North West TerritoryAug 8, 2010
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Big Boy Bison
Liard Highway alias Escourt Rd,
Bison ahead
| The Northwest Territory is quite an experience. Long, straight, gravel roads bordered by endless forest. We almost thought we were on Pinkham's or the Escourt Road in northern Maine. There are lots of wood bison up here. Prime habitat seems to be road right-of-ways. We encountered few vehicles on the roads, mainly tank trucks from the oil fields. There is a lot going on up here in the roadless areas: natural gas and oil fields, diamond and gold mines. Supplies get moved in the winter on ice roads. We saw no active timber harvesting nor pulp nor saw mills. Lots of trees though. YELLOWKNIFE: we managed to get a campsite at Fred Henne Park right next to the airport and a busy road intersection. Not much sleeping!! We explored the Ingraham Highway east of Yellowknife. The road travels across the Canadian Shield country. The granite has been smoothed by glaciation and looks like pink pillows sticking above the forest. It must be a rock pickers paradise. There are lots of road cuts for a rock hounds to check out. Linda's Dad would sure like this place. Near the end of the Ingraham trail we stayed at lovely (and very quite) Reid Lake Territorial Park campground. The park manager was wonderful to talk to and added to our visit. The NWT parks all have blue trimmed buildings. It is obvious that all of these NWT parks have had recent upgrades and are well maintained. We met the nicest woman at Hay River's Fisherman's Market(as apposed to farmer's market). She introduced herself as the fudge lady of the north. She introduced us to a couple of the vendors, pointed out the clean organic vegetables and gave us a box if strawberries. These little kindnesses sure brighten our day. Hope we can pass them on to someone else. We enjoyed the many waterfalls and the beautiful trails built to reach them. The shield country is full of beautiful lakes and ponds. We saw migrating ducks on the prairie in early June. Looks like they ended up here for nesting!! |
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