To Engineer Creek, Dempster Highway

We spend the morning at Tombstone Mountain Campsite Interactive Park, taking advantage of their wifi and talking to the staff about trails and wildlife.

They are very helpful and informative, and give us lots of tips and suggestions for walks and places to spot birds and animals.

We drive up the road to and park at the Rake Ridge trail head. This is a very open walk through peaty earthy bogs with lots of heather and scrub. The alpine flowers are just emerging, giving little spots of colour all along the path. We are most surprised by the miniature rhododendrons - only a few centimetres high, but bursting with pink colour.

We climb steadily along the path, noticing lots of scat from bears, wolves and ptarmigan/grouse. There are also some very large tracks from moose and from wolves. We startle of a couple of grouse with their winter plumage just beginning to disappear, and then after about 2km we reach a rocky outcrop covered in heather, and take a breather here, scanning the mountain sides around us for any signs of wolves. We can see the continental divide which we have crossed again.

The sun is out and it’s very warm lying in the heather, but reluctantly we have to retrace our steps back to the truck, and turn north again.

We pass through Two Moose Creek and Chapman Lake along the Blackstone River, both of which have lots of waterfowl bobbing about in the sunshine.

We go through Windy Pass where the landscape changes again into something out of Jurassic Park - huge grey forbidding mountains covered in scaly rock with no signs of plant life.

From there we join the Ogilvie River, and cross over Red Creek, an extraordinary small river coloured by the leeched minerals from the rock which are highly acidic and include magnesium, calcium, hydrogen sulphide and chlorine. It smells of sulphur and there are lots of signs warning against drinking the water. The Dall sheep however love the water, and the congregate here to enjoy its benefits.

We finally arrive at Engineer Creek campground, cook steak and asparagus over the fire and retire early.

Miles: 70

Sunset: 00.56

Grouse: 2