Saturday, May 31, 2014

Whitehorse, YT

5/28 - 5/30/2014
Hi Country RV Park
Good park, even has trees
good showers and laundry
next time ask for larger space.
Good Sam disc.
Skies still clear

A great trip although the driving is starting to get a little boring until we go up or down a mountain where we can see forever.  Coming into Whitehorse is like going from years of being in the forest to the big city (25,000) of Whitehorse.  Every thing is here that you could want, and then some.  We are in this RV park because it is only one mile to town, the others are 7 - 15 miles, ya gotta always be thinkin 'bout the fuel consumption.

A lot to do here.  I did not realize that this is such a popular place for hiking, walking, mountain biking and backpacking.  You can easily stay here a week and not be able to walk every trail.  In the two plus days, three nights we were busy.  We visited the Copperbelt Railway and Mining Museum, MacBride Museum, the Riverfront Wharf, lunch at the Klondike Rib and Salmon BBQ, walked the Millennium Trail along the Yukon River, crossing the river on the foot bridge and up to the fish ladder (which was closed)  We even had time to take a tour at the Yukon Brewing Company, tasting of course and purchasing some good beer.  No preservatives so a relatively short shelf life, or refrigerator life; so Tom, you will not be getting any, oooh and it is soooo good; also visited the local Farmers market but didn't buy anything.  Their farm fresh eggs were $6.00 a doz.   We will be stopping  in Whitehorse on our way back so we might take in the Cultural Center, although we have been to several already in Northern BC.

The pictures of the Sign Post Forest as we were leaving Watson Lake.



There must be thousands
of them and it was amazing
how many of these places that
we have been to.


Still a bit of smoke in the air
from all the fires up here
I think they are all out now.
 Going down hill and then crossing this river into Teslin.
Right after you cross the river going north is a big service station that almost everyone on the road stops at because at our last RV park they gave us a card good for 4 cents off per liter.  Se we paid $1.45 per liter, which was a savings since we needed about 75 gal.



Look at the color of that water as we cross the bridge, and it was crystal clear.


At the mining museum, this is a diesel engine that was used in the mines, today it is used to take us on a narrow gauge train ride


Miners cabin, small, I would have to duck to get inside but it was easier to build and heat.






In museum, the slits in these "sun glasses" were to keep from getting sun blindness



The very fine quarters of the Mounties, this is for you Alex.


Large nugget of copper




Crossing the Yukon River on the Millennium Trail.


Beautiful clear clear water.

Looking up stream at the hydro electric plant on the Yukon
















That's it for Whitehorse, we are on our way to a halfway point between here and Dawson City, probably spend the night at Pelly Crossing.

I might not get internet for a few days, not sure.

Safe travels to all, have a blessed day.

Nancy


Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Watson Lake

5/27/14
Liard Hot Springs to Watson Lake
Downtown RV Park
136 miles

Another pleasant clear drive today, passing by sots of bison, a couple of bears and more store sheep.  The bison are very skinny after their long winter, but their coat looks good.  The bison won't even lift their head it is just down eating the grasses along the road as fast as they can.

We arrive in Watson Lake about noon, too early to go into the campground so we had lunch at the local place, "Kathy's Kitchen"  I had a delicious pepper/veggie soup, a little spicy but very good.  Joe had a very large hamburger and fries.  The fries were hand cut and delicious.  We have not had many meals out because of the prices they want.  Here at Kathy's everything was home made and not quite double the price we would have paid at home for the same quality and quantity.  We would eat there again and highly recommend it.

The best things to see here is the Sign Post Forest and the Northern Lights Center.

Some pictures along the way.  I have stopped taking bear and sheep pictures.
Now we can move on to bison pictures.





Memorial for all those who died while working on the Alaska Hwy.  It's a shame that it is such a small memorial and no sign on the Hwy to alert you to it.


I still have a picture to post of the famous Sign Post Forest, I downloaded using Picasa and now I can't find it.  I have been having lots of trouble with Picasa lately.  All my recent pictures have gone into 2010 file, then when I try to load them to the album, sometimes they do and sometimes they don't.

That's it for today, tomorrow we are headed for Testlin, again it's not very far up the road.

Safe travels to all

Nancy

Liard Hot Springs

5/25 - 5/27/14
Fort Nelson to Liard Hot Springs
194 miles
Liard Hot Spring Prov Park
Still great weather

The road has still been way better than expected. Since we have been driving almost every day we decided to stay for two nights.  The campground is immaculate and almost every site is very large.  I would definitely stay here again.  PLUS the magnificent hot springs, the best I have ever been to are Very clean along with a very well maintained board walk out to the springs and brand new decking and changing rooms.




The next pictures along the side of the road

Momma and three cubs





I only took a picture of this because it's a good place to stop for coffee; a large cup, which you provide the cup is only $2.50, the best bargain so far


Stone Sheep, we have probably seen at least 100 of them.

Carabou, have seen about 4 or 5, here and there, no herds


Muncho Lake, looks like a good place to stay and fish.
The ice was just breaking up.



They have just the cutest little puffy white butts.




That's it for now, really enjoying the fresh air and scenery

Safe travels to all

Nancy




  

Fort Nelson

Dawson Creek to Fort Nelson
5/24/14
Blue Bell Inn
A little rainy but no downpour

Gravel campground behind the Motel/Gas Station/Convenience store.  Good sites, very nice bathrooms.  Dawson Creek to Fort Nelson is 283 miles.  Normally we would not travel that far but the roads were good so we kept going.  The roads are better that what I thought they would be, at least at this point.

After leaving Dawson Creek we took a little side road where we were able to drive on the original Alaska Highway and to cross the curved wooden, Kiskatinaw River Bridge.  This 531 foot/162 m long structure is the only original timber bridge built along the Alaska Hiway that is still in use today.







Looking down on the 
Kiskatinaw River



Such a shame that someone
had to tag this sign













This is the best shot I could get. Some interesting facts if you can enlarge or use a magnifying glass like I had too.




Just one of those magnificent 
views that you see along the road

Many, many artifacts
at this museum

If you have the time and have never been it's a good stop



That's a well build culvert



A very good display of
old cars and most of 
them run.



A Harley, no year on it.

One of several original
tractors used to build
the Alaska Hwy.













I've had no or lousy internet for several days so I am playing catch-up.  Next posting will be Liard Hot Springs Prov. Park

Safe travels to all, thanks for stopping by

Nancy