Our Second Full Day on the Road with Alaska Excursion Caravan - Saturday, July 23, 2022

[Written on August 27, 2022.] 

There's a lot to see and do today. Our destination is Watson Lake, Yukon Territory, Canada. 

At the beginning of the day, we again drove through fields of canola and also hay. 

Hayfields.

One of the stops we're excited about is for excellent cinnamon rolls at Tetsa River Outfitters. Major road construction is happening in that area, so we will have to turn off the road and leave the pilot car when we get to Tetsa River Outfitters. 

We will drive through Stone Mountain Provincial Park, Muncho Lake Provincial Park, and Liard River Hot Springs Provincial Park as well. During our drive, we're hoping to see Stone Sheep along the road. But we will also watch for moose, bear, and bison!

Our first wildlife sighting was a pair of sandhill cranes. Then, we saw a moose! Bob spotted it on the opposite side of the road. I got my camera out as quick as I could, but the moose was quicker. Bob got a shot of his shoulders and backside. Oh, boy, now we're talking!

A moose disappearing into the brush.

The roads were smooth sailing for a while, but then we hit the road construction. Traffic was guided through by a pilot car. It wasn't our turn to go, so we turned off the engine to save fuel. When it was our turn to go, we turned off relatively quickly into Tetsa River Outfitters to buy our cinnamon rolls. 

The Alcan north of Fort Nelson.

Road construction.

Bob in front of Tetsa River Outfitters.

Barn Babe (Women).

Cowboy Outhouse (Men).

When we arrived to buy our cinnamon rolls, we were told we'd have to wait 1/2 hour. No problem, we're not in a big hurry. The owner said she was inundated with customers this morning and already sold out four trays. Another group came in, heard it was a 1/2-hour wait, got mad at her, and left. Wow! They were pretty nasty about it. The owner wasn't very happy with them. She makes all her cinnamon rolls from scratch and it takes 1/2 hour to cook them and let them cool enough to put frosting on them.

We already had one cinnamon roll. 
It was so good, we waited for one
to take with us for tomorrow!

Signs inside the bakery.

Beautiful sweaters for sale.

Local decor.

A caribou.

With reserve cinnamon rolls in hand, we waited in the driveway for a pilot car to come by in the direction we wanted to go. So many RVs were turning in Tetsa River Outfitters' first driveway, that we could easily pull out into the line from the second driveway.

We are now in northern British Columbia and coming up on the provincial parks mentioned above. The scenery is varied and stunning. I'm including a lot of it so you can enjoy it, too.

View from the bridge above.

A helicopter flew over this 
remote forest.

Entering Stone Mountain
Provincial Park.

Stone Mountain Provincial Park has awesome scenery and today was a gorgeous day to see it. You can see how sunny it is.

We wound through dramatic 
rocky mountain scenery.

We were supposed to look for sheep 
on the rocks, but we didn't see any.

A lot of highways in Canada and
Alaska follow rivers.

A beautiful stand of "trembling" 
aspen, as the Canadians call them.

Look at the vertical geologic
layering in that rock!

Below are two photos of Folded Mountain. Tectonic deformations have folded the limestone here.

Close-up of Folded Mountain.

Folded Mountain.

The Trout River flows into Muncho 
Lake.

Muncho Lake Provincial Park showcases Muncho Lake which is 7.5 miles long. The mountains to the west of Muncho Lake are the Terminal Range, mountains on the east side are the Sentinel Ranges. 

The lake is known for its jade green water that is caused by copper oxides leaching from underneath the surrounding bedrock. Fish for lake trout, bull trout, Arctic grayling, and whitefish which are native to the area

This is the so-called Serengeti of North America. The area's fauna consists of eight species of ungulates: Stone sheep, mountain goats, bison, moose, elk, caribou, white-tailed and mule deer. Carnivores include wolves, coyotes, foxes, grizzly bears, black bears, lynx, and wolverines.

Muncho Lake.

An alluvial fan left over from a 
long-ago glacier.

Muncho Lake was very windy and
had white caps today.

Muncho Lake.

Another alluvial fan.

What are these?

Muncho Lake.

The bridge below is unique in that many of the materials used to build it in 1943 came from steel salvaged from the famous Tacoma Narrows Bridge. (The Tacoma Narrows Bridge--AKA "Galloping Gertie"--became famous when it collapsed in 1940 due to faulty engineering that fatally intensified the bridge's normal sway.) Using salvaged material for steel structures was common during wartime as a way to overcome shortages and reduce costs.

 Lower Liard River Bridge.

Liard River as seen from the Lower
Liard River Bridge.

Liard River Hot Springs Provincial Park is our next point of interest.

One of our black bear sightings
today.

Liard River overlook.

Before we left on our caravan vacation, part of the Alcan Highway washed out in heavy rains. You probably saw it on the news. They thought the Alcan would be closed for months, but they got a bypass open within a few days. Below are the photos of that part of the highway.

Our detour turn-off.

From here, you can see the huge 
gap where the road used to be.

The bypass is dirt with potholes.

The bypass.

Road construction is done. Now we're
in Yukon Territory.

We were supposed to camp at Liard River Hot Springs on the way north; however, the mosquitoes were so bad that we will now be stopping on our way back instead.

The sky was very pretty as we drove into Watson Lake, Yukon Territory. We also saw a mother bear and two tiny cubs. 

Pretty light and streaming sun.

Very unique and dramatic sky.

This could be high-level rain.

Enlarge this photo to see the
mama bear in the bushes and
 two small cubs in the grasses.

The sky was so interesting this 
evening.

When we arrived in Watson Lake, we were efficiently shown to our campsites. This is a gravel lot and we were packed in pretty tightly.

Our 5th wheel is on the end. The 
pick-up is parked at the site on the 
other side of us.

THE thing to see in Watson Lake is the Sign Post Forest. People from all over the world bring their own signs to put on posts. If you want, you can make your own sign at the Visitor Information Centre. We were able to walk to the Sign Post Forest from the RV park. Rain sprinkles fell on us as we explored the maze of signs.

 

The tradition began in 1942 during the Alaska Highway Project. When U.S. soldier Carl Lindley was in Watson Lake recovering from an injury, a commanding officer asked him to repair and erect directional signposts. As he completed the job, he added a sign with a direction and mileage to his hometown of Danville, Illinois. The trend caught on. At last count, there were about 90,000 signs! 

Bob A., Lynn and Bob Z.

Bob and I, and Bob Z.

This is a crazy place!

Bob and I did not walk directly back to the RV park because across the highway from the Sign Post Forest was a big building that said "Northern Lights Centre." That caught our attention so we had to go investigate. 

It was 7 pm on a Saturday night and we didn't think it would be open, but it was. What a find. We learned a whole lot about the northern lights. This information will come in handy later in the trip when we may get to see the Aurora Borealis.

The sign drew us across the street.

This is how many millions of 
miles the sun and planets 
are from earth.

This beautiful mural is on the grounds
of the Northern Lights Centre.

Inside the building is a lot of information on the Aurora borealis. We read all the info on the walls. They had a movie showing the northern lights, but there was a fee for that in addition to the admission. We decided not to do the movie.

Banners hanging in the vestibule.

Bob with his photo taken
by northern lights display.

Let's learn about the Aurora borealis.

When we finished reading the posters about the Northern Lights, it was still light outside. Bob really wanted to see the historic airport in Watson Lake, so we took a drive a few miles to see it. It was located right next to Watson Lake. 

The historic hangar.

We drove around the grounds, looked at the terminal and control tower, and then drove out to look at the lake. 

The terminal and control tower.

Watson Lake, Yukon Territory, Canada.

Old mechanical things, or art?

Another view of Watson Lake.

When we returned to the RV park, we walked across the street to see First Wye Lake Park. Bob wanted to show me where he had ridden his bicycle earlier today. There's a boardwalk that goes into a park. He rode to and then through the park. He did not make it all the way around the lake.

We couldn't see the lake from the
boardwalk because of too many tall 
cattails.

Animals we saw today: sandhill cranes, one moose, two black bear and two tiny bear cubs (not in the same place), 40 bison, one ptarmigan, and two grizzly bears!

Finally, the end of this day and this blog. Good night, all.