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Jozien Keijzer

Jozien Keijzer

From The Back Country Columnist Jozien Keijzer is a visual artist, writer and avid hiker who lives in the Mendenhall Subdivision.

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Issue: 2019-02-06, PHOTO: Jozien Keijzer

If there is anybody out there who recognizes what is in these pictures, please step forward. Recently, I found myself looking more intensively at lichens and mosses. As there are no blooming wildflowers in the midst of winter and as there happened... Read more

Hobbies

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Issue: 2018-12-12, PHOTO: Jozien Keijzer

The landscape east of the Klondike Highway, between Log Cabin and Fraser, B.C., is a giant jigsaw puzzle of water and rock. Large, round rocky outcrops are surrounded by water, with scattered vegetation growing in-between the rocks. This is a very... Read more

Yukon Active

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Issue: 2018-10-24, PHOTO: Jozien Keijzer

Once upon a time, “back in the days” (last year, in October) when the Greyhound bus still existed, a garter snake slithered out of the way, a pronghorn bounced over a fence, and I happened to step into cactus. This is the beginning of a most... Read more

Travel Outside

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Issue: 2018-10-03, PHOTO:Jozien Keijzer

Recently I visited Kluane National Park. After a few hours of driving and only a hike through the forest, I was in my element—a world of rock and grand vistas. My friend and I were on Sheep Mountain, a very popular trail, and I can see why it is... Read more

Yukon Active

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Issue: 2017-12-06, PHOTO: Jozien Keijzer

On Sunday, December 10, you are invited to come out to the roastery at Bean North Café and listen to readings by several poets and writers. Kathy Munro and Elisabeth Weigand are putting on the event, in which both of them will read from their own... Read more

Literature

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Issue: 2017-09-20, PHOTO: Jozien Keijzer

Fall is the favourite season of many Yukoners. Avid photographer and outdoors person Jozien Keijzer provided this gallery of early-autumn scenes captured in various locations west of Whitehorse. Read more

Yukon Outside

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Issue: 2017-08-30, PHOTO: Jozien Keijzer

Heather Newman graduated from high school in 2007 from Robina State High School on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. Not exactly in 2009 and definitely not in Whitehorse. All the Whitehorse kids from the class of 2009 seem to be busy this... Read more

Yukon People

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Issue: 2017-08-02, PHOTO: Jozien Keijzer

I never understood how people love to go camping at the same spot year after year, or walk the same trail over and over, canoe the same river, or go to the same mall. I realize now that we all have different goals. I myself have a strong desire to... Read more

Yukon Summer

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Issue: 2017-06-14, PHOTO: Jozien Keijzer

The calypso orchid, sometimes called the fairy or venus slipper, was already blooming by the end of May and the rest will follow soon. I suspect that the Platanthera obtusata, known as the northern bog orchid, will follow soon. The height of bloom... Read more

Yukon Summer

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Issue: 2017-06-07, PHOTO: Jozien Keijzer

In May 2017, Colby Heynen drove up the highway to Whitehorse from Southern Alberta. He and his girlfriend, Karin Wall, from Coaldale, Alberta will be renting an apartment here in Whitehorse and moving in the first of June. Colby has been back in... Read more

Yukon People

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Issue: 2017-05-24, PHOTO: Jozien Keijzer

On a spring hike to the ice cave near Haines Junction, we found that the ice cave looks more like a bridge. Neither did we cross that bridge nor did we go under it. After reading a CBC news story called “Once a local secret, visitors flock to... Read more

Yukon Winter

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Issue: 2017-05-10, PHOTO: courtesy of Katie Pope

As I was trying on new glasses a few weeks ago at Northern Lights Optometry, fashion specialist Katie Pope helped me. I liked her instantly and I complimented her on her extraordinary sense of style. On my next visit (according to Katie many... Read more

Yukon People

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Issue: 2017-04-05, PHOTO: Jozien Keijzer

Last year we had an early spring and I found the first prairie crocus blooming on April 1st. Most years the crocus blooms near the end of April. If you want to become a crocus hunter, don’t wait for all the snow to melt. If the daytime temperature... Read more

Yukon Summer

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Issue: 2017-03-29, PHOTO: Jozien Keijzer

From "Don’s Descent," the small hill behind our house, one can look as far as Haines Junction. Mount Decoeli and Mount Archibald loom on the western horizon when skies are clear. In front of Decoeli, I can clearly make out Paint Mountain... Read more

Yukon Winter

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Issue: 2017-03-22, PHOTO: Jozien Keijzer

A graduate of the Porter Creek Secondary School in the Class of 2009, Nicole Grove, 26, has always been physically strong. Back in 2003, in the days of Hidden Valley Elementary School, Nicole was a gold medalist in the Annual Yukon Wrestling... Read more

Yukon People

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Issue: 2017-02-15, PHOTO: Jozien Keijzer

Between the years of 1991 and 2011 my husband and I used to pack up our son and drive to a mountain summit a few times every winter. They were once our favourite places to be: those white wide-open expanses. An active community of winter lovers... Read more

Yukon Winter

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Issue: 2017-01-25, PHOTO: Jozien Keijzer

Spencer Sumanik graduated from Porter Creek Secondary in 2009 and is now studying to be an aerospace engineer in Ottawa. I am meeting Spencer at his parents’ home on the Hot Spring’s Road. He's home for the holidays, ”I am doing well and happy to... Read more

Yukon Families

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Issue: 2016-12-21, PHOTO: Jozien Keijzer

Trees that naturally grow in and around Whitehorse There are only three families of trees represented in the southwest Yukon. Sounds easy enough? It isn't, so don’t feel bad if you can’t see the trees for the forest. Read more

Yukon Winter

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Issue: 2016-12-14, PHOTO: Jozien Keijzer

If you have hiked up Kusawa Ridge, you may have spotted a rectangular lake below. This small lake is tucked away alongside the Kusawa Road, right beside the Takhini River and isn't visible from the road, from the river, nor from Kusawa Lake. This... Read more

Yukon Winter

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Issue: 2016-11-30, PHOTO: Nancy Ohm

In the beginning of October, before it started snowing, there was a brief period when the thermometer dropped below zero Celsius long enough so that small lakes and ponds were able to freeze without the ice being mixed or covered with snow. A few... Read more

Yukon Winter

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    Issue: 2015-12-24, PHOTO: Jozien Keijzer

    Winter snowshoe hare trying to hide in the October forest

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    Issue: 2015-12-24, PHOTO: Jozien Keijzer

    An animal skull (possibly a wolf)

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    Issue: 2015-12-24, PHOTO: Jozien Keijzer

    An October Mourning Cloak butterfly

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    Issue: 2015-12-24, PHOTO: Jozien Keijzer

    Mendenhall River

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    Issue: 2015-12-24, PHOTO: Jozien Keijzer

    Mary standing beside Yukon’s tree, a subalpine fir

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    Issue: 2015-12-24, PHOTO: Jozien Keijzer

    Mendenhall Meadows

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