1998 Alaska, British Columbia & YukonTrip

The sun came up today at 4:00 am. We left our hotel in Fort Nelson at 5:00 am. We drove through gray clouds and could see a rainbow. Needed gas, but no one was open this early. We started going thru Northern Peace River Valley on Highway 97 (the Alaskan Highway) and took the turnoff for Tetsa River Provincial Park. There were 25 campsites here that were large, with cleared areas but not very pretty. Just after Tetsa River we saw caribou and just before reaching the Stone Mountain Provincial Park we saw what must have been a family of 4 Stone's sheep. The caribou and sheep are used to the traffic as they will just stood along ths side of the road and froze as we took their pictures. It reminded me of Banff/Jasper National Park. The Stone Mountains were quite impressive as they appeared to be almost white, having no vegetation growing on them. We stopped at the 115 Creek Wayside Rest Area Provincial Park, to put gas from our gas can in the truck. Both this year and last I have needed to use the extra gas not because of running out but because very few places are open in the morning when I'm driving. There were 8 campsites here with picnic tables that were pretty close to one another. We walked a short ways to a creek and found a beaver dam that was mentioned in one of our travel books. Muncho Lake in the Provincial Park was a green color today as the color varies from day to day. This park is one of the few that actually has a town within it's borders. Gas was cheaper here than what we had been paying. Strawberry Flats Provincial Campground, within Muncho Lake Provincial Park, had 15 campsites on the water but were not very private.

We got to the Liard River Hotsprings Provincial Park at 9:30 am. This is a popular spot for families to go soaking. We talked to a couple from Yakima and overheard someone say they were from Paris. There are two pools that can be reached by walking a wooden boardwalk through a lush rainforest. Except for the boardwalks and steps into the pools they have pretty much been left in their natural state. The first pool did not have the sulfur smell you frequently associate with natural hotsprings, however the second one did. There were many more people using the first pool as it was a friendly environment. The first pool was one and a half to three feet deep and was much warmer than the second pool. There was a changing area near this pool. The second pool was much deeper, but a more comfortable temperature. There were four different sets of wooden steps around this pool. Most of the pool was about 6 feet deep. A sign said it was up to 3 meters deep. The side that had no boardwalk around it was only 4 feet deep. There were very few people here but a chance to have a pool all to yourself. Between the two pools was a boardwalk that went up several flights of stairs to the 'Hanging Gardens.' These were yellow rock formations with cool water running down them and plants/flowers that like this particular environment. We were here for two hours as the pools are free to the public. This place does get busy and I would recommend using it early in the day or late evening.

Next we stopped at the Smith River Falls. You could see the falls through the trees from the parking lot. The path to view them (which is not much better of a view) starts with four flights of stairs and goes through the forest, stepping over lots of tree roots. There is a large black coal seam on one side of the canyon wall near the falls. Just over the bridge past the tiny town of Coal River was a disabled semi-truck. The back end of the truck had black smoke pouring out of it and lettuce or cabbage was rolling out onto the highway. We asked the driver if there was anything we could do, he just shook his head 'no,' but looked pretty exasperated. Down the road a few miles we turned off at the Whirlpool Canyon Rest Stop/Campground. One of our guidebooks claims this is incorrectly marked and should be called the Mountain Portage Rapids. This was a sand and shale beach along the Liard River. The shale along each side of the river has some interesting angles probably due to earthquakes.

We crossed the British Columbia - Yukon border and drove into Watson Lake at 2:00 pm. It was partly cloudy and about 75'. We stopped at the 'sign forest' where people from all over the world have left signs. We ate Chinese food at the only Chinese restaurant in town. There aren't many restaurants to choose from in this town. We left around 4:00 pm and drove north out of town as we found the airport and Watson Lake along with two other lakes. We took Highway 4 (the Campbell Highway) north, which was gravel road and at mile 25 we stopped at Tom Creek. A creek ran under the highway and Jacob and I walked thru the metal tubing where the water was shallow enough to walk through. Simpson Lake, a long, shallow lake with no shore, was at mile 50. There was also a dock, a big toy in the woods and a small campground. About 10 more miles along the same lake we found a pull-out large enough for a campsite. Looking out at the lake from here was an island with trees growing on it. We turned east on the Nahanni Range Road at about mile 70. Just a mile or two before this turnoff we saw a black bear on the side of the road.

The Nahanni Range Road is about 80 miles long and is suppose to dead end at the old mining town of Tungsten. A sign said the road was washed out, but we decided to take it as far as we could. It crosses several small creeks, some of which had narrow wooden bridges. At around mile 41 there was the Nahanni Campground. Not a soul was around. At about mile 50 we stopped a man driving a 4 wheeler with a gun slung over his shoulder. He said he had worked at the mine when he was 19 but hadn't been back since. He was hoping to see it again but a bridge a few miles farther was washed out. He claimed the mining company had taken the bridge out to discourage people from coming near the mine. He and his wife were staying in a cabin for the weekend that we had passed just a few miles back. The cabin belonged to some friends of theirs. He told us to stop by and talk with his wife on our way back. She knew the area better than he did. We kept going and every few miles it looked like someone had repaired the road. At one point we went through a stream about a foot deep and four feet wide. We kept seeing signs that the road was washed out. We finally came to some construction and we could tell the bridge was gone. There was a tow truck parked there. We had several theories as to why the truck was there. After taking a few pictures we turned around.

We drove back to Richard's cabin and his wife Gretta greeted us. She asked if we'd like to come in and have a cup of tea. After introducing ourselves we stepped into a cabin with no running water or electricity. She put a kettle on her propane stove. The only light came from the window, but at 9:30 pm in the Yukon it was still quite light out. She told us Richard was suppose to be out looking for a moose to shoot. She said she'll butcher the meat herself whenever he kills a moose. They live in Whitehorse, where she works as an adult caretaker. We never figured out what he did for a living, but he does do some trapping. She had grown up near Atlin, BC and he was raised in a boarding school, She had taken a tour of this mine when it was still operating in the 1970's. She talked a lot about the wildlife. She said they use spruce pitch and caribou leaf to treat cuts. She watches to see how many nuts the squirrells collect to decide how bad the winter will be. She said they've had a lot of problems with bears in Whitehorse the last few years. People have been feeding them and the berries have been scarce the past two summers. She warned us that the North Canol Road was much worse than the Nahanni Range Road. It's windy and climbs in elevation. She thought the South Canol Road was closed. She asked us if we wanted to use another cabin on the property for the night. We took her up on the offer since we were a little worried about bears in the area. We went to bed about 11:00 pm that night.