Leg 13, Liard Hot Springs, BC, to Watson Lake, YT, Monday & Tuesday

A New Day Yesterday was a tough day, but we always wake up with an optimistic view of the world. Because we have a short travel day today, we opted to have a big breakfast, and depart a little later in the AM. Finally, we experienced a night with no rain, which made breaking camp much easier. We departed the campground at 9 AM, and stopped for two black bears, a grizzly bear, a fox, Cranberry Rapids Overlook, and near Contact Creek Lodge for gasoline.

The Second Fox We've Seen

The roads were much better than yesterday, but we still drove about 45 MPH, arriving in Watson Lake, Yukon Territory, at 1:30 PM. Over the next couple of days, we will cross between British Columbia and Yukon Territory 5 times. Watson Lake is a nice, but small town. After setting up the motorhome, cleaning it on the inside, and washing the Saturn, we walked to the Sign Forest and Visitor’s Centre. While we had heard and read about the Sign Forest, it boggled our minds with over 66,000 signs.

The Infamous Sign Forest

We saw several from Arkansas, but missed Jerry and Ann’s. Ours goes up tomorrow. The Visitor Centre was informative, with a good slide presentation, good displays, and very useful travel information. We opted to eat out tonight, but finding a decent place to eat in Watson Lake proved challenging. The “hotel” where we ate had a limited selection, but the food was good. Tomorrow, we see the Northern Lights Centre, and have a special speaker.

Watson Lake, Day 2 Sunlight at 5:30 AM! It’s hard to sleep when the sun is shining so brightly, but we’re not complaining after so much rain. The laundry facilities at this particular campground are much less expensive than just about anywhere we’ve been in the last couple of weeks, so today was laundry day, and as a bonus, good wi-fi is available while sitting in the laundry room. While Kay was doing laundry, Donald downloaded the bank statement, paid bills, repaired the door on the motorhome, and balanced the checkbook. We’ve just about converted everything to internet banking, so as long as we have access to the internet, we’re OK. After a busy morning, we hiked the 3 km (about 1.8 miles) around Wye Lake, a small lake in Watson Lake. Despite using OFF, the mosquitoes ate us up!

Hiking Around Wye Lake

Kay made crock pot soup overnight, and it made for a good lunch. We met the group at the Northern Lights Centre for two videos in a large dome-shaped theater, one on astronauts, and the other on the northern lights, i.e. aurora borealis. The group adjourned to the Sign Forest where our caravan sign was hung, with our names on it, right about "...the Yukon..." in the center of the sign!

Our Sign in the Sign Forest

The ladies of the caravan decided on a cookout this afternoon for dinner, and Donald volunteered to flip burgers. Side dishes were brought and we had a great time, followed by our travel meeting, and then a guest speaker who had grown up here, operated her own business, and ran the Visitor Centre. She gave us a wonderful, detailed view of life and culture in Watson Lake. High lights of her talk included a discussion of curling, winter weather, and tanning a moose hide. We returned to our coach at 9:30 PM, ready to travel to White Horse tomorrow.

Caravan Adventures The caravan adventure went much smoother this leg, and our campground is excellent. We were able to get in our sites upon arrival, though we did stop for a half hour outside of town waiting for the wagon master to OK proceeding into town.

Our Recommendations for Watson Lake, YT The Visitor’s Centre, Signpost Forest, hike around Wye Lake 1, and Northern Lights Centre were all worthwhile.

Kay’s Take I gave this campground my highest rating! The ladies’ bathroom is immaculate; showers are very nice and wide with seating available! They even supply a hairdryer. Best ones yet. I filled out a Good Sam Eval on them and mailed it with some postcards I sent to the kids at the Canadian P. O. near us. We’re having a hamburger grill/potluck tonight at the campground along with a speaker from the area. We’re heading to Whitehorse tomorrow and will stay there a few days. Then we will head north to Dawson City, the gold rush famous city in the Yukon. We’ll be there a few days; drive to Chicken, Alaska and we’ll be in Alaska for almost a month. The scenery is beautiful every mile! Wish you all were here with us!

Campground Downtown RV Park, Watson Lake, YT. We had all services in a pull-thru site including electric, water, sewer, wi-fi, and cable, plus an RV wash. The laundry was clean and among the least expensive yet. The restrooms were immaculate and second best of our entire trip, only exceeded by 7th Ranch in Garryowen, MT. We definitely would stay here again.

Driving Statistics

Beginning Mileage: 12,483.9

Beginning Time: 7:00 AM PDST

Ending Mileage: 12,612.4

Ending Time: 1:30 PM PDST

TOTAL MILEAGE FOR THE DAY: 128.5

CUMULATIVE MILEAGE FOR THE TRIP: 3,220.9

Jul 14, 2009

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