Muncho Lake
-------------------------------------- Buffalo on Road
Caribou in Road
Mountain Goats
Smoke in the mountains leaving Watson Lake
Saturday August 14, 2010. We left Watson Lake around 10:00 heading to Fort Nelson. We drove close to 100 miles out of Watson Lake in the smoke. At times it was like driving in a heavy fog and the smoke was laying in the mountains so bad you could hardly see the tops. We entered the Northern Rockies and the mountains were huge. The road had so many curves and high mountain passes, it almost made you dizzy driving through them. The mountain passes were very narrow at some points and when you looked over the side, you never saw the ground below. We drove through the Summit Lake area, which is the highest elevation on the Alaskan Highway. As we traveled farther we came by Muncho Lake and the highway skirts the shore of the lake for 7 miles and the views of the blue green waters was amazing! Muncho Lake brags of being the most beautiful lake in the world. The wonderful color of the water is attributed to copper oxide leaching into the lake. The area around the Muncho Lake area, I read, proved to be a major obstacle to the construction crew of the Alaskan Highway. I can understand why with all the mountainous areas where the road is literally cut through the mountains. We probably traveled more than 150 miles through this beautiful visa. British Columbia has many beautiful areas and is comparable with Alaska for the mouth dropping views of the mountains and lakes. We came across the Toad River which was so majestic I cannot explain. Later we started down the mountain and drove through the small village of Toad River which was like a small fishing village.
We talked about calling for a reservation at one of the RV Parks in Fort Nelson. Last night in Watson Lake there were only about 12 RV's parked in this huge RV park where we stayed. I said I thought we should be able to get a site without reserving as so many people have headed home prior to us. Another reason I didn't want to call is I was not sure we were going to make it all the way to Fort Nelson as the trip through the mountains took us a very long time. Well, I found that my ideas are not always on target because we got to Fort Nelson and could not buy a spot in any of the three RV Parks. Two of the campgrounds had over 140 sites so it's hard to believe there were none available. So we drove on through Fort Nelson and the next town that was any possibility for an RV site was 150 miles away. We drove for a distance and saw a camper in a pull out site so we pulled in. The lady came out and talked to us and said she saw no signs saying no overnight camping so we pulled on in. Later we talked to her and introduced ourselves. Her name is Betty and she is a military widow, living in New Jersey. At the age of 47 she became a flight attendant and worked for 14 years for United Airlines. She retired from United and loves to travel. She has been to Alaska the past 18 summers. She also worked for the tour train that went from Anchorage to Denali and onto Fairbanks, which she really enjoyed as well. She has a beautiful conversion van that has every convenience imaginable that she travels in. She drove from New Jersey alone to Calgary, Canada where she picked up One of her lady friends and drove to Alaska and spent about 6 weeks traveling Alaska. Her friend had to return home so she flew back and one of her male friends, John, from New Jersey flew to Anchorage about three weeks ago and they have been traveling through Alaska, Yukon and now BC. They are on their way home. She was so interesting. She said she was glad we stopped as she likes having other people when she pulls into these places and I agree. Larry actually got his gun out and loaded it before we went to bed.
So as it worked out we have the most beautiful campsite of our trip. When we look out the window we are looking over the mountains and it is just a fantastic sight! So all is well that ends well so they say!!!
Today we saw a lot of wildlife. Coming through the mountain pass, we came out of a curve and down a hill and there were two mountain goats standing in the middle of the road. We also saw two different herds of buffalo. Each herd was quite numerous, probably 30 or more buffalo. Later we saw a caribou standing on the side of the road, almost in the road. All of these animal's act like they own the road. When they are ready they move and let you drive on.
Tomorrow we plan to be in Dawson Creek, which is mile 0 of the Alcan Highway. Betty, the gal we talked to tonight has all the information you'll ever need on Alaska and Canada. She told us we could camp in the Walmart in Dawson Creek and dump our tanks at Canadian Tire free of charge. Also she told us not to fill up with diesel in Dawson Creek because Alberta has cheaper fuel so to try to wait till we get there. She was such a wealth of information, I loved talking to her.I have so enjoyed out trip partly for all the people we meet. Each person has such an interesting story to tell. We enjoyed hearing about the places they had been and at times was a wealth of information because we were planning to go to the same area. It has been a great trip all in all. Lots of rain but at least we were not fighting the heat in the Midwest!
No comments:
Post a Comment