Today we awoke to steady drizzle and cool temperatures. As we weren’t really enamored with our hotel and given that Jebo doesn’t really enjoy walking in the rain, we decided to shower and pack up the car and get going and get breakfast on the road.
We pulled into a traditional looking breakfast spot, Andrea’s Diner, in Watson Lake and Jebo seemed a little tired today and didn’t seem to mind the downtime in the car while we ate
We had to of course visit the Sign Post Forest, one of the most famous landmarks on the Alaska Highway.
This is a sprawling (over 2 acre) site where currently over 80,000 signs, (street signs, welcome signs, signatures on dinner plates, licence plates) from all over the world. Visitors are free to add their own signs and panels and poles are constantly being added to house new signs that visitors are free to add. We could only look at a handful of signs before our eyes started to tire, so we were quickly out of there and back on the road headed south-east towards BC, the Liard Hot springs and ultimately Fort Nelson.
We decided to let Linda start out with the driving as this section looked fairly flat however we were told that this section of the highway headed into the Rockies; Linda really doesn’t like the long descents that can come in the mountains driving so she was happy to start us out. It was only a few miles down the road that the skies opened up and we were driving in a heavy downpour, this has been pretty true to the script for this journey, if it was going to rain, it usually happens when Linda is behind the wheel.
We crossed the border and left the Yukon and were back in BC for the day,
Today we were experiencing the North East corner of BC (the Peace Region), part of the province we had never seen. The road was wide open and flat, however we could see the mountains towering in the distance.
We kept seeing signs to watch for wildlife, and this had become a bit of a joke as we hadn’t seen any wildlife since seeing the moose on day 8. We suddenly came around a bend and were suddenly looking at a herd of wood buffalo.
These are the largest animals in the Northern Rockies and some of the bulls can weigh over a ton. They can be very intimidating if they put their gaze directly on you, I would hate to think of the dames they could inflict on a vehicle if they felt the need to.
Then a few miles down the highway we came across a second herd and strangely they were all resting.
We continued down the road and came to the realization that we hadn’t seen any wildlife since the Cariboo just north of Dease Lake BC, three days ago. There wasn’t a single wildlife sighting in all of our time in the Yukon and Alaska. I guess the wildlife had decided, like us, that BC is the greatest province in Canada to live in.
We shortly thereafter arrive at Liard hot springs, (Mile 437 on the Alaska Highway) where travelers can visit and enjoy a peaceful year round mineral soak in a natural setting.
The Alpha pool is a shallow hot spring with a variety of temperatures, submerged benches and waterfalls to soothe necks and backs.
The park is open for day use as well as hosts over 50 well kept and private campsites and if visiting or camping you are likely to get a glimpse of some of the local moose who are also regular visitors to the site.
Unfortunately for us on this day the rain persisted and although we tried to wait it out, the rain persisted and after a quick stroll to the Alpha pool we decided to get back on the road. I took over the wheel and within minutes, the rain stopped and skies brightened, no surprise here.
Just 40 miles down the road we got our first glimpse of the magnificent Muncho Lake, a 12 km long deep glacier lake known for its jade green color for magnificent fishing and boating. And The lake itself sits at an elevation of 2,700 ft and is surrounded by mountains (The Sentinel Range) with peaks hitting over 6,500 ft.
The Alaska Highway narrows and winds and follows the Shoreline of the lake: this section of the drive is stunningly beautiful.
We were feeling the need for a little pick-me-up and thus stopped at the one and only stop along here, Double G services. This is a great stop for homemade breakfast, fresh baked goods and coffee and apparently is home to the country’s most expensive gasoline. We were thinking about topping up the tank until we looked at the price on the pumps and saw that regular gas was selling for $1.98 / liter. We knew we could hold out and make it to Fort Nelson to fill up.
Further down the road the highway widened again but started to follow the Toad River, which provided amazing vistas, shallow and bubbling through its rocks, water seeming of different colors at every turn. ‘Apparently” during the construction of the Alaska Highway there were many problems crossing this river and many vehicles had to be towed across. The proprietors of the local lodge named their establishment the “Towed River Lodge” and the name stuck to the area in a slightly modified form.
Finally we arrived at mile 283 and the town of Fort Nelson
And found our stop for the night, it was great
And best of all, we checked the price of gas and it was $1.25 / liter, filling up here saved us about $50, that should cover a nice dinner in the Fort.
Todays wildlife count,
- 1 herd of moose standing,
- 1 herd of moose moving,
- 1 solo moose staring,
- 3 random black bears
Our trip so far looks like this, 54 hrs, 4,557 km
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