2004/08 Yukon trip - The road home - |
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The rest of the Campbell Highway is pretty, with its lakes and canyons but it doesn’t have the mountain scenery. Or maybe it does but we couldn’t see it through the smoke. We went for hours without seeing another vehicle, which was just as well as every car was followed by a mile-long dust cloud. In addition, the smoke was getting thicker and we eventually drove right through a fire, with spruce trees burning either side of us. Sandie was not too happy with this, but there was little wind and the fire was moving really slowly. It looked like the area had been burning for a while.
We got to Watson Lake in the evening and were surprised by the smoothness of the streets after two days of bouncing over rocks. We were last in Watson Lake four weeks ago on the 21st of July and had just entered the Yukon. Wow, have we been to some amazing places since then!
According to the radio news it was now snowing in Winnipeg 700 miles south of us, while we were still enjoying sunshine and the 80s. We later found out from Michael that parts of Minnesota had a frost at this time.
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Alaska Highway South (Liard Hot Springs, Muncho, Dawson Creek) |
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We dealt with all the essential supplies and continued south and east on the Alaska Highway. Watson Lake is at about the highway’s milepost 600, so we still had quite a way to go. We soon crossed back into British Columbia and found a side road that led to a gravel pit above the Liard River and that would be our campsite for the night. The bad news was that Sandie’s sore throat had turned into a bad cold. Our conclusion was that this was a Tuktoyaktuk virus as both of our tour guides, Maureen and Ricky, had both been coughing and spluttering.
Thursday 19th August
The Alaska Highway is quite scenic in this area where it runs along the Liard River, but the smoke 
was so thick for the first couple of hours that we couldn’t see much. Down in the gravel pit we’d seen a very large backbone, and Sandie suggested it might have been from a bison. “No”, I said, “The other bison I saw back at Aishihik was deliberately reintroduced. There aren’t any here.” So right away we encountered a herd of about 150 bison on the road! There isn’t much for them to eat in the forest, so they probably just walk up and down the Alaska Highway eating the grass on the shoulders and disrupting the traffic.
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Smith Falls (0.37) |
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Liard Hot Springs (1.59) |
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We took a side trip to Smith Falls, a good-sized waterfall, ate lunch at the Cranberry Rapids of the Liard, and then stopped off at the Liard Hot Springs. These hot springs are sulphurous and really hot! They create enough heat that a lot of southerly plants can survive the winters in this 
valley. Like everyone else, I started my swim in the third pool, at the farthest point from the springs, and worked my way upstream and into the hotter water. Only a few of us actually got past the waterfall that separated the pools. I made it to the middle of the second pool, but then stood up and couldn’t get back in again. There was a German guy there who’d been practicing for a couple of days and claimed to have made it into the first pool a few times. We all looked very pink. He looked well done.