Swamp donkeys, hot springs and the 60th parallel

Monday, June 25, 2007

WATSON LAKE, YUKON — We’re in the Yukon! We’re set up in a lovely campground with tall, lodgepole pine trees. There’s a rumble of thunder and every now and then we can hear spattering raindrops on the roof of our cozy trailer, where we’re relaxing with mugs of hot tea after a long day’s drive.
What a day it has been. We had our earliest departure ever from Fort Nelson, at about 7:40 am, and covered some 540 km — our longest drive of the trip.
Our Mileposts guide describes the entire length of the highway, with the origins of lake and river names, roadside turnouts, snippits of history for certain landmarks and information on every town and campground and lodge we passed. "CAUTION: bears in area" or "DRIVE SLOWLY: buffalo wander onto the road", it said, whetting our appetites for wildlife. We were not disappointed.
A large black bear was the first — it was off to the right so Val didn’t see it, but a couple of miles further on, we both saw another one on a dirt road, looking right at us! I was so excited that, when I saw a caramel-coloured creature up ahead with large humped shoulders, I shouted "Look! A grizzly! No, two grizzlies! Over there!" However, they turned out to be horses grazing. I felt a bit less embarrassed later on when Val noticed something dark on the road near the horizon, thinking it too was a bear, but it was a small car!
We drank in the beauty of the rolling hills studded with pine trees, aspen and poplar, and every now and then a huge valley with a wide rushing river passing through. Some river beds were shallow with lots of gravel shoals and a small amount of water, while others were filled to the brim with great torrents. There were many rock cuts, and at one point we even saw some snow on the side of the road.
Speaking of torrents, today was our rainiest day ever. In the early part of the day the clouds were so low we could hardly see the RV two vehicles ahead of us as it disappeared into the mist. Fortunately the ceiling heightened before long.
Other wildlife that we spotted included a cow moose and her baby and two other moose further on. They were all right beside the road, so we got a couple of good photos. I had seen a poster somewhere that jokingly described moose as "swamp donkeys"! We also saw a handsome fox sauntering up a slope, a rabbit, and some 50 buffalo in three separate herds. One herd grazed onto the roadway, forcing us to stop. Three of the large, horned creatures were licking puddles on the pavement, in no rush to clear a path for us. After several minutes they slowly ambled off. There were several female buffalo with calves as well.
Not long afterward we stopped at the Northern Rockies Lodge for a hot lunch in a beautiful log dining room with vaulted ceiling and an enormous stone fireplace in the middle. The lodge is next to Muncho Lake, a large body of water coloured milky green by copper oxide deposits.
At our parking area next to Liard Hot Springs Provincial Park some RCMP officers were doing road checks. The young constable we spoke to, Ryan Hennig, said he was based in Fort Nelson but had a large territory to cover and really enjoyed all the neat toys (such as the radar gun he held in his hand) he got to play with.
The rain kindly held off while we walked along the boardwalk toward the hot springs. There was quite a bit of flora unique to this area, such as orchids and other plants that only survive here because of the warmth. The forest was lush with large ferns and other plants with leaves as big as dinner plates, and there were some of the largest Queen Anne’s Lace I’ve ever seen — flowers at least four inches across and stems up to my waist. There were two bathing spots, with a busload of senior citizens taking the chill out of their bones at the Alpha site. A little further along was the Beta pool with only three brave ladies — the water there is much deeper and we could actually see it bubbling near the middle. Both pools sent off clouds of steam into the air. It was a fascinating visit and well worth the stop.
Later, we passed Contact Creek, the spot at which the northern and southern Alaska highway construction crews finally met in September 1942.
As we neared Watson Lake, the GPS locator hovered back and forth between the 59th and 60th parallels. The highway meandered in and out of the Yukon about three times before we got to the "official" border of the Yukon territory and its welcoming sign. So technically we can say we’ve been to the Yukon four times already!