June 20: Alaska Highway
Spent the last few days driving northwest on the
Alaska
Highway. The wide paved
road here is in excellent condition.
Most areas are heavily forested on both sides of the highway with spruce
and pine trees and large wide mowed areas on either side of the highway.
This
Alberta
stretch of the
Alaska Highway has dirt roads every few
miles going off to oil and gas fields and nearby were masses of ugly trailers
lined up in rows that served as dormitories for the crews. Guys with families live in RVs – usually
large fifth wheel trailers that they park in the closest campground and use
their pickups to go back and forth to the fields. Some small town campgrounds were completely
filled with these guys – guess much of the work is somewhat seasonal, at least
for the families as I cannot imagine living in an RV with the winters they have
up here.
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| Stone Mountain |
We stopped for the night in
Fort Nelson,
then drove through one of the most scenic parts of the
Alaska
Highway through the northern Canadian Rocky Mountains. While
Jack
was taking a nap, I stopped at
Stone Mountain Lake Provincial Park
that had a campsite available right on the lake, but the weather was
threatening rain and my goal was to stay at
Muncho
Lake, one of the prettiest lakes on
The Highway.
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| We could have camped here....... |
So I drove on, stopping for
photos along the way and at Telsa River Services Lodge, known as the “cinnamon
bun center of the galactic cluster,” for one of their specialties…
Jack and I shared it later, but he got more…..
Drove over
Summit
Pass at 4,2150 feet, the highest
point on the highway. A bit further, we
stopped at Toad River Lodge where we had stayed in 2003, the last time we were
here. The Lodge campground is nothing
special, but there is a shallow lake behind the Lodge where a moose hangs out
just eating the grass at the bottom along with beaver. The Lodge itself is a Greyhound bus stop,
restaurant, motel, and post office…think I got them all! The restaurant ceiling is covered by
thousands of baseball caps put up by customers over the years….
Finally arriving at
Muncho
Lake about
4pm, I was really disappointed to find that both
campgrounds, one on each end of the lake, were full. Should have
stayed at
Stone Mountain!!!
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| Walkway to Hot Springs |
With no place to stay here, we drove another
half hour to Liard Hot Springs to stay in their overflow parking area. After settling in, we walked up to the
mineral
Hot Springs in a totally
naturally environment….not a pool. The
one area was way too hot – well above 110 degrees, but the lower pool was
perfect!
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| Liard Hot Springs |
 |
| Aaaahhhhhhh |
Even though we didn’t get to
stay at
Muncho Lake,
the drive was spectacularly beautiful and we saw lots of wildlife.
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| Wood Bison |
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| My newearly birthday present telephoto lens is working great - Bob and Keith, thanks for the suggestions. |
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| Black Bear |
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| Add caption |
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| Folded Mountain...playing with the different lenses/settings on the camera |
June 21:
Sunday was Father’s Day and
Jack
wanted to watch the golf match, so we planned to get out early and stop early
at a campground in Watson Lake with cable TV and internet. We made the couple hour drive, seeing lots
more wildlife and stopping at for a short walk to
Whirlpool
Canyon with rapids and interesting
rock formations.
This herd of endangered Wood Bison by the side of the road gave us more great wildlife photos.
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| Mama and Baby |
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| This guy was bigger and looked older than the others.. |
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| We entered Yukon Territory! |
June 22: Monday morning, we stopped at the famous
Watson
Lake Signpost Forest
where folks put up signs from their hometowns.
It was very large and some signs were old and hard to read, but I found
New
Jersey and
New York,
but no
South Carolina.
The number of signs has grown to more than 78,000!
Also in
Watson
Lake is a small planetarium
where we stopped to watch a show about black holes and the Aurora
Borealis. Very interesting, but no
Auroras
for us at night because it does not get dark here at night.
The sun sets around
midnight
and then stays twilight for a few hours until the sun comes up.
We stopped for the night at a provincial park
with no services, but a nice site right next to a rushing river. We had a fire that helped with the mosquitoes
and enjoyed the evening listening to the creek rushing through the rapids.
June 23: Tuesday we drove to the small village
of Teslin. The highway is still in good condition, with forests on both sides of the road with little to see, except lots of "rock signs" along the side of the road.
In Teslin, we stopped at the Cultural Center
to view a movie about the First Nation Peoples here that moved from the
coast. We also listened to an elder talk
about her life, her family, and her expertise as one of only three in her
community who tans moosehides and makes gorgeous moccasins, mukluks, pouches
and other items. Very interesting! We spent the night a few miles north of
Teslin at another provincial park with a site right on Teslin
Lake with a great view.
June 24: Wednesday, we woke to what looked like fog on the lake. Turned out to be a major fire somewhere and it
followed us as we drove north, making photos difficult even though we had some
nice views of mountains, lakes and rivers.
We stopped at the
Yukon River Bridge
near
Whitehorse for a short walk to
a viewpoint.
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| Wildflowers on the walk |
We
stopped at a campground about 15 miles southeast of Whitehorse and got a site. We then drove to
Whitehorse
proper to do some shopping and check out their golf course.
Jack spent
the evening doing internet stuff, had a late dinner with the weather clear and
around 70 degrees.
Drove over 
Woke to a few clouds and 60 degrees - warmest morning in weeks! Golf Day!! We first had tee times at the local country club 18-hole course, but we kept passing a 9-hole course that just looked inviting and so we stopped and decided to play. It was a great course with a lot of hills, streams and ponds with views of distant mountains. Greens were difficult to read, but in good condition. The weather cooperated and we played 9 holes twice from different tees. Great day. 
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