Hot Springs and Wildlife

Today, we drove through some very beautiful parts of Canada – alongside rivers and creeks in BC and a little bit of the Yukon Territory.  The Canadian Rockies were in view all day.  Parts of the Alaska Highway are under construction, and so we were on gravel roads a few times.  There were a lot fewer cars on the road – the further we get from the gas and oil fields, the less trucks we see.  We saw a few Stone Sheep:

In the morning, we stopped at Muncho Lake:

For lunch, we stopped  at Liard Hot Springs, a beautiful Provincial Park. The main attraction for us was its natural hot mineral springs.  It was a nice break; the water was about 104, but up to 122 in parts!

Later in the afternoon, we entered the Yukon Territory:

Almost immediately, we began seeing animals – first a bison:

He was incredibly large, Jeff says only slightly smaller than the Jeep!  Or, if Jeff were standing next to him, only Jeff’s head would be above the bison’s shoulders!  He must eat grass every waking moment.

Then we began seeing bears:

We were within 10 feet of some of the animals, it was really cool to see them up close. They all just continued eating clover and paid no attention to us. We keep seeing signs for moose and caribou, but haven’t seen any yet – they’re on our list!

Staying at Watson Lake tonight – we’re on Pacific Time, sunset tonight is 10:45, sunrise tomorrow is 4:37.