Day 3 on the Yukon Highway

The third day on the Yukon Highway should have been a short day as we didn't travel as far as previous days, but the scenery was so beautiful that I had to stop to take pictures frequently. Just heading out from Pink Mountain we started to see the Mountains in the distance.  It always amazes me how they appear as different shades of blue.  So pretty.

Our first real stop was in Fort Nelson, where we had  lunch at the famous Fort Nelson Hotel, then checked out the local museum and hit up the visitor centre.  It was during our visitor centre stop that we decided to end our trip at Watson Lake, Yukon rather than going on to Whitehorse.  A portion of the highway had been washed out in heavy rains and was down to one lane.  I would have been fine going through, but it would have been a little nerve wracking for Charlie.

I was a little excited when we came across this bear.  The brown colour fooled me at first and I thought it was a grizzly, but as you can see its just a "brown" black bear.

I took hundreds of pictures but as always, they never do the scenery justice; this is just before summit lake.

There is a really cute little stop along the Toad River where their claim to fame is a ceiling full of baseball caps from visitors passing through.  Personally I would say there claim to fame should be the delicious baked goods they sell.  Of course the setting is lovely too; how nice it would be to work and live surrounded by majestic mountains with a glacial fed river running nearby.  Such lovely turquoise water.

The next interesting photo op, was folded mountain.  Whenever I see this sort of thing, I am in awe of the force of nature that produces it. Amazing.

Everywhere you look there are more beautiful mountains.

And then we come to my favorite spot of the whole trip. Muncho Lake. Silt laden glacial runoff is what creates the spectacular milky turquoise water, which is far nicer than these pictures depict.  I could live in this spot...of course the only thing here is a beautiful log hotel and RV park. 

I could live at Lake Muncho...of course the only thing here is a beautiful log hotel and RV park...which begs the question "why did I only take a picture of the sign"?

Not that it will ever happen again but if I were ever crazy enough to get married again, this would be the perfect honeymoon spot...absolutely spectacular. 

Once I tore myself away from these views we made our way to our final destination for the night; Liard Hot Springs, and boy are they hot.  I apologize but I don't have any pictures of the hot springs themselves as I didn't want to take my camera in.  Well that's a lie, I do have some, they are just on a waterproof disposable camera, that I haven't developed yet.  This is the nice log hotel that we stayed at directly across from the hot springs.

And just because I find is so amusing, these shots were all taken at midnight.

Day two of my trip to the Yukon

Day two of my trip to the Yukon took us from High Level, down to Grand Praire and Dawson Creek, Alberta then back up to Fort St. John, BC, crossing the Peace River twice.

Before and after the river it is really flat, so the sudden dip into the valley comes as quite a surprise. It was hard to find a spot to even pull over and take a picture but these are some teasers taken on the fly.

After over 9 hours of Driving we were exhausted and stopped at Pink Mountain, BC.  The hotel was terrible but at least if afforded a great view of the sunset after a huge thunderstorm.  It would have been much brighter if there weren't so many clouds, but wow what a view for 12:30 am BC time.

Figures, the next morning we would discover a "nicer" hotel at the bottom of the next hill...and with a fun name to boot...Sasquash Crossing :)

On the Yukon Highway

Due to staffing issues, I had to take my vacation in June rather than August like I had hoped, which unfortunately meant I couldn't go back to Ontario to visit my family and friends.  I was definitely sad about it, but rather than mope around for the entire time, I took a quick trip with Charlie through Northern BC and into the Yukon.

For starters I had to go up to Yellowknife to pick him up at the airport there.  This is what greeted me just out of Fort Smith...

I love how there are none on either side...just completely blocking the road. As cool as this seems, it grows very old in a matter of minutes; especially when you have a nine hour drive ahead of you.

Remember that old song "King of the Road"? Clearly that was not me. When I later read this sign, at the Yellowknife museum, I knew why exactly I would never be King of the Road when meeting up with these guys.

On the highway to Yellowknife, I had another close encounter...but this one I might have one.  Three Sandbill Cranes thought it would be clever to strut out onto the road right in front of me.  I had to brake pretty hard, but fortunately they got airborne just before impact.  Had I not been driving, I could have gotten a pretty amazing picture, but since my hands were full this is the best I could get, after they landed again at the side of the road.

I fortunately got to Yellowknife with enough time to check out the Museum, including some pretty cool artwork, always a favorite pastime of mine. Here were some of my favorite.

Trees as far North are very slow growing; the slice of the one in the museum started growing when Columbus set sail, and was cut down just a few years ago...that's over 500 years. You would never know it from the size.

Living in a land where the forest is basically all kindling, this is a common sight in the summer.  This fire was burning about 5-10 km from the road.  The one below was from a few weeks before.

Here we are again...on the road with the rest of the tourists...we're the little blue reflection in the back of the motor home.

After a full day of driving High Level was a great place to stop. I snapped these pictures of the view at midnight of the summer solstice.

Tomorrow BC...

Pelicans

If you are like me, you associate pelicans with Florida.  When I've seen them stealing fish scraps on the docks in sunny Florida, it has never occurred to me that they would spend their summer this far north.

 I spent an evening with my photography group snapping pictures of the pelicans feeding in the rapids. I apologize for posting soooo many pictures but an evening's worth equates to 400...it was hard to choose.

 I guess spending all that time snatching fish from people in the South has made them accustomed to people. They were only about 20 feet away for most of these shots.

Something about the way these huge birds come in for a landing makes me think of Disney's The Rescuers Down Under...

What do you think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQb6n2U1R8g

Midnight in Yellowknife

I just got back from a short trip to Yellowknife. It was fun to check out the galleries and a few of the sights.  It still amazes me when I look outside at midnight and it's still daylight.  Next week for the summer solstice Yellowkife hosts a midnight golf tournament....CRAZY!  Here's what it looks like with still another week to go.

Not sunny, but not too dark either.

Gallery of the Midnight Sun; one of my favorite places in Yellowknife, so much beautiful artwork in one spot. I can spend hours wandering through...and dreaming...ok, and buying a few things too.

I thought if would be fun to have some fresh fish, just off the boat.  I was warned this place was a tourist trap and it definitely is; funky decor, with signatures everywhere, including the ceiling and a mounted fish...everything is fair game. Terrible service though, and very pricey. I will say that my whitefish was good; maybe not $28 good, but good.

This has got to be the best view in Yellowknife, from the top of the Pilots Memorial this is just one direction of a spectacular 360 degree view.  I'm not sure why I didn't take a picture from the other sides; guess I was too caught up in living the moment.

The drive was very long, but breaking it up with little trips to some of the many waterfalls along the way made it much more enjoyable.  This is the beautiful Lady Evelyn Falls.

Another surprise waterfall was at McNallie Creek, where the seemingly calm stream plummets about 50 feet.



It took a little longer than expected to get home. Especially with the 1/2 hour wait while the Buffalo just "chilled" in the middle of the road.  While I was waiting more cars, vans and trucks arrived and after 15 minutes of gently herding the buffalo and honking horns they finally moved off.  It's easy to see who the king of the road is, and it's not us. They move when they're good and ready to.



Hello there! It's a bit disconcerting when you start to feel surrounded!