Folded Mountains
Shortly after getting started this morning, we spotted a coyote, and a few miles down the road another bear. Both disappeared into the woods before we could get a picture.
These pictures show how the earth buckled and folded against itself during the tectonic plate collision that created the Rocky Mountains 175 million years ago. It's also just a nice view of the mountains. The Rockies here are not quite as high as other locations, which is probably why they chose to bring the highway across at this point.
Continuing up the Highway
Another nice roadside view...
...and another dirty windshield view. These might not be the greatest pictures, but they do capture some of the story of the trip.
Muncho Lake
The area around Muncho Lake provided some more beautiful scenery. The first of these pictures is another dirty windshield shot, but it really shows off the deep green color of the lake. I found myself wondering if it is still that green in the summer when everything thaws.
They had chicken-wire to help keep falling rocks off the highway. A curtain of ice had accumulated also, making an interesting appearance.
This picture is also in the Muncho Lake area, but looking off the other direction. This is a spot that is frequented by Stones Sheep. I didn't see any sheep, but still thought it was a pretty picture.
More Interesting Views
I thought this embankment was interesting. It looked like a huge mudslide, but without any evidence of damage at the bottom. If it was a mudslide, it may have been long enough ago for the trees to grow back below.
This was an interesting pullout. There was a built-up area, almost like a campsite, leading out from the parking area. I don't know if people use it for camping or not, but there was a fire ring at the end, made from the loose rocks in the area.
If you walk out to the end, you get some beautiful views of the stream flowing by.
Stone Sheep
Stone Sheep and Dall Sheep are very similar, with the biggest difference being the color. I thought we might not see any Stone Sheep since they only live in northern British Columbia and southern Yukon, and we were already past some of the prime viewing areas. But we came around the bend, and spotted this one. I was able to get out of the car and get a little closer, so these are not even dirty windshield shots. Evidently he was heading down to lick some salt off the road. I took several pictures, at different zoom levels. Here are the three best. The last picture is just a view as I was heading back to the coach.
Wood Bison
As we got closer to the hot springs area, we went through an area that is known to have lots of Wood Bison. I'm not sure if or how Wood Bison are different from the Bison we see at home. Maybe it's because they live in the woods rather than the prairie, though they did seem to do a lot of grazing along the roadsides outside of the woods. One of the dark spots along the roadside turned out to be a bear, but we were not able to get a picture of it.
No Bison in the third picture here - I just thought it was a pretty view.
"It's the Big Weekend, eh?"
So far on our journey we have had no problems finding places to camp - it's still early in the season. We also knew the coming weekend was a three-day weekend for Canadians, with Monday being Victoria Day. But we were surprised to find the campground at Liard Hot Springs to be getting full by mid-afternoon on a Thursday. They ended up putting us and several others in a large parking lot, where tour buses park during peak season. Charged us full price for it, too.Seems the hot springs is a favorite place for people wanting to chase off the chill of the long cold winter. I can see why, too. After we got set up, we walked down for a nice, soothing dip in the pool. Sweet!
More Wood Bison
After supper, we took an evening drive to see what we could see. All we saw were more bison, but they were walking along in the ditch, and we could get close enough and slow enough with the car to get some great pictures. Normally it would be hard to get that close and still be safe, but there was a pretty good embankment they would have had to charge up. We figured we could just drive away before they could get there. So I rolled down the window and got these shots:
This guy was just walking alongside the road, so we drove alongside at about the same speed to get this shot. Judging from the grass clinging to his fur, I'm guessing he had been wallowing in the dirt. We saw several of their wallows during this drive, and also earlier on the way in.
Looking at this guy, it's easy to see why they would want to roll in the dirt or rub against trees. Looks like the winter coat is coming off in large clumps.
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