KNECHTTREK

Today’s drive offered cloudy skies with streaks of sunshine. The paved roads continued to guide us through the prairie with the Rocky Mountains in the distance. We ran across lots of logging trucks, lumber yards and a coal plant.

We were excited to stop in at the Visitors Center in Grande Cache. We have wonderful memories of this center when we passed through almost 6 years ago. It offers a wealth of historical information, wildlife replicas and activities for kids of all ages.

We saw a couple swan, 6 Canadian geese and 4 lone deer on our 209 mile trek. We decided to stay in Hinton and use the afternoon as a reset because all of us weren’t feeling well. We were blessed to get supplies from a grocery store next to our hotel.

The Woodlands Inn offered a hot breakfast which prepared us for a long drive with sunny skies along the prairie.

We headed to Dawson Creek. Locals said there would be fires along the way, but ALCAN was open. There was smoke in the air, yet locals said this was a good day for air quality. The residents of Ft Nelson were evacuated for 3 weeks in May.

There were some steep hills, even 10% grade, but also nice flat stretches. Lots of semis, campers and local transport shared the road with us which got a bit tricky during the road construction sections.

On the way, we drove through an unincorporated town called “Farmington.”

Our crew arrived safely in Dawson Creek. This is where the ALCAN begins at mile “0”. (Yesterday, I met a woman at the hot springs who said her father had been the last telegraph operator here.) Good news, I only spotted one fire in the distance. The last two days of rain may have helped put them out.

The remainder of the drive was full of painted yellow canola fields. Simply Stunning!

We also entered the province of Alberta, Canada and decided to stay in Grande Prairie. We saw one deer with a long tail and drove 584 miles today. We also changed time zones.

Rain, mist and clouds filled the sky the entire day. We headed east on the ALCAN and found a black bear. Not too much further down the road we were greeted by a herd of bison, 13 adults and 7 calves. A half an hour later we found a herd of 170 bison on both sides of the highway making it fun for viewing but difficult to count and photograph.

After the excitement of all the wildlife viewings, we stopped in to relax at Liard River Hot Springs.

We continued our journey and saw a bull moose, followed by a mama moose and calf just a few miles later.

We stopped at Muncho Lake & Toad River. Both had many changes in the past 6 years since our last visit.

We heard about the wildfires in the Yukon and near Fort Nelson so we brought plenty of water and food. As we approached Ft Nelson, we encountered a road sign alert about smoke. We continued on and saw lots of damage from the fire. We made it safely to The Woodlands Inn, after a total of 319 miles and a few stops/sightings along the way.

Overall, it was a pretty excellent day as we saw two additional black bear, another moose, a deer, ptarmigan with chicks crossing the road, 2 lone bison separately and another small herd of 6 bison. Bonus: our house in Anchorage listed on the market today!

Tim Horton’s was our choice for breakfast. Yummy breakfast sandwiches & sweet treats. Coffee was good but no sweetened lattes.

Today’s drive was a challenge with heavy rain and lots of camper & semi traffic. We also crossed lots of bridges.

We stopped in at Tetslin Lake & Tetslin Tlingit Heritage Centre. (Photos aren’t allowed inside.) Their culture is fascinating, especially the similarities of those Tlingit living in Alaska, as this first nation’s families are from Juneau and Sitka, Alaska.

There was also road construction. They used a traffic light as a flag person.

We decided to stay in Watson Lake due to weather. The Big Horn Hotel was full, the woman in front of us in line got the last room. We did get a room at Andrea’s Hotel, along with 10 friendly motor-bikers who were also trying to escape this rain. Once checked into the hotel, the sun came out.

We visited the sign post forest (over 90,000 signs) and walked along the boardwalk around Wye Lake.

It was a short travel day in distance, but not in time, 272 miles.

Breakfast was eaten in the car as we headed east out of Beaver Creek, Yukon. The route had lots of frost heaves, loose gravel and washouts. Destruction Bay served as a break to stretch our legs and get a coffee. We followed the Kuane River with the St. Elias mountain range on the other side of us. The fireweed painted the hills pink. Along the way, a young porcupine made its way out to say hello to us.

We filled up with petrol in Haines Junction. Our next stop was Whitehorse. The big city offered an early supper at Big Bear-a trendy eatery. Near our hotel, there was a musical festival and our kids enjoyed the local playground. Our daughter was excited to speak French to some of the families. We traveled 224 miles on not so good roads today.