Day 26: Bears to Whitehorse

 From Watson Lake to Whitehorse, YT we saw no less than 4 bears. It was a cloudy and partly rainy day so not as beautiful of a drive as some days. It was just amazing to see such vast amounts of land and forest untouched. We also saw several areas that have been burned in the last decade or so and some recovering. We cross the mighty Yukon a few times and stop at a few rest stops to enjoy some views of the river, bridges, and vast forests. We finally get to Whitehorse on fairly drizzly day and pull in to Walmart only find out they no longer allow over night parking. After picking up some items, we head over to Save On Foods to get our produce. I speak with the manager and they say officially we can't park over night, but they do not enforce it or have people towed. So we spend the night and since it is already 10pm and the store is closing we did not finish our shopping. We will have to do that in the morning while we get the Jeep oil changed next door at Canadian Tire at 8:30am.

Miles Driven: 236 / 3351

Day 25: What's your sign?

 

We leave the hot springs and make our way to Watson Lake, known for it's famous Signpost Forest. On the way we have several bear sightings including one momma bear and her cub, so cute watching the little bear run and play. When we get to Watson lake, we first stop at Wye Lake Park in town and dump our tanks at the free municipal RV dump station, then we make our way over to the gas station and carwash to fuel up and top our tanks with fresh water. Yoli makes a quick run to the store for a few food items then, we head on over the forest. We park right in front of the signpost forest, take some photos, then we head into the forest to leave our mark. We pre-made a sign back home just for this moment. We grab the cordless drill, some screws, our sign, and off we go deep in the forest of signs. We hang our shingle proudly, browse several rows that hold somewhere around 77,000 signs from last count. We feel satisfied on our placement, take some more photos of our good work, make some lunch, then down the road we go where our next camp spot for the night is at Big Creek campground, another state park just a few miles from Watson lake.

Miles Driven: 170 / 3115

Story of the Forest

So Many Signs

And More Signs

Our Sign :)

Sign Forest Entrance

Baby Bear :)

Day 24: Liard River Hot Springs

 We finally make it to the springs. We arrive around 11am and get a nice campsite a short walk from the boardwalk to the springs. This camp ground is another BCParks provincial campground, basically a state camp ground. No hookups, but very nicely spaced pads with fire ring and a table. Pit toilets and hand pump water is near by. We love this kind of campground because we have the Solar setup, Generator and 80 gallon tank of fresh water that we keep filled up. By 1pm we have dawned our suits and we are strutting our stuff down the boardwalk to the famous Liard River Hot Springs. I notice now they have an electric fence and gate around the park. I heard a couple bear attacks brought about this new addition to the park. The boardwalk is about 1/4mile, or 350km now that we are daily converting kilometers and miles, Liters and gallons, and dollars and Loonies. The springs were awesome, the mosquitos were minimal, and the surroundings just beautiful. After a good soak, we head back to the RV and it begins to rain, it rains the rest of the day, so we binge watch some Netflix on Starlink, drink a glass or two of wine and call it a night.

Miles Driven: 40 / 2945

Day 21-23: Muncho Lake

 

After two nights at Summit lake, we set off for Liard River Hot springs, but we don't get that far again. We stop in at Muncho Lake and score an AWESOME lake front camp spot at Strawberry Flats campground, so we drop the jeep, pop the slides, roll out the awning and we stay for 3 nights it was so wonderful. We take the opportunity during these 3 days to get our new inflatable kayak out on the lake. The lake was awesome and we enjoyed walking the shoreline and also just sitting back in the loungers soaking up the 75 degree sunshine drinking wine. The weather was just perfect for 3 days so we just hung out and chatted it up with fellow campers and did a lot of nothing. Ok finally, tomorrow we head to the hot springs to soak us up some Yukon hot spring water.

Miles driven: 64 / 2905

Day 21-23: Muncho Lake

After two nights at Summit lake, we set off for Liard River Hot springs, but we don't get that far again. We stop in at Muncho Lake and score an AWESOME lake front camp spot at Strawberry Flats campground, so we drop the jeep, pop the slides, roll out the awning and we stay for 3 nights it was so wonderful. We take the opportunity during these 3 days to get our new inflatable kayak out on the lake. The lake was awesome and we enjoyed walking the shoreline and also just sitting back in the loungers soaking up the 75 degree sunshine drinking wine. The weather was just perfect for 3 days so we just hung out and chatted it up with fellow campers and did a lot of nothing. Ok finally, tomorrow we head to the hot springs to soak us up some Yukon hot spring water.

Miles driven: 64 / 2905

Day 19 & 20: Summit Lake

 

We get up around 8am, but only because we gained an hour and are on Pacific Time, so it is actually 9am but hey, who's counting. We take a walk along the river, fight off a few hundred mosquitos and then pack up camp to head to Fort Nelson BC. We stopped at the visitor center and loaded up on brochures on British Columbia (BC) and the Yukon Territory (YT). Our goal was Liard Hot Springs today but when coming up to Summit lake, I recalled staying there back in 2018 on my last Alaska RV trip, it was a nice place, so we decided to stop early and setup camp. We snagged a nice spot for $20CAD/night, put out the awning and popped a bottle of wine. We get a hard rain shower, then the sun popped back out and Yoli made Peanut Butter Balls, Yummy. We love the spot so much we decided to stay another night for a twofer...

Miles Driven: 197 / 2841