Day 11 Ft Nelson, BC to Watson Lake, YT

Day 11 started out rainy and cool (54 degrees).  Today’s trip was from Ft Nelson, BC to Watson Lake, YT.  It was described in our travel book as the most scenic along the Alaska Highway.  We got out of the campgrounds at 9:20 AM and immediately ran into low clouds and fog.  The road was climbing, and it got real foggy as we drove through the cloud layer, and then we were on top of the clouds.  We don’t know if there were high mountain peaks to look at or not.  They were all covered with clouds.

We made it to Summit Pass (4250 ft), and it was clear and sunny on the other side.  We drove though a lot of large Rocky Mountains and alongside rushing creeks, streams and rivers.  It really was a pretty drive.

One of the mountains was called Folded Mountain.  The face where you usually see the layers of sediment from when it was an Ocean floor was all folded and went up and down and all crazy.  Check out the good picture we got.  A little further was two small waterfalls.

Muncho Lake was very beautiful.  It reminded me of Lake Tahoe with two mountain ranges on each side and both ends of the valley got dammed up by volcano or rock slides, trapping the water and forming the lake.  It was very deep (over 730 feet), and 7 miles long and 1 mile wide at an elevation of 2,680 ft.  It was a green color which is from the copper oxide leaching into the lake.  When we stopped to take pictures, there was an older couple that had gotten their truck and rig in trouble in the parking lot.  In my mind there was no way they were going to get out without a tow truck.  So I went to the Lodge and asked them to call for one.  They said they could not call and the people would have to come to the lodge and make the call.  So we left Cathy and Mom at the lodge and drove the truck and 5^th Wheel back 7 miles to the where they were struck.  About a mile from the spot, here they came rolling down the road.  They were out!  I drove on to the parking lot and there were some people there that explained that a guy with a small truck and a winch pulled him out.  There was squealing tires and rocks were flying everywhere.  They said they thought the 5^th wheel camper was going to roll over for sure……..but they got out.  Oh well, I tried to do my good deed for the day.

On down the road at Liard Hot Springs, we saw our first herd of Bison.  The pictures Mom and Cathy took are great.  

We made it to Watson Lake at 6:00 PM, and fueled up the truck with the 5^th Wheel still on.  I think we were all tired, because the great attraction here is the Sign Forest, and we all thought it looked like a bunch of junk, and nobody wanted to get out and look.  So we rolled down the road about another 14 miles to the Baby Nugget RV Park.  They have great showers and laundry here.  We cleaned up and did a few loads of laundry and went to bed at 10:30 PM.  It was still very light out.

Click here to see Day 11 route and pictures.