The light woke us up early on Friday and we pulled out of Prince George by 8:00. The road took us north to Dawson Creek, home of mile '0' of the Alaska highway.
The sun came out and we enjoyed our first day of dry weather for several days. The BC countryside is breathtaking – trees beget mountains which beget rivers.
Mile after mile after mile of trees, then a mile of a field holding a horse … or something else:
Finally the trees gave way to field and our road took us into Dawson Creek and mile '0':
To be honest, the beginning of the touted Alaska Highway was not what we expected. It starts in an agricultural area and it felt as if we were still home in the states. We decided that it was more Minnesota than South Dakota because of the rolling hills.
Well, however it looked it was still exciting to officially on our path!
The road took us to Fort Nelson for the night, where we ate at the Fort Nelson Hotel Café. If you ever meander your way up here, we highly recommend it. The service is great and the fries are AMAZING!
We parked the camper at the BlueBonnet RV park, which was a fancy name for a parking lot behind their hotel.
(It has been interesting to see the differences in all of the parks we've stayed in each night. However, as long as there are showers and electric hook-ups, we're happy!)
Saturday saw us going up and down more mountains and through more trees. Along the way we encountered stone goats:
And black bears:
And elk:
And bison:
We also passed Muncho Lake, which is supposedly one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. The minerals turn the water a most gorgeous turquoise color, which stretches on for mile after mile:
The lady who checked us into the campsite at Banff had told us about a hot springs near the Liard River, so we knew we simply had to stop. We spent a relaxing couple of hours soaking in the sulphuric warmth and ridding our bodies of toxins:
After that we hit the road again. We had supper at mile marker 533, Coal River, B.C. where we enjoyed overpriced bison burgers.
(The thing we have noticed most of all is the cost of living in Canada is a bit higher than in the states. Gas stations are few and far between so you have to pull in when you see one, which means at times you end up paying a bit more than you would like. The highest we have paid so far has been 1.89/litre which equals out to 7.18/gallon. Ouch!)
According to my guide book, the road between Fort Nelson and Watson City is the most scenic part of the highway and I have not found any evidence to refute that argument!
Out the window is a sea of trees. They climb up the mountains and fill the valleys. The greens from the deciduous and coniferous mix together and create a waving ripple of color:
Our stop for the night is Watson Lake, just across the border of the Yukon. It is after 9:00 before we park for the night, but the sun is still high in the sky.
However, we have quickly realized that if we drive from sunup to sundown we would put in a veeeery long day!
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