Fort Nelson, BC to Liard Hot Springs
Trip Start
Jul 02, 2008
1
8
21
Trip End
Jul 21, 2008
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Liard Hot Springs,
British Columbia,
Canada
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Fort Nelson, BC to Liard Hot Springs Provencial Park, BC- Alaska Highway
Vacation Day 7
Today has been a remarkable day. It started with the traditional waking up on what would be EST but out here on PST it was 5:00. We did manage to get an early start to the day with a nice breakfast at the Ramada in Fort Nelson. We hit the road early by about 7 am PST.
It less than 10 minutes on the road we saw a black bear on the side of the road. We stopped and watched for about 5 minutes before somebody came by and spooked it. That would not be the end of the wildlife for the day. We drove for quite some time until we came to Stone Mountain Provencial Park and we spotted a small herd of Caribou. Total of 4 in all and we stopped and photographed them and watched them for about 10-15 minutes. As we drove on we went through Muncho Lake Provencial Park and it wasn't until we were out of it when we were slowing down for construction (which is always going on on the Alaska Highway) and I looked up and spotted a herd of Stone Sheep. There were 9 total of the Stone Sheep, with 3 or 4 little ones. They were soooo cute. One of the bigger ones started to approach me and that was when mom started yell at me. Very interesting. It seems that normally it is dad getting yelled at but this time it was me getting yelled at for approaching wildlife. A short distance later, a moose, looked to be a cow, in the ditch feeding on the grasses, so again we sat and watched and took pictures. Here is where it gets interesting, not about 10 minutes later I saw what I thought was a bear but not saying anything until I was certain, I was right, so we got out and walked back to it and watched it for a while and it was really cool.
another Black Bear
We could hear it making noise in the brush and making noise as it was searching for food under logs etc, so after about 15 minutes and a couple 100 pictures later, we drive not probably even a mile and another black bear is in the ditch feeding, the same goes here. Stop and watch for 10-15 minutes before it gets spooked and leaves so we leave and get around the corner and another bear. Again, mom is yelling at me for approaching the bear, but you know what, I got some really awesome pictures. It wasn't a grizzley bear so I wasn't really all that worried. We stayed and watched it for probably 30 minutes or so. Then we decided enough with hounding the poor bear, you know the funny thing is about the bears up here they doin't even pay attention to vehicles or people. We drive about 10 more minutes and boom, 4 Bison (buffalo to some) are standing in the road. Wow, reminds me of yellowstone. We I got a really cool pic of this and once again mom is yelling at me. Can I help it I got my new Nikon D40 camera that shoots 3 pics per second. Needless to say I took around 800 pictures today that I am keeping and I deleted about 100. Thank god for the 2 GB photo cards that hold over 1000 pictures. Needless to say I LOVE MY NEW NIKON CAMERA.The overall wildlife total today was:
5- Black Bears
4- American Bison (buffalo)
4- Caribou
9- Stone Sheep
1- Moose
Finally, an 1 1/2 later from when we were 20 minutes away from our lodge at Liard Hot Springs we get there. That 1 1/2 hours consumed by watching wildlife.
bison on road??????
We got to the lodge ate lunch, buffalo burgers, checked in, and got our swimsuits and headed to the Hot Springs. Once to the hot springs, it was all fun in games. The hot springs are totally wild and it is basically a small stream, rock floor with some boardwalks built around them and you can get in and soak, and there are 3 different pools with varying degrees of temperature from 53 degrees centigrade to 43 degrees centigrade (of note every thing up here is metric, I don't know how hot that is farenheight). Anyway, mom got here all natural hot springs, in a natural surrounding complete with bear and moose warnings that the animals sometimes use the springs with the people, and rangers using cracker shells to scare the bears away from the hot pools.No grizzley bears yet, but I figure we still have some time yet and figure once we board the ferry to Washington we will see lots of whales and hopefully some ORCA as well. What would a trip out to BC and Alaska be without ORCA. The only thing is I wish it would be northbound instead of South Bound as I do love sitting on the back of the Columbia at 4 in the morning watching the sunrise over Johnstone Strait and seeing my orca swim by. As it is we are heading southbound we will be watching for them at supper time.
The ferry is another story as some know, the MV Columbia blew an engine so we will be on the MV Kennikot until Ketchikan and then we board the MV Columbia. I can't wait until the ferry. Chris isn't working but he said he will probably met us at the dock in Ketchikan when we get off. Hopefully, he will guide us around Totem Bight and show us where his brother works and some of the Totems he has carved.
The lodge we are staying in is a log cabin lodge, with a nice decor of the north woods. Of course, no cell phone service, satelitte TV in the lounge and satelite phones. Anyway, this entry will be late as we are not at a lodge that has wireless internet. Heck, they are on satelitte phones as is.
Tomorrow night, we will be staying in the old air force barracks in Watson Lake, Yukon territory. The following night is at Dawson Peaks Resort, this is another place in the Sue Henry book, Dead North of the Jessie Arnold murder mystery series.
OH, AND BY THE WAY TAKE A CLOSE LOOK AT THE BEAR CROSSING THE ROAD!
HERE IS A QUESTION:
IS THIS BEAR A BOY OR A GIRL??????
HOW MANY TOES DOES IT HAVE????
