Alaska Trip 2011: May 20 - Off to Watson Lake

This is page 9 of our Alaska 2011 trip journal. Click here for the first page. If you want to bookmark this journal, http://jeanne-travels.blogspot.com always links to the newest page.

Today we traveled from Laird Hot Springs to Waston Lake, We saw more bear and bison, but still have not seen any of the elusive moose. Seems we have managed to miss them the last couple times we havve veen in moose country. But we'll keep trying. Total miles so far: 3233.

Liard Hot Springs

Friday morning we took another dip in the spring before taking off. This time we remembered the camera, so there are a couple pictures. You can really see the steam rising off the pool in the crisp morning air.

We also got some pictures of the swampy area around the spring. They had a boardwalk to get across this area.

Bear!

We have spotted several bears already on the trip, but so far not much luck getting any pictures. This time was no exception. We saw a singleton, and then a few miles down the road, a mama and cub. We also saw several bison on this stretch of road, but thought we already had some good pictures of them, so did not take any more.

Whirlpool Canyon

This pretty little canyon is at a sharp bend in the river. Apparently when the water is higher, it spins around and makes quite a whirlpool. The last picture shows where the whirlpool dropped logs along the shore like a pile of toothpicks.

We had a bit of a misadventure here. The turnout was too narrow to drive around to get back out. You can't back up when you are towing a car four-down, so we had to unhook the car, turn both vehicles around, and then put everything back together. This is not a huge issue - it only takes about 10-15 minutes, but we try to avoid it whenever we can.

Yet another pretty pullout

What a beautiful day we are having! Sunny and warmish, trees are in early stages of leafing out. Here is another picturesque overlook. I think that is the Liard River below. From time to time around here, we see patches of old road. We think at least some of them are the old Alaska Highway, before they reengineered and took some of the kinks out of it. Hard to say - they might also be old roads to some place that does not exist any more.

Despite rumors to the contrary, we have found the Alaska highway to be in good shape. The few rough spots are clearly marked, so you don't hit them by surprise. Half the Interstates in the U.S. are in worse shape than this road. It's been very pleasant driving.

Welcome to Yukon

The sign says, "Welcome to Yukon". This is the first of several times we will cross the border between Yukon and British Columbia on this stretch of road. The border between the two follows the 60th parallel, but the road wanders about a bit in this area.

More Bears

We finally spotted a bear in a location where we were able to pull over and get some pictures. These were taken through the side window. We thought this one might have been a grizzly, though we aren't certain. It was definitely browner than the others, but I know color is not the only indication. It was also larger, but I'm not sure the silhouette is right.

Historic Mile 627

I don't think there is anything particularly significant about this mile marker, other than it happened to be across the road from the pullout where we stopped just outside of Watson Lake.

We have not had any cell service since we left Fort Nelson on Wednesday Morning. We were hoping getting back to civilization at Watson Lake would do the trick. We did get a 5-bar signal in town, but we still could not make or receive any calls. The campground did have wi-fi, but only if you carried the computer up near the laundry room, and even then it was poor. Most private campgrounds claim to have wi-fi these days, but sometimes what you get is laughable.

Signpost Forest

When the Alaska Highway was under construction, a guy from Danville, Illinois, was feeling homesick, and put up a sign pointing to Danville. Other soldiers liked the idea and started putting up their own signs, and the signpost forest was born. The tradition continues today, with people leaving everything from fancy engraved signs or license plates, to scrawling something on a paper plate.

At last count, there were over 10,000 signs in the forest. When they run out of places to add signs, I guess they add some more posts. The original signs did not survive the years, but they have a replica of the original in the interpretive center nearby. We haven't decided if we will leave a sign or not, but we do have to go through Watson Lake on the way back, so we are thinking about it.

Here's Dale pointing out to the people at the interpretive center that the picture in this exhibit is backwards. Probably got the slide upside-down. Apparently no one had noticed it before this. Look at the numbering on the next picture to see. You might have to click to make it bigger, but it's definitely backwards.

More Watson Lake

After supper, we went to a showing at the Northern Lights Space and Science theater, which is kind of like a planetarium. This was the first day they were open for the season, so they had a special showing of two films for the price of one. The most interesting was the one about the Northern Lights, since we are not likely to see Northern Lights on this trip. Because of the long days and short nights, it just doesn't get dark enough.

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Alaska Trip 2011: May 19 - Toad River to Liard Hot Springs

This is page 8 of our Alaska 2011 trip journal. Click here for the first page. If you want to bookmark this journal, http://jeanne-travels.blogspot.com always links to the newest page. Today we set a course for Liard Hot Springs, one of the "must do" stops along the highway. It is not far, so this will be a short travel day.

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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