Day 3 – Watson Lake to Fort Nelson
The morning started with yet another beautiful sunny
day. Nugget City is just outside
of Watson Lake, so after a short breakfast in the hotel, we had a relatively
short drive into “downtown.”
Watson Lake is home of the world famous Signpost Forest where travelers
from around the globe have posted tens of thousands of homemade signs and
license plates from around the world on hundreds of 4x4 timbers planted
throughout the several acre lot.
The kids were committed to finding the Clarke family’s sign they posted
during their journey, but were unsuccessful. After finding an empty spot relatively close to the
entrance, Ash & Alex each took a turn hammering in the nails for the Versaw
family sign that we had put together before our trip. Greg also found a nearby post to mount the D17 Legal Office
sign that the office gave to him at his going away party. For anyone passing through the sign
forest in the future, let us know if you can find it!
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| Ash and Alex in front of the Sign Post Forest entrance |
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| Family Picture in front of our sign in the Sign Post Forest. |
Within minutes of leaving Watson Lake, there was a big sign
that our luck was changing as we came across a huge bison relaxing on the side
of the road. We stopped on the
side of the road to take some pictures, the animal was massive and thankfully
seemed to care less that we were hanging out about 40-50 feet from our car.
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| Large bison relaxing in the morning sun. |
A few minutes later we came across 4 more bison meandering
along the side of the road, and put us on notice that the person in charge of
the camera had to stay in the ready position for this leg of the trip. Our luck continued as we came across a
huge (to us) herd of bison with around 34 or so, including 6 calves, all within
about 10-30 yards of the highway. By
lunchtime, we had seen 73 total bison, give or take a few, including another
large herd that we came across. It
was shaping up to be an awesome day for wildlife!
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| Bison calf walking with mom. |
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| Herd of bison meandering next to the side of the road. |
The trip also included some other animals on our check-off
list, the first of which was a black bear laying dead on the side of the road,
victim of an unfortunate meeting with a passing car. Our first moose sighting came under similar circumstances,
with the large creature apparently choosing the wrong time to cross the road…it
also served as a stark reminder to stay alert as we drove through these
parts. Fortunately, we came across
another moose, of the living variety this time, which we found much more
enjoyable to watch and take pictures.
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| Moose hanging out next to the road. |
Another highlight occurred when we passed through the Stone
Mountain National Park, where we saw two stone sheep hanging out on the road,
one was completely engaged in enjoying the tasty pavement, the other walking
around the nearby hill. The sheep
almost completely blended into the road, making them difficult to see until you
were just a few dozen yards away.
Even though we didn’t see any elk or caribou, we felt as if we had a
relatively successful wildlife viewing day.
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| Stone Sheep having a salt snack. |
For lunch we stopped for another picnic at the Liard Hot
Springs, almost halfway between Watson Lake and Fort Nelson. The kids were beyond excited, as they
put together an impromptu song celebrating our arrival. After lunch, we made it down the long
boardwalk through the grassland and trees to the hot spring, where we all
changed into our suits and took a dip into the pools. The water was amazing, as long as you could tolerate the
ever-present aroma of sulfur that permeated the air. Aimee and the kids stayed in the lower pool, where the water
was a more tolerable 100-105 degrees.
Greg ventured into the upper pool, where the water was significantly
hotter, but didn’t stay long as he started to resemble a lobster after a few
minutes. After about 20-30
minutes, we had to change back into our clothes and move onto the rest of the
journey.
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| Greg, Ash and Alex hanging out in the Liard Hot Springs. |
A few minutes after the Liard Hot Springs, we passed Muncho
Lake, a famous lake noteworthy for its light turquoise color. The pictures don’t quite do the color
justice., we’re hoping to get better pictures down in Lake Louise near Banff ,
which is also famous for having the same deep turquoise color.
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| Muncho Lake with ribbon of turquoise color (where sun is shining on lake) |
At the end of the drive, we stayed at the Fort Nelson Super
8 Motel, which was pretty nice as far as Super 8’s go. The kids were treated to a very cool
pool with a two-story waterslide.
Despite the long day with lots of excitement, they somehow found the
energy to go swimming for another 45 minutes or so. However, I think they were just about spent when they were
done because they both fell asleep shortly after getting into bed, with far
fewer challenged over territory infringements in their queen size bed.
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| Alex flying out of the Super 8 waterslide. |
Tomorrow: Dawson Creek
Wildlife sightings:
73 Bison (incl. 6 calves) (1 herd of 32 w/ 6 calves, 1 herd
of 34 w/ 6 calves)
2 Stone Sheep
2 Black Bears (incl. 1 dead on side of road)
2 Moose (incl, 1 dead on side of road)
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