Road Trip 2010: Days 17 Ft. Nelson to Liard Hot Springs to Watson Lake

[UPDATE: oops. I didn't mean to publish before the pictures were posted. They will come soon. Promise....well all but those of the folks in the Hotsprings and if our hook-ups permit. Promise. Also, the Day # in the title got messed up some how when I lost a day in my count. June 26th was the 17th day Terry and I were on the road. I'll endeavor to keep them straight from now on...but I can't promise anything in that category since I often forget what day of the week it is normally.]

Saturday, June 26

Liard Hotsprings to Watson Lake

The ride from Liard Hotsprings to Watson Lake was pretty uneventful for Terry and me. We saw little in the way of wildlife except for one bear and lots of wood bison. The latter were a slight annoyance as they milled about the road licking water off the surface. We learned later that the evening before there had been a bull moose at the Hotsprings where there is a salt lick and that, shortly after we left the campground, there was a bear among the remaining vehicles.


Bison to the left and right sides of the highway.

And sometimes in the middle of the road.

Rain again prevented Terry and I from taking a short walk down to the banks of the Liard River but there were numerous turnouts where we could stop and take pictures of the river and the surrounding country side.

Allen’s Lookout offered a great view of the river and of Goat Mountain beyond the Liard.

Looking North from Allen's Lookout

Looking South from Allen's Lookout

At Mile Mark 565.9 (measured from Dawson Creek) we crossed the border from British Columbia into the Yukon for the first time. (We would do so five or six more times before it took.) This may not have been the government sanctioned welcome, but it’s just as good. Road construction blocked access to the fancy sign. (Maybe we can get a photo at one of them when we leave Skagway and head to Whitehorse.) This is also known as Historical Milepost 585 and there is a rock cairn as well as a geologic survey marker on the site.





At Watson Lake we stayed at the Campground Services RV Park on the east (south?) side of town. Once unhitched, Terry and I went through town to the Northern Lights Centre to view the planetarium show on the Aurora borealis.

After our nightly group briefing, we all went over to the Signpost Forest to hang our sign and to look at all the others that have been hung over the years. There are currently over 61,000 signs hanging in this man-made forest started back in 1942.

Sign Post Forest at Watson Lake, YT.

Gene attaches signs from Good Sam's Caraventure 2010.

Being Saturday evening, some folks went to Mass. We had seen a wedding ending at the church earlier in the day so Terry knew where it was. She and a couple from Louisiana went and report that there were just 13 folks present. The priest apologized for not having a sermon ready due to the wedding, but I think that probably made folks a little happier. He (the priest) also almost forgot to take an offering. When reminded, Terry says, he ended up getting several $20 bills in the basket. I don’t know if that was due to the lack of a sermon or that the folks may have just returned from their Alaskan trek and survived the mosquitoes and the road from Chicken to Dawson City—which is reportedly quite bad.