Liard Hot Springs

Sunday, August 22 - We could really smell the smoke from the forest fires last night and again this morning.  I first thought it was just a campfire, smelled like wood smoke.  But Marilyn mentioned the forest fires over on the Cassiar Highway area, and then it made sense. 

We got up this morning to more tire problems.  When we let the RV off the hydraulic jacks, Joe saw that the back tire was flat again -- the same one we had fixed in Anchorage.  So off he went with the RV to get it repaired.  Fortunately, there was a tire repair shop right in Watson Lake, so it just delayed us about an hour.  The problem was that the patch they did in Anchorage had come loose on one end.  Finally, we got on the road a little after 11:00 a.m. (after Marilyn's biscuits and gravy), and we started seeing animal poop along the road.  We are now in buffalo country, so we thought it must be from buffalo.  We came upon a small herd of horses, grazing right along the highway, so we figured out what we were seeing was horse poop, not buffalo poop.  But since I was in my "watch for buffalo" mode, I didn't even get a picture of the pretty horses.  Later, at the fuel stop, we learned that they were not wild horses, the owner just lets them graze along the highway, so I didn't feel so bad about missing that photo op.

The highway crosses back and forth between the Yukon and British Columbia 7 times in this area, but it is a really pretty drive.  There was hardly any traffic, and we had sunshine most of the time.  We crossed the Hyland River, which is a tributary of the Liard River.

Anyhow, a short time later, we came upon our first BUFFALO.

It was grazing right along the road, and we followed it for a short while.  We later came upon two other buffalo, separately, but both of them were laying down, and Joe didn't take a picture of either (they were on his side of the road). 

We made a lunch stop, and I thought I heard some stampeding buffalo headin our way, but it was just Collins.

British Columbia is a really pretty province, and this highway was in good shape.  Mazie said when they drove this back in 1999, this section was gravel.

The Liard River ran beside us for several miles.  It is a pretty emerald color, and has some rapids.  Legend has it that a band of outlaws used to attack and rob riverboats on this river.

But then the view got even better.  We came upon a black bear with 2 cubs, right beside the highway.

They were so cute, and we were thrilled to be back in bear country (where we actually can find them).  Three buffalo and 3 bears all in the same day is a good day.

Our destination today was the Liard Hot Springs Provincial Park, and we got in there about 2:30.  We all found nice, woodsy campsites, and then Joe and his 3 women headed for the Hot Springs.  The temperature ranges 70+ to 126, depending on which end you enter.

 We kinda went in in the middle, Joe and Mazie to the warmer side, Marilyn and I to the cooler side.  It was pretty toasty!  After Marilyn and I got used to the temperature, we moved over to the warmer side.  Joe, Marilyn and Mazie all headed up to the hottest end, but none of them made it.  Joe lasted the longest, but even he had to get out.

We only stayed for about 45 minutes, too hot for us old people. It had a boardwalk from the parking lot down to the springs, maybe 3/10ths of a mile walk.  Mazie and Marilyn walked from the campers, but Joe drove us over to the parking lot.  The area on either side of the boardwalk is a wetlands environment that supports more then 250 boreal forest plants, including 14 orchid species, but we didn't spot any of them.  They say moose also come in here to this wetlands area, but we didn't spot any of them either.  And, of course, this is supposedly high-traffic bear country in the campground, but we haven't spotted any of them yet either.  (We're still looking for them, though). 

Watson Lake

Saturday, August 21 - We headed down the road this morning, passing the turnoff to the Cassiar Highway.  That highway is closed due to fires, and has been for several weeks, so we were fortunate that we took that route on the way to Alaska.  Because of the recent rains, they thought it might reopen today or tomorrow.  We stopped at a nice gift shop and restaurant, and we finally got our buffalo burgers (Marilyn and I opted for hamburgers), and drove on in to Watson Lake (85 miles today), famous for its Signpost Forest, which is right along the highway. 

After we got set up at our camground, we went to the Northern Lights Interpretive Center, the only planetarium in North America featuring the myth and science of the Northern Lights, using advanced video and laser technology.  They had a post outside listing the planets and the distance to them.

They some nice pictures inside, and we watched a 50-minute video presentation inside a 100-seat "Electric Sky" theater environment.  Half of the video was on the Northern Lights, and the other half was about the science of the universe.  All very interesting.    This is a picture posted inside, but we keep hoping to get to see the real thing.  It does get dark now, so if the sky would clear we might have a chance.

Next we went over to the Signpost Forest.  Dave and Mazie happened to have a sign with them that Mazie had had made some years ago, so they dug that out to "plant."  Collins got out the drill, and Joe found some screws in our toolbox, so they prepared the sign and off we went.

This "forest" is huge, row after row of post with all kinds of signs, from everywhere.  Mazie said it had "grown" a lot since they stopped here 11 years ago.

So here David and Joe are, hanging the sign. 

Mission accomplished!

There are lots of signs of cities, and we found one from the City of Sierra Vista, signed by their previous mayor.  I spotted a t-shirt that said "Alaska to Argentina, by bicycle."  Here's another unique one.

Obviously, on our next trip through here, the rest of us will have to be better prepared.  I told Joe maybe next summer we could set up a little business here, making signs for people.  Just another idea.

After we finished here, we drove through town (short drive) and checked out the price of gas ($1.169/litre).  But Marilyn and Collins, smart people they are, stopped at the visitor center and learned that gas is less expensive down the road a ways, so we'll wait.  Marilyn offered to make biscuits and gravy for all of us tomorrow morning (Brenda, aren't you jealous), so we had an early night, still recuperating from the big party the night before.

Whitehorse almost to Watson Lake

Friday, August 20.  Today is Collins' birthday, so we have some celebrating to do.  But first, Dave headed out early to the Chrysler dealer to get his Dodge serviced.  It turned out that he needed new front brakes (they were smoking coming into town on Tuesday), so we didn't get on the road until shortly after 12:00.  Mazie and I both got our laundry done this morning, then us three women ran into town to pick up some last minute groceries for tonight's big surprise birthday party (and some Tim Horton donut holes) before we hit the road.  David has a sore leg (he hit it on something the other day), but was able to go, and we made it 181 miles today, a little further than we had planned, but it just kept raining so we just kept driving.  We were trying to find some dry weather so David could cook the fish outside without needing an umbrella.

It had rained off and on all night, and most of the day today.  About 30 miles out of Whitehorse, we got back to the highway we had traveled on our way to Alaska, where Joe and I turned off to go down to Skagway.  We drove along Teslin Lake, the 86-mile long lake we saw back in June.  Today we didn't get very good views of it because of the weather, but I thought I probably needed one more picture.

We had some really nice mountain views today, but sometimes the fog/clouds almost completely hid them.  Occasionally, the sun would hit the top of a mountain and the fall colors would just explode on it.

But mostly it rained.  It was about 45 degrees, and once we had some snow or sleet hit the windshield.  We got parked about 4:30 just across the Continental Divide and began preparations for the big party.  David cooked up some of the halibut we caught in Homer, and some of the salmon Collins got in Hope.  David could teach the chefs in some of the restaurants in Alaska how to cook fish!  He does a great job.  I made potato salad (Eric, sorry you missed it), and Mazie made cole slaw and cornbread.  Marilyn made Banana Split Cake.  It was all delicious.  And quite a celebration.

 We finished the evening by playing cards.  They did let Collins win the first two hands (and he's mine and Mazie's partner), but it was downhill after that.  The other team beat us all three games.

Whitehorse - Day 3

Thursday, August 26 - Dave and Mazie went off on their own Excellent Adventure today, they took a train/bus trip down to Skagway.  The bus left right from the RV park, and Marilyn volunteered to check on Ar'gent during the day, so off they went.  Joe and Collins had maintenance duties on our RV this morning, since Joe's part had come in yesterday.  They replaced our radiator reserve tank, whatever that is.  Once they finished that and got cleaned up, Marilyn and Collins headed into town to try to finish the tours they got rained out of yesterday, some museums and the Klondike sternwheeler.  So Joe and I headed off on our own adventure, down dirt roads to find lakes.

We have discovered a new treat in Canda - Tim Horton's.  Famous for coffee, but who cares about that.  His donuts are WONDERFUL.  So here's Joe, with this morning's little sinful treat.

We were trying to find the salmon fish hatchery, unsuccessfully as it turned out, but we did find some realy pretty lakes. This first lake is Chadburn Lake, and it was so clear you could hardly tell you were looking through water.

Then we stopped at Schwatka Lake, which is the lake above the dam.  They fly float planes from this lake.  Speaking of planes, the Whitehorse airport is pretty busy, and some big planes come in here.  Collins said they have direct flights from Europe into Whitehorse, and we saw several big jets fly over our campground.

The fall colors are starting to appear in this part of the country, in the flowers/weeds alongside the road as well as the trees.  There are lots of oranges, pinks and reds along the roads.

We stopped back at the fish ladder to get directions to the fish hatchery since we didn't find it down this road.  But we learned something new -- Chinook salmon are the same fish as king salmon (I'm sure John and Bridgette know this).  In the U.S., they are called kings, but in Canada they are called chinook (you know those Canadians, they always have to be different).  They told us a 40-lb. one had come through the ladder after we left yesterday.

So we headed out again, just north of town on Fish Lake Road.  We took a couple side roads just to explore, but drove to the end of this road where we found the lake.  Along the way, though, we came upon a different sign than we had seen before.

Although the sun didn't come out too often, and we kept getting sprinkled on, this was a beautiful drive.  The scenery would have been perfect pictures for jigsaw puzzles. 

Fall was always my favorite time of year in Indiana, so I really loved to see these colorful mountains.  Then, we didn't see a dogsled, but we did come upon a dog we had to stop for.

Then we got to Fish Lake.  We didn't see any fish in it, but it was another clear lake.  We drove partway around it, but the road kept deteriorating, so finally Joe turned around.

On our way back to civilization, we took another side road to Jackson Lake.  Here, I wasn't sure Joe was going to turn around, and our road went under water!

He did back us out of there, and we headed back to Whitehorse.  We got a nice view of the town on our way back in.

We found a fish farm (char fish) on this road, but still no fish hatchery.  Back in town, he wasn't ready to give up yet on that hatchery, so back across the Yukon bridge we went, and down one more side road, but all we found was Long Lake this time.

As we headed back to our campground, we stopped at the Beringia Center to get a picture of the woolly mammoths.  After all, you don't get to see statues of these very often.  In fact, we kept an eye out for woolly mammoths, as well as bear, moose, elk and caribou, on all our backroad drives today, but all we ever saw was a chipmunk.