just in case. Started hiking at 2:07pm. Grizzly Lake trail on yukonhiking.ca has a good description and comments. The first 20 minutes is flat, some roots. There was a creek for the next few minutes, then no water source until the camp. The next 20 minutes or so is uphill, somewhat steep. The view opens up. Quite red. Then the grade eases. At 1 hour from TH, we could see out destination. At 2 hours from TH, we reached the highest of the trail, where a large group of Quebecois turned around, none of whom knew the trail etiquette. We had to gave them space to hike down. From then on, it's fairly easy, going up only occasionally. Drops maybe 1000'. Quite some talus fields. Cannot go too fast.
We reached the camp at 6:17pm. There was only one other tent, 2 guys. In the meadow near the camp, a lot of black juicy Crowberries. Nice cooking shelters with dirty tables, no chair, white canvas ceiling. In between, 4 large cylinders marked YELLOW, with a funnel where you dump your food waste. 2 bear metal storage bins, each with two compartments. 2 fairly clean outhouses, each with a broom, a first-aid kit. One has a roll of toilet paper, the other one smelled better. Outside, same cylinders marked with WHITE. They would be flown out on 9/15 - last day of the season.
Calm today. Good reflection. The night stayed bright enough well after 9pm. Even in the dead of night, you don't need flashlight to see your surroundings. Very cloudy. No sunset to speak of, nor aurora.28K steps today.
Day 3, 9/14, Saturday. Got up at 7. Light rain. I was quite discouraged. Read till about 8, when it was bright enough not to use back light on Kindle. Gave up waiting for the rain to stop, went back to sleep. Got up again ~10, the rain had stopped. Went to the cooking shelter to eat breakfast. The other two guys were packing out. We packed day packs with food, water, filter, rain jacket. Finally started hiking after 11.
Going up and down Glissade Pass is the most difficult of the entire trail. Somewhat steep, with loose rocks, especially the north side. A well established zigzag can be followed, just be careful. On the way up, other than 3 (Rock) Ptarmigans with pink eyelids, 2 backpackers, we met 2 park rangers coming down with large backpacks. They asked us where were we headed to and how many sites were taken last night at Grizzly Lake. They said it was fully booked. When we reached the pass, we could see nothing but clouds. The downhill track was marked by a big blue rock to our left. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to see the trail down.
After getting down to the basin, there's a stream. Slopes on both sides were quite red. When we entered the North Klondike River Valley, the red was carpeting the entire valley. Despite of the dark clouds, it still looked very pretty. The trail turns left to go to the head waters of the North Klondike. It skirts on the rocks instead of in the middle of the flat valley, which was a bit swampy with a few large ponds. Saw a pika, heard more. 
We reached Divide Lake, basically on the other side of those jagged peaks that frame Grizzly Lake ~1:50pm. One cooking tent. Refilled water here. This photo was taken on the way back, not from the trail.Going up a low ridge of the lake's SW end, continuing up the valley. Not much elevation gain. Extended view, with no human.
We scrambled to an unknown lake close to the trail, also surrounded by jagged peaks. But my favorite lake is the next one, right by the trail. Also unnamed, a bit bigger, with a tiny island that you can hop to. From here, you can see the trail going forward but lower to Talus Lake, with one white cooking tent, and one tent with 2 people! Until now, I thought we had the whole valley to ourselves. We spent some time here, before heading back at 4pm.On the way back I hiked along the SW slope of Divide Lake, instead of following the trail (which loses the sight of the lake). Lots of rocks, so a bit slow going, but enabled me to take the above photo of Divide Lake.
Clouds cleared a bit in the afternoon, so we could actually see the trail up to Glissade Pass. Once on the top of the pass, the east side was partly sunny! Astounding view of the valley we hiked in yesterday, Grizzly Lake, Twin Lake across the valley, all the layers of peaks, and our lonely tent.Got back to camp around 8pm. Since we planned to hike out the next day (forecast of 2 days ago said it would rain), we ate 2 packages of dinner. Didn't linger too long at the lake. It was quite cold.
41K steps today!
Day 4, 9/15, Sunday. The clouds cleared in the night. Very cold. ~2am, we witnessed aurora - my first time. At first I thought it was just a sinuous cloud. But it moved. Sometimes quite fast. Then it disappeared. We waited for ~5 minutes, the aurora came back. Dancing. Mostly white. A faint hint of red and green. After it disappeared the 2nd time, we didn't wait long, and went back to our sleeping bags. Cold.
Didn't get up early. A bit cloudy. Packed out. Met 2 girls coming in with camping gear, and 6 other day hikers. One lady told me that it wouldn't rain until the next afternoon. More vehicles at the trail head. At the Discovery Center, right before they closed at 5pm for the season, I inquired about the plants, and used the restroom. The red is Moss Campion (pink flowers in late July), and the brown is Mountain Aven (white flowers in late June). It might be a great time to visit here where they are in bloom.
Drove to the north end of the park before returning to Dawson City. At KM 74 (mi 46) a great view of Tombstone Range. The North Fork of Klondike River flows below, from Monolith and Tombstone Mountains (including Divide Lake).
At KM 80 (mi 50) is the North Fork Pass (1289m/4229'), the highest on Dempster Hwy. Here we crossed the Continental Divide. The water north of here drains to Beaufort Sea, south of here drains to Pacific Ocean.
Didn't see any moose at the Two Moose Lake (KM 102/mi 63). 5Km later is Blackstone River rest area where you can launch your boat
The large Chapman Lake at the north edge of the park (KM 116/mi 72) is a porcupine caribou winter ground. I didn't see a single caribou on this trip :(We turned around here, less mountainous the north half of the park. Overall, Dempster Highway we drove on is in good condition. On the paved hwy-2 towards Dawson City, saw a male moose, and then 2 female moose by a greenhouse, eating the greens in the tilled field. My partner also saw a black bear. I think we saw a pheasant-like bird by the road too.
26K steps today.
