Thursday August 29, 208
We left Whitehorse early Wednesday afternoon after hiking at Miles Canyon, just as some dark clouds started moving in. We might have stayed around longer to explore the area, but decided to try to stay ahead of the rain. Still mostly overcast but with enough breaks on the cloud to enjoy the vistas.
A lovely stretch of road for about 30 km along Marsh Lake followed an hour later by a 53k drive next to Teslin Lake. Although we spent the afternoon in the RV, there was very little traffic so we were able to cruise along at a relatively slow speed and enjoy the scenery and it is spectacular. Snow capped mountains, jade coloured lakes and streams filled with rapids and eddies. Every 50 miles or so, a little place like Johnson’s Crossing, Swift River or Rancheria, each with a gas station/restaurant, and all advertising the “World’s Best Cinnamon Buns”. Stopped for a short hike & look at the Rancheria Falls - still under a little halo of blue sky as we cross the continental divide. By evening we reached Watson Lake and our last town in the Yukon. We found a typical RV park/gravel parking lot right downtown and within walking distance of a grocery store, post office and the famous sign post forest. As it happened to be dry and still daylight at the moment, we wandered over to check out the sign post forest-Watson Lake’s main (only?) tourist attraction. It’s a large area with over 70,000 signs of every description. Started with 1 sign from an American soldier during construction of the Alcan Hwy in 1942. It seems to be a favourite of the German tourists as there are a large number of road and town signs from every corner of Germany, but also thousands from the USA and from places as far away as New Zealand. There are road signs, city and town signs, licence plates and name plates off RV’s along with every other conceivable sign. Obviously people knowing they were coming here have brought a sign with them to nail to an empty spot on the posts. Sadly we didn’t find any from Victoria or from Guelph…. that is not to say that there aren’t any but we didn’t see them. A goal to strive for: obtain signs, by whatever means necessary, from both these places, get them to Watson Lake and mount them in the forest.
We were fairly late getting away Thursday morning, after discovering that the motorhome had two grey water tanks, not just one, buying some groceries and some local Yukon beer at the liquor store (cranberry-wheat beer!) and off to the Liard River hot springs – we can use some heat! On the way there we stopped for lunch at a little road side café that boasted great buffalo burgers so we thought we should tr
y them out to see if it was true – it wasn’t. Not only were they not buffalo, they tasted like the greasy grocery store pre-packaged type. Onward to sit in the hot springs. The hot springs consist of 2 natural hot spring pools in a natural forest setting, complete with change houses. It’s the second largest hot spring in Canada. The water temperature was somewhere between 110F and 126F. We started off in the cooler section and it was fantastic. Jo worked her way up to the hot section while I stayed in about the 115 - 120 F range. We were not able to try out pool 2 because of bear activity in the area. It was a really nice break and while there we had one of our sunny windows and that made it even better. From Liard we moved on to Muncho Lake and made camp in a provincial park, at MacDonald camp site. It’s a beautiful 11k lake that’s famous for being one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. When the sun is on it, it is the most spectacular shade of jade and is surrounded by dark hills and snow capped mountains. We had site right on the lake with no neighbours and a view to die for. On Friday, the rain that had started overnight didn’t let up all day. It only went from drizzle to downright pissing down rain. We did have to stop a few times for small herds of caribou that were meandering on the highway, getting their salt fix for the day. The forecast for tomorrow in not much better for this whole area so we carried on the just north of Fort St. John and camped for the night at Charlie Lake, again in a provincial camp ground.
We left Whitehorse early Wednesday afternoon after hiking at Miles Canyon, just as some dark clouds started moving in. We might have stayed around longer to explore the area, but decided to try to stay ahead of the rain. Still mostly overcast but with enough breaks on the cloud to enjoy the vistas.
A lovely stretch of road for about 30 km along Marsh Lake followed an hour later by a 53k drive next to Teslin Lake. Although we spent the afternoon in the RV, there was very little traffic so we were able to cruise along at a relatively slow speed and enjoy the scenery and it is spectacular. Snow capped mountains, jade coloured lakes and streams filled with rapids and eddies. Every 50 miles or so, a little place like Johnson’s Crossing, Swift River or Rancheria, each with a gas station/restaurant, and all advertising the “World’s Best Cinnamon Buns”. Stopped for a short hike & look at the Rancheria Falls - still under a little halo of blue sky as we cross the continental divide. By evening we reached Watson Lake and our last town in the Yukon. We found a typical RV park/gravel parking lot right downtown and within walking distance of a grocery store, post office and the famous sign post forest. As it happened to be dry and still daylight at the moment, we wandered over to check out the sign post forest-Watson Lake’s main (only?) tourist attraction. It’s a large area with over 70,000 signs of every description. Started with 1 sign from an American soldier during construction of the Alcan Hwy in 1942. It seems to be a favourite of the German tourists as there are a large number of road and town signs from every corner of Germany, but also thousands from the USA and from places as far away as New Zealand. There are road signs, city and town signs, licence plates and name plates off RV’s along with every other conceivable sign. Obviously people knowing they were coming here have brought a sign with them to nail to an empty spot on the posts. Sadly we didn’t find any from Victoria or from Guelph…. that is not to say that there aren’t any but we didn’t see them. A goal to strive for: obtain signs, by whatever means necessary, from both these places, get them to Watson Lake and mount them in the forest.
We were fairly late getting away Thursday morning, after discovering that the motorhome had two grey water tanks, not just one, buying some groceries and some local Yukon beer at the liquor store (cranberry-wheat beer!) and off to the Liard River hot springs – we can use some heat! On the way there we stopped for lunch at a little road side café that boasted great buffalo burgers so we thought we should tr
y them out to see if it was true – it wasn’t. Not only were they not buffalo, they tasted like the greasy grocery store pre-packaged type. Onward to sit in the hot springs. The hot springs consist of 2 natural hot spring pools in a natural forest setting, complete with change houses. It’s the second largest hot spring in Canada. The water temperature was somewhere between 110F and 126F. We started off in the cooler section and it was fantastic. Jo worked her way up to the hot section while I stayed in about the 115 - 120 F range. We were not able to try out pool 2 because of bear activity in the area. It was a really nice break and while there we had one of our sunny windows and that made it even better. From Liard we moved on to Muncho Lake and made camp in a provincial park, at MacDonald camp site. It’s a beautiful 11k lake that’s famous for being one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. When the sun is on it, it is the most spectacular shade of jade and is surrounded by dark hills and snow capped mountains. We had site right on the lake with no neighbours and a view to die for. On Friday, the rain that had started overnight didn’t let up all day. It only went from drizzle to downright pissing down rain. We did have to stop a few times for small herds of caribou that were meandering on the highway, getting their salt fix for the day. The forecast for tomorrow in not much better for this whole area so we carried on the just north of Fort St. John and camped for the night at Charlie Lake, again in a provincial camp ground.
0 comments:
Post a Comment