Alaska to Colorado: British Columbia to Alberta

The road from Watson Lake to Liard Hot Springs was home to many wood bison.  They were re-introduced to this area in 1986 and, from the looks of things, they are feeling right at home.  We saw lots roaming the highways without a care in the world.  Wood Bison are larger and heavier than Plains Bison and are the largest terrestrial animal in the northern hemisphere.

The Liard River parallels the Alcan from Watson Lake to the hot springs.

Well, this very kind couple came to our rescue as the warning system for
the brake buddy went off.  It turned out that the battery was dead in the CRV.
We stopped along the highway (luckily not much traffic) but couldn't
disconnect safely here by undoing the tow and charging with Maxine,
so we flagged down these people who just happened to have a portable
battery charger.  Hallelujah!  These northerners are prepared for anything!

We camped in a gorgeous forest setting at Liard Hot Springs, which has a
really great rep.  All kinds of Canadian friends told us that we must stop
here.  It did not disappoint.

Liard River Hot Springs is right over the border in BC.  The water here is mainly Calcium Carbonate and the mineral content is 1,000 parts per million.  It makes for some interesting plants which are very spongy.  There are 14 species of orchids that grow here because of the hot springs.

There is a 1/4 mile boardwalk that leaves from the campground to the hot
springs.  It crosses an interesting wetlands environment.  I would have liked
much more time here-not only to enjoy the hot springs more often but to explore
the wetlands which give the area its name as the Liard Tropical Valley.

This was just the most gorgeous setting-so natural and unlike many other
hot springs that just feel like warm swimming pools.  I went early in the
morning and loved moving around in the knee deep water looking for the
 hottest spots.

This became my favorite place (credit to Jim for finding it last night).
There was a beautiful cairn built here and I made a small one out of black stones next to it .

The building itself was simple and natural.  Places to change were right
behind these walls.

Look what we saw on the road out later that day!  These reminded us of
the huge bison we had seen in the Badlands of South Dakota many years ago.

More beautiful rivers along the road

Muncho Lake
You can't tell from this picture as it is so cloudy, but it is a beautiful
jade green color.  It is created by tiny rock fragments scraped from the
valley walls by glaciers and carried by meltwater downstream to the lake.
Most of it sinks to the bottom with fine particles suspended in the lake wate,
reflecting and scattering sunlight.

There's that color!

And look who is waiting patiently for me to return from the lake!

The Terminal Range west of the lake

This was quite a remarkable area for wildlife.

Caribou herd on the highway

We had almost given up on ever seeing caribou, especially when we didn't see any on the Top of the World Highway.

They didn't know they weren't supposed to play in the street.

All the adults have antlers-male and female.

And all, especially the youngsters, have the cutest tails!

A herd of Stone Sheep
They are indigenous to the southern Yukon and northern BC.  They are darker
and smaller than the bighorn sheep found in the southern rockies and are often
mistaken for mountain goats.

She blends right in, doesn't she!?

 We had quite an adventure finding a place to camp for the night.  We decided to stop early (though, because we got terribly lost on a wet, muddy and eventually unpassable dirt road, it ended up late).
We were looking for Andy Bailey Lake outside of Ft. Nelson and missed a poorly marked sign.  Luckily (luck has been with us, despite our many challenges on this trip) a man in a four wheel drive stopped us and told us that we were way off the beaten path.  He helped Jim back into a field where he could turn around and, since I was driving the CRV, we both managed to follow him out to the main road and he signalled where the turnoff was.

We finally arrived and found a great spot right on a lake.  We were the
only ones here.

Andy Bailey Lake

Our beautiful fall forest 

And a path that just beckoned us to follow it down
and around the lake.  The only sound was a very
quiet woodpecker.

 In the morning, mist was rising off the lake and we cooked a nice breakfast of bacon and eggs to sustain us for the trip ahead.  We were hoping to visit Jasper, Lake Louise and Banff with Julie and a friend but, because of our NYC trip, we were unable to join them.  Since snow was coming, we decided to b-line it to Edmonton, where our friends, Cheryl and Bill live and try to beat the snow.