NORTH TO ALASKA 2025 - DAY 13 - LEAVING LIARD RIVER TO WATSON LAKE YUKON

We had a crazy night sleeping at the Liard River Hot Springs Provincial Park. About 4:00 a.m. I could hear this strange beeping sound. It sounded like an alarm! 

One I didn't recognize or never heard before.

I thought perhaps it might be a new alarm sound from our Bluetti power station?? It was kind of muffled sounding from more outside than inside the motorhome. The Bluetti is stowed away in a compartment underneath our motorhome.

I finally woke Steve up, and said "We have to check this out. It sounds like an alarm going off!". He got up and got dressed and went outside. He listened and checked. It was the strangest sound. But it was actually coming out of a tree way up high over our motorhome. We think it was some type of a tree frogs mating call!!! The sound of it is on the video on the link below at the end of this blog if you want to hear it. You would think it was an alarm too!

We debated on going back into the Hot Springs one more time. But it had gotten quite cold overnight. I wasn't so sure I wanted to walk back with wet hair through the cold temps for a mile. 

We decided to bundle up and hit the road. It was going to be a beautiful day for traveling.

We were headed to the Yukon!

We began to see mountains in the distance. It was really exciting to see that we were getting to some scenery that looked more interesting.

We had a little note from another RVer to stop at this place called Whirlpool Canyon on the Alaskan Highway. It was a perfect stop to get out and stretch our legs a bit.

We cannot imagine the heavy spring waters rushing through this area being able to move all of these logs and carve our these rocks.

Steve said this tree trunk looked like a starfish!

As we walked along, I found a beautiful rock. It's flat and slate looking but has some interesting markings. I decided I'm going to wrap it up and take it home as a memento. I might glaze it with some shellac and put it near my wood sculpture that we found last fall at Morgan County Park. I laughed with Steve that I might be collecting rocks like Lucille Ball in the movie The Long Long Trailer.  

We hopped back into the motorhome and headed back up the highway.  

We did stop at another rest area called Allen's Lookout. It was supposedly an area where bandits would sit up on this high hill and look both ways up and down the river. They would ambush and rob the boats floating on through, just like pirates!! 

Now to the exciting part of our day...

Yes ... We saw a 

GRIZZLY!!!!

He came lumbering up from the side of a ravine, and was munching away on the grass. He was looking for the fresh green stuff that grew closer to the road.

We were definitely a long distance away, safely enclosed within our motorhome. I only had the window open to film through, and Steve had his foot on the gas ready to go!

It was pretty thrilling to see a grizzly out in the middle of the day. It's a pretty rare sight. From some of the other people that have talked to me, they are jealous that we actually got to see a grizzly. And from a safe distance without being in danger.

With my new camera from my birthday, I was able to get some really close up shots. It was amazing to get such detail of things like his fur and his eyes and his teeth!

We watched him for a while and then he ambled on down the highway right away. We didn't want to disturb him eating his lunch.

There's actual video footage of it on the YouTube link below at the end of this blog.

It wasn't long after that we came to cross the border leaving British Columbia and now entering the Yukon. It seemed like such a milestone for us. We've been planning this trip for so long.

We got out and did the obligatory pose in front of the Yukon sign. We are such tourists. LOL  But we figure we got to make our memories and take the photos. That's the whole reason for this blog. It's kind of like a scrapbook for us of things that we are doing in our lives. You just get the benefit of reading along.

We had these little stickers made from Instaprint that I wrote about in my first blog of our trip. It is acceptable, and even encouraged, to post your sticker on certain sites and signs. They scrape it off by the end of the year and put up a new surface. We are the fourth sticker on the new surface for the upcoming travel season of 2025.

And here's where we made our memory. So if you are driving to the Yukon, stop and look for our sticker! Maybe add your own?

As we traveled further on the Alaskan Highway, we were lucky enough to even spot another bear. This time it was a black bear. Much much smaller than that big old grizzly. 

This one appeared to be pretty smart. We watched him as he approached the gravel on the side of the road. He looked left. He looked right. Then he proceeded to cross the road. What a good bear!!! 

And just like that, he scooted up the bank on the other side. Well out of danger, and ready to live another day in the woods of the Yukon.

We were headed on now towards Watson Lake. We know that is the location of the Signpost Forest.

We read some reviews of this very nice gentleman running an RV park right in the middle of the small town of Watson Lake. The RV park itself wasn't much. Basically a big gravel parking lot with electrical posts, along with water and sewer. He had clean laundry facilities and shower facilities. He also allows you to wash the road grime and dirt off your RV in the back corner of his parking lot. But what made this stop special was that he was very courteous and helpful with information. He also gave you a very big discount if you used cash instead of a credit card. Small town business owners really have to pay high fees to accept credit cards. So he appreciates the cash coming in, especially if you want to use United States currency, he gives you an even better discount. He's also able to give you a special discount on fuel at a local truck card filling station. 

https://www.downtownrvyukon.com/

He is conveniently located right across from a beautiful park. And just kitty corner from a nice locally owned grocery store. 

We went over and did a stock up shopping. They had some beautiful beef roasts on sale. I just had to get one. I know if I cooked it up I could get about four meals out of it. Added fresh carrots to my shopping cart along with a big bag of Canadian white potatoes. I just love those. We can't get them in the United States. 

I have a stove top pressure cooker along. I did not take my large electric pressure cooker or my air fryer. We are limited on cargo carrying space. So this would work just perfect to do it the old fashioned way on the stove.

It smelled so absolutely delicious inside of the motorhome as the roast was done cooking. 

I was able to shred up two meals worth of roast beef to put in the freezer to be saved for future meals. Maybe enchiladas, maybe tacos, maybe a casserole? The last section of roast beef I used up the next day for some hearty beef stew.  

Here's the link to the YouTube that goes along with today's blog:

Join us tomorrow 

when we put our sign up 

in the Signpost Forest at 

Watson Lake, Yukon.

131 miles travelled today

2,598 miles so far

NORTH TO ALASKA 2025 - DAY 12 - WILDLIFE & LIARD RIVER HOT SPRINGS

Wowsers... Around each and every corner, the scenery gets more and more beautiful.  I know that pictures and videos can't quite capture what we are seeing. The depth and richness of the textures and the layers is just mind-boggling and a feast for the eyes. This is just a tiny taste.

The wildlife on the roadside is abundant. Especially if we drive earlier in the morning, or later in the evening. There's barely any other traffic around us so it's pretty easy to slow down and stop to take photos. We ran into some Caribou that were just sauntering down the side of the road like they owned it...

I love how detailed the camera can pick up the close-up features of the animals. This is the Panasonic Lumix that I got for my birthday from Steve. He got it for me specifically for this trip for wildlife still shots.

These caribou were just out for a morning stroll, and didn't even look twice at us. If I slide open the window and the screen over the loveseat of the motorhome, I can take some really good detailed shots without a window in the way distorting the images.

We did fly by this one, and I know it's blurry. But I took a shot of a deer. This is so silly because we get tons of deer right in our own backyard at home. But yes, it's wildlife and I put it on our little tally of wildlife that we have seen so far.

Next up on the wildlife docket were some stone sheep. This poor little one is missing a horn! We were told the stone sheep and the Rocky Mountain Sheep have permanent horns, whereas the caribou, deer and elk have antlers that they shed.

They look so soft and fuzzy, and I just want to go and pet them, of course. Or at least shear them and try to spin their wool? Lol

This young one on the left had such a fuzzy head. No horns yet. He looked like he just got out of bed and had a case of "bed hair" like a sleepy teenager.

After seeing the huge herd of bison yesterday, it was a little surprising to only see one today. This lone bison was all by himself... He didn't seem to mind. He was so busy munching the fresh new green grass on the side of the road.

We drove the rest of the way over the Liard River bridge, and pulled into the Liard River Hot Springs Provincial Park. 

We had absolutely no trouble getting a site. She told us to just drive through the park and pick out a site and come back and pay for it. The camping fee also included admission to the hot springs. Otherwise as a day use you have to pay $5 a person. So that was like $10 off our camping because we were intending to go in the hot springs anyhow. We paid $26 Canadian which converts to $18.26 US. 

https://bcparks.ca/liard-river-hot-springs-park/

The entire campground is surrounded by an electrified fence. It's reinforced and very sturdy. It is to keep out the moose, the bear and the bison. It seems awfully strange to be surrounded by a heavy duty fence, but it sure is comforting to know it's there.

As soon as we got settled in and made a little lunch, we put on our swimsuits and got ready to head down to the hot springs. 

Dogs are not allowed near the hot springs of course, so we left Nick in the motorhome with all of the windows shades pulled down and music loud enough to distract him from any outside noises. We set him up on the loveseat with a few of his toys, and one of his favorite Himalayan cheese chew sticks. We know he behaves when we are gone, because we set up a wifi camera from our Starlink to watch him. 

It's a lovely walk through the swamp towards the springs. It's a boardwalk decking for the entire length of .7 mile. We stopped to admire some little minnows in the swamp and some huge moose tracks. The boardwalk and the actual springs are not behind electrical fencing. There are signs warning that if you do see a moose to clear away and don't disturb them. We were lucky, we didn't see one while we were walking through the swamp. 

The springs are absolutely beautiful, there is a slight sulfur smell. Which is stronger up at one end then down at the other. 

There are nice stairs and a pavilion structure to store your clothing in cubbies. 

We slowly descended the stairs and sank in to the waters up to our necks. It was extremely delightful.

We did a little tourist photo of the two of us together in the water. There's more video footage on the link below.

It's amazing that we are sitting out in the middle of a pine forest in the serene almost tropical feeling location.

A few people came and went while we were there, but mostly there were less than 10 people at any given time. Coming in May has it's benefits. We have seen photos of this place being very crowded in June July and August. 

There are stone benches underwater so you can just sit wherever you want. The base underground is gravel. Steve wore sandals and I wore water shoes from canoeing. On my video link below I actually put the GoPro camera underwater to show the underneath side of the springs.

Around all the edges were these beautiful ferns and little tiny flowers. Water came seeping out between the layers of dirt surrounding the big spring pool. Towards the right hand side is where the hotter spring waters were bubbling up out of the ground. Down to the left side it was cooler and more mixed and easier to tolerate.

As the waters rise up, there is a berm or a dam that's built on the far end with two sluice areas to let the waters tumble down into the lower pool. If you keep going through that lower pool there is a channel that leads through the woods that you can float along crawling on your hands and letting your body float behind you. We have watched others on YouTube do this. It's like floating through a jungle. But the waters are much colder down there in May in that channel. I think June July or August it would be warmer to go explore that far down. We didn't.

After a long healthy soak, we went back up to the motorhome and took showers. There are no shower facilities on the grounds. We wanted to get the sulfur smell off of our skin and hair, and give our swimsuits a good rinse too. 

Then.... we curled up and took a long, long nap. We surprised ourselves by taking that deep of a nap. The springs must have really relaxed us?


Stay tuned as we move on further to the North and the West. The scenery is well worth it, and the animals are even more exciting! One word: GRIZZLY!!!

WE ARE GLAD YOU ARE FOLLOWING ALONG ON OUR ADVENTURE. HERE IS THE LINK TO THE YOUTUBE THAT CORRESPONDS WITH THIS BLOG POST: 

Only 75 miles traveled today 

2,467 miles so far

NORTH TO ALASKA - DAYS 10 & 11 - WILDLIFE & TOAD RIVER LODGE

Wait until you see all of the WILDLIFE we saw today!!

After leaving Triple G Hideaway in Fort Nelson, we were treated almost immediately with some wildlife along the road... 

First there was another black bear, similar in size to the one we had seen yesterday. He scampered across and up the hill so fast that I didn't have a chance to take a picture of it. But rest assured, he was there.

We were driving along, admiring all the beautiful scenery as it passed before us. The trees are a little different than what we are used to, the grass looks a little different, and we really have been enjoying good smooth roads.

Imagine our surprise to round a corner and see this big herd of bison hanging out along the side of the road!  They strolled on past and couldn't care less if a car had stopped to look at them or not.

There were about 20 of them in all. It was awesome to see them up close. Of course, we stayed within the safety of our vehicle with the engine running and Steve ready to hit the gas in case one of them decided to charge us. I slid open the window and the screen to take photos out the side by the love seat.

This big huge one seems to be standing between the road and the rest of the herd. Maybe it was the guardian? Checking out for the safety of the herd??

This one really made us laugh. It was stationed in between the two posts of the sign. He was rubbing back and forth and back and forth, itching himself on both sides at once. He "just" fit. He seemed to be really enjoying it and taking care of all his itches until he was well satisfied. I caught it all on video in the link below.

Of course, there were one or two adorable little babies. They look so soft and sweet don't they?

We left them to their business and continue onwards North and West. 

We were told ahead of time about this absolutely wonderful place called Tetsa River Lodge.  

 https://tetsariver.com/

They are known for their absolutely huge and wonderfully tasting cinnamon rolls. We rolled on in and we were happy to see that they were open for the season. I'm not sure if they close for the winter or not, but glad to see that they were there and welcoming our business.

We chatted with the owner for a while. We were the only ones there. It was a delightful place with tasteful decorations and some giftware. Not tacky and not overdone touristy.  The glowing warm wood fireplace in the corner just added to the complete ambiance.

She served our cinnamon roll with a flourish. We especially loved them because there were no raisens in them!!!  We split this one in half for the two of us, and ordered some others to go. This thing was huge! Yes, that is a dinner plate. 

We enjoyed chatting with her and took our extra two sweet rolls to go. These will be for two more mornings for breakfast for us to split with our coffee. They even had a little sticker on top with microwaving instructions to prevent over cooking them.

We are now reaching the Northern Rockies. Yes, there's still snow up on them thar' hills. 

As we reached Summit Lake, it was still frozen but with melting edges. It won't be long and it will be clear.

We were climbing up and the hills were getting steeper. We were meandering in between the mountains when we rounded a corner. Quick as a wink a mama bear with two little tiny babies flashed across and were working their way up the bank. Frantically the little guys were trying to get up and out of the way. The mama, I am sure, was urging them to keep on going. I was not able to capture it with the camera but it came out on our video. I did a still shot from the video stream. It's not the best and it's not sharp. But it makes me chuckle when I think of those two little tiny guys just crawling as fast as they can to get up that steep bank.

I hope Mama told them they did a good job...

We wound our way among the craggy Rocky Mountains. Some areas had guardrails, others did not. I hung on tight. Steve did a great job guiding our motorhome through the passes, and up and down the steep slopes.

Now we came around the corner and found three huge sheep. At first I thought they were called Rocky Mountain Sheep. But later on I found out they are called Stone Sheep? We found these three on the side of the road and we found a safe place to pull off nearby. They kind of walked closer to us. 

This one just looked so majestic...

I was able to zoom in quite well and capture the detail of their magnificent horns.

We decided that our driving was done for the day, and pulled into this nice little RV resort and motel called Toad River Lodge on the Toad River. Somehow something got messed up in translation for the name years ago and it had something to do with towing a boat? 

It should be as in towing: "Towed River". 

Toad River Lodge 

https://toadriverlodge.com/

(Off season rates without water or sewer, electric only) 

$31.50 a night Canadian 

which converts to $22.59 US

They have a sweet little business of multiple little cabins along the river to rent out, as well as a little restaurant inside and gift shop. They even have baked items and things to grab and go if you were just stopping for fuel. 

There are single little back end campsites all around the edge of the river, and about five or six pull through sites in the center of the parking lot for those who don't even want to unhook for the night.

We noticed that most of these places carry fuel, both gas and diesel, and also propane. Many of them also offer dump station or water to fill your tanks. 

Across the road was a little airstrip. We saw multiple little small prop planes come in and leave, as well as two different helicopters. 

The people inside were so nice and put us up in the most beautiful site, I thought, in the entire campground!

Yep, this is the view right out our front windshield! We have a pond with a beaver lodge, and a beautiful mountain, and tall gorgeous pine trees surrounding us.

I can't think of a nicer spot to be parked.

This pond area is part of the river, but is a calm section that's kind of bermed off along the shores of the Toad River Lodge. 

After getting settled into our campsite, we got out and walked around. I did this panorama view from in front of one of the next sites down. We were totally enamored with this place.

Nick kept an eye out for the elusive beavers that came and went from the lodge. Every once in awhile one would rear its head or slap its tail on the water. They are busy working on a little dam on the other side of that gravel berm.

As I was sitting and working on my blog, I looked up out of the front window to see this beautiful trumpeter swan going all hell bent for leather after a Canadian goose!! He chased the goose (who was honking frantically in fear)  down the beach and up the hill, right in front of our camper and then right through the campground! He didn't care what was around, because he had his mind on giving that Canadian goose the what for!!!

After he sorely trounced him, he strutted back to the pond. He seemed very pleased with himself... Just look at that attitude?

 THIS is what he was so fiercely protecting. His mate was sitting on the nest of eggs out on one of the little islands in the pond. 

How wonderful to see his devotion and dedication to protect his mate and the upcoming babies that she is sitting on. 

We walked out on the other side of the pond to not disturb them where they were nesting. Look at the cute little toad structure that was put up along the beach. I bet children get a kick out of these two. Someone left a cute little painted rock.

As the sun was going down, I snapped probably one of my favorite photos of the day....

Then a huge moon arose...

It just couldn't get 

 any better

 than this!

We liked it so much at Toad River Lodge that we decided to even stay a second day. 

But the road ahead beckons us. Standing out in front of Toad River Lodge as we were watching some airplanes take off, we looked up the road to the west. This is what's coming next...

HERE IS THE YOUTUBE THAT GOES ALONG WITH TODAY'S BLOG:

119 miles today

2392 miles so far