June 16 thru June 21, 2014

 

Today is Monday I think.   I really can’t keep up with what day it is.   We left Jasper National Park in Alberta Canada this morning around 8:30 and headed to Grand Prairie Alberta.  We saw some wildlife along the way several mule deer, a couple of fox and a deer.   The landscape has changed from the majestic mountains to mountains with forest on them.   It is a totally different look.

It has been raining and so we are taking our time.   We actually crossed the Smoky River which had a wooden bridge over it then we  drove through the top of the clouds at 4344 feet. That was a little scary.  It was pretty, then all fog and then we realized we had come through a cloud and now have blue sky and it went from 43 to 58 degrees.

We have fueled up twice today as the guys want to be sure we don’t fun out of fuel.   Now them finding a Flying J is another story.   They like to drive 5 to 10 miles out of the way to save a penny.   Linda and I are giving them a very hard time about that.

We have stopped and shopped at a Wal Mart and are spending the night here.   Tomorrow we travel on to Dawson Creek and  this is the beginning of the Alaska Highway. 

Tuesday 6/1714

From Grand Prairie we crossed into British Columbia and arrived in Dawson Creek, which is the beginning of the Alaska Highway.   I have pictures of the 0 mile marker for the highway .  We spent several hours at the Visitors Center in Dawson Creek and then traveled onto Fort St. Johns where we found a Wal Mart to stay in.   After getting set up, now this was early in the day, we went to the North Peace River Museum, which was very interesting. We watched a video about the upcoming things we are going to see.   Of course we have changed time zones again so here we go.

 

Wednesday 6/18 /14

Jim had said let’s start out about 8 am so I am thinking get up around 7 am and off we will go.   Now I have my phone on airplane mode so I won’t use cell signals in Canada but I use it as a clock.  WRONG, it did not change time zones so I am up at 6 am making coffee and getting on the move, I think, then I realize it is only 6 am, however both Jim and Linda woke early so off we go a little early.  Found a dump station that was FREE, took advantage of that, and headed out to Fort Nelson.   It was uneventful for a while and then we saw a mule deer, female moose and then our first Black Bear .    Jim kept saying on the CB, tell Mem to get out and take a picture.   I will not tell you what I said to Jim.  I did actually open a window and hang out as he crossed to our side of the road and got several good pictures.  After leaving Fort Nelson and getting ready to find a pull off site for the night we have seen 3 more bears. One was actually trying to get into the garbage bin at one of the pull offs.   We are now overlooking the Muskwa River Valley with a mountain on one side and the valley on the other. There is a little water fall coming down off the mountain.

Oh I forgot we have been to our last Flying J for a while.   They got fuel  today at a Fast Gas.

Thursday 6/19/14

When we left our campsite, which was just a pull out on the highway we saw 6 bears, 1 moose, 2 mountain goats, 2 herds of stone Mt. Sheep and 1 Buffalo herd. We traveled thru the Tetsa River Area, Stone Mt. Prov. Park, Summit Lake, Toad River, Muncho Lake and then to Liard Springs.

When we got to the campground at Liard Springs, there was a bear, then another buffalo .

We then went to the Provincial Park to the Liard Hot Springs.   That was WONDERFUL!!!!!

 Buffalo.   Four “old” people  in the hot springs.  Mountain Goats   Linda and Mem on walkway to Hot Springs,     Black Bear.  Found out today that the picture of the Lady Slippers are very rare .  It takes up to 15 years for these to bloom and if you see one of a color they are extremely  rare.

 

Yellow Lady Slipper.

Friday June 20, 2014

We left early again in hopes of seeing more wildlife.  At this point we have seen a total of 20 bears, 2 of which have been grizzly. We also saw moose and buffalo.

We stopped in Watson Lake and put up our sign with our name on it in the Signpost  Forest.

We are now traveling on some gravel roads and that certainly slows us down. Today I think we hit 13 miles of gravel and Jim got another ding in his windshield.   Glad he is leading the pack and is getting the major hits.  LOL.

Saturday June 21, 2014:

Not  much wildlife this day.   We left early again in order to see them feeding along the road but all we saw was rabbits, chipmunks and a pore pine.(spelling).  We did go to a couple of museums that were very informative about this region.   The George Johnston at Teslin Yukon was very interesting about his life and how the Tinglet people lived.     We also learned that the term Eskimo is somewhat of a slang term for people who  were “raw flesh eating”.  We traveled on into Whitehorse and got a campsite for a couple of nights then we are heading on to Tok, Alaska.