Dawson City to Inuvik - Alaska and Points North: Tips and Tales from the Road - page 198

been fixed with the simple pass of a gravel grader. Someone may have come along a week
later and had an entirely different experience. That's driving in the north.
There is a campground at Tombstone and it's a great place to stop over and do some hiking.
A short interpretive trail introduces the tundra flora. Looking out from the viewpoint area,
the jagged peaks that outline the horizon are composed of an extremely hard type of rock
called syenite. This is an igneous intrusion (formed from hot lava) that pushed up through
surrounding sedimentary layers at least 90 million years ago. During the ice age glaciers
scoured the sedimentary rock away, leaving the pristine syenite peaks reaching for the sky.
The most spectacular of the sharply serrated peaks is 2193 m /7127 ft high.
The weather prediction for today was sunny. Alas, skunked again. Not too cold though,
17°C. Even so the terrain we travel through is now fascinating enough to keep us engaged.
The road cuts through mountain ranges and follows rivers. The lakes are gorgeous, the
wildflowers prolific. Over and over again we summit a hill that opens onto a valley car-
peted in purple fireweed. Nasty stuff for people with allergies. Fortunately we aren't that
way afflicted so we are able to enjoy the magnificent vistas.
Fields of cotton flowers are now showing up too. These consist of a ball of cotton fluff at-
tached to a thin but strong stem. The plants grow tightly together, presenting a sea of white
cotton that in the distance looks like snow. They are a hardworking Arctic plant though,