Wednesday, September 20, 2017 – Watson Lake, Yukon to campground south of Ft. Nelson

We returned to Kathy’s Kitchen in Watson Lake for breakfast.  This is where we ate breakfast the first time we traveled through Watson Lake almost 2 weeks ago.  

We will continue driving southeast on the Alcan Highway.  This will be all new territory for us, as before we have traveled the Cassiar Highway on the western side of BC.  

The highway enters the Rocky Mountain Range of mountains.  Again, we have seen several beautiful valleys, mountain peaks with snow, reflective lakes and rivers.  The beavers are active, especially along the rivers, as we saw several Beaver lodges. 

Our first bear sighting

Second Bear Sighting

We stopped at several roadhouses along the way (only places open) for a cup of coffee, gas, and the last place they advertised cinnamon buns.  Cinnamon buns in Alaska have always been great – large, with plenty of frosting!   We shared one yesterday afternoon and again today, for a mid-afternoon snack.

Today at numerous places along the road, it warned about wildlife possibly being on or near the road.  Sure enough, on the grassy bank of the road, we saw 4 black bears, one was a female & her cub.  We also saw Plain Bison (buffalo).  First, we saw several bulls that were by themselves, then a group of females with young. Later we saw two large groups of females with different ages of young ones and another large bull by himself.  The last bull was simply strolling along the edge of the road.  He was so kind as to pose for a photo!  In all we counted 95!! All of this wildlife is eating the grass in the road ditches.      

The Alcan Highway

Bison (Buffalo) along the highway

We saw something else run across the road to far ahead to identify, but it appeared to be the size of a fox.  We are still waiting on caribou and more moose, but I’m afraid we are too far south for caribou. There is still a possibility of moose. 

Along this stretch of highway, they have save a section of the old highway, before it was re-routed to be a straighter road with fewer steep grades.  The road is gravel with soft spots, but oh well, we have been in mud before on this trip!   There were several steep grades, in the short distance we traveled (14 km) – enough mud!!

There are no motels nearby, and we wanted to stop for the day, so we are camping again tonight.  It will be chilly by morning!  We are not the only people camping!!  It is amazing how many pickup campers we have seen on this trip.  You seldom see any in Iowa, as they all came to Alaska!!  It is ideal as you can also tow a trailer with your ATV or your boat. 

Today on our way past the junction with the highway that goes north to Ft Simpson, we discussed the possibility of taking that Loop, but we decided we have had enough mud! 

We will be continuing to Fort St John tomorrow.  From there we will need to decide which direction we want to go.

Horses along the highway

Beaver Dam

Johnson Creek Roadhouse - Large Cinnamon Rolls