2024 Alaska Road Trip (Week 2)


Day 8 - Sunday June 30th

Sunrise this morning at the Lions Flatbed Creek Campground in Tumbler Ridge was 4:29 AM.

It is only a short drive from here to Dawson Creek, BC today. By the end of the day we drove 89 miles/144 km.

We drove north on the Heritage Highway (Hwy 52) towards Dawson Creek. As most of the drives have been, it was a pretty drive along green corridors of trees with long stretches of nothing but road and trees. Although, it was interesting to see a fair number of windmills along this drive.

Image looking down a narrow road with green trees on both sides and large windmills in the distance.

Heritage Highway (Hwy 52), British Columbia, Canada

Along the way we saw another massive beaver den next to the road.

Image of large beaver den along side the road.

Heritage Highway (Hwy 52), British Columbia, Canada

And of course, more remote road and green tree corridors, I suspect this will become a theme.

Image looking down the road on a bright sunny day with lush green trees on both sides.

Heritage Highway (Hwy 52), British Columbia, Canada

As we approached Dawson Creek, the remote road and green tree corridors faded into green pasture lands with horses and cows. A very scenic land in the bright sunshine.

Image of horses in a field next to the road.

Heritage Highway (Hwy 52), British Columbia, Canada

There were three reasons to have a short drive today. First, we needed to stop in Dawson Creek at the start of the Alaska Highway and take our pictures beside the sign there. Second, we wanted to stay at an RV park and take care of some laundry Third, we needed to do some grocery shopping before we headed off into the wilds of northern BC.

Fortunately we scored a spot literally right next to the laundry and shower building.

Image of trailer in the RV park.

Mile 0 Park & Campground, Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada

Here is the obligatory picture of Diane, Kenny and I in front of “the sign”.

Image of Diane, Kenny and Steve at the sign marking the start of the Alaska Highway in Dawson Creek, BC.

Mile Zero of the Alaska Highway, Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada

Here is the obligatory picture of Deneen and Kenny in front of “the sign”.

Image of Deneen and Kenny at the start of the Alaska Highway in Dawson Creek, BC.

Mile Zero of the Alaska Highway, Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada

We ate dinner out in Dawson Creek at one of its highest rated restaurants, Browns Socialhouse, which is apparently a chain up here and seems something like a tame TGIF. The burger was excellent, and the side of poutine was… well poutine.

Dinner, Browns Socialhouse, Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada

It turns out that the entire town appears to be out of Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF), modern diesel trucks like mine require this to reduce emissions, and will literally stop running if it runs out. Fortunately I keep an extra container of it in the back of the truck, so we are not out, but it is time to buy the next extra container. Hopefully our next fuel stop down the road will have it.

Also, we noticed today that a wildfire has started at the entrance to Denali National Park, potentially causing some evacuations. We are a little concerned because in a little over two weeks we plan to spend 4 days in the park. Hopefully they are fast and efficient at putting the fire out, otherwise we will need to juggle the plan some.

This evening, sunset was at 9:48 PM in Dawson Creek.


Day 9 - Monday July 1st

Today we drove from Mile 0 Park & Campground in Dawson Creek to a place called Prophet Airstrip Dispersed Camping (shown on some maps as Prophet River Wayside Provincial Park) along the Alaska Highway (Hwy 97) just south of the town of Prophet River, for a total of 221 miles/355 km.

Sunrise today was at 4:22 AM in Dawson Creek, BC.

Sunset today was at 10:15 PM at Prophet Airstrip Dispersed Camping, BC.

It was a beautiful day as we started our first day officially driving the Alaska Highway (also known as the ALCAN Hwy).

Image looking down a country road on a sunny day.

Alaska Highway (Hwy 97), just north of Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada

It was still a beautiful day as we headed down a long and steep grade to cross the Peace River at Taylor, BC.

Image from the road looking down into a river valley with a small town.

Alaska Highway (Hwy 97), Taylor, British Columbia, Canada

They are getting more serious about the moose warning signs as we head away from all signs of civilization except the road itself. We also headed away from a civilized sky color…

Image of a watch for moose sign.

Moose Warning Sign, Alaska Highway (Hwy 97), British Columbia, Canada

If there is a theme for today, it is long & straight roads.

Image looking down a long and straight road with very little traffic on it.

Alaska Highway (Hwy 97), British Columbia, Canada

Having left the civilized blue sky behind, we now look forward to a rain band we are going to drive into.

Image looking down the road into a band of rain we are headed for.

Alaska Highway (Hwy 97), British Columbia, Canada

And now that we have established rain and long & straight roads as the tenor of the day.

Image looking down another long and straight road, but in the rain this time.

Alaska Highway (Hwy 97), British Columbia, Canada

Below is the first and only, so far, wild horse warning sign. We didn’t see any.

Image of a sign to watch for wild horses.

Wild Horse Warning Sign, Alaska Highway (Hwy 97), British Columbia, Canada

More long & straight wet roads. Some people find the lonely road boring, I personally find them very relaxing and I especially like the large cleared bands on each side so I can watch for the wildlife before it jumps out in front of me.

Image looking down a long and straight road.

Alaska Highway (Hwy 97), British Columbia, Canada

After our second longest driving day so far we arrived at a wet and soggy camping spot. We are staying at what the campground website Campendium refers to as the Prophet Airstrip Dispersed Camping. It is both an old airstrip and right next to that a long abandoned campground. One of our maps shows it as the Prophet River Wayside Provincial Park.

Image of truck and trailer parked for the night.

Prophet Airstrip Dispersed Camping, Prophet River, British Columbia, Canada

I was surprised that by the evening there was only one other RV here, not shown here because they stayed in another loop of the old campground. It is a convenient place to camp, and benefits from being free. There were a fair amount of mosquitos but not as many as back at Crooked River Provincial Park.

Image of wet gravel and trees.

Prophet Airstrip Dispersed Camping, Prophet River, British Columbia, Canada

It pretty much rained most of the time here, note the water running off the trailer roof in the photo below.

Image of rain running of the roof of the trailer.

Prophet Airstrip Dispersed Camping, Prophet River, British Columbia, Canada

But we were able to enjoy ourselves anyway.

Image of Steve and Deneen at the trailer dinette with computers in front of them and drinks in their hands.

Prophet Airstrip Dispersed Camping, Prophet River, British Columbia, Canada

And Kenny was able to enjoy himself with a nap, with Snowball and Lucy looking on, which is something he usually does but has not been able to get many on this trip so far.

Image of Kenny taking a nap on the trailer's sofa.

Kenny, Prophet Airstrip Dispersed Camping, Prophet River, British Columbia, Canada

Apparently the airstrip is not as abandoned as it looked. We heard a plane fly in and out at least three or four times while we were there. So I went over to look.

The abandoned campground is to the right behind the trees in the picture below, and the Alaska Highway is to the left behind the trees there, the airstrip runs parallel to the highway but is not visible from either the highway nor the old campground.

While I watched they were clearly rolling some small items over to the plane and loading them in. Just to the right of plane in the trees are four or five trucks and a horse trailer. After taking off, the plane would be gone for about an hour and a half and then come back for another load.

My fertile imagination immediately assumed this was some sort of drug running operation. But the reality is that it was probably a charter to deliver supplies to some hunting camp well away from the road, or at least that is the story I plan to stick with…

Image of twin prop airplane on a wet and grassy runway..

Airstrip, Prophet Airstrip Dispersed Camping, Prophet River, British Columbia, Canada

Dinner tonight, in the nice dry trailer, was Diane’s excellent meatloaf, baked beans and sautéed carrots.

Image of Kenny and Diane at dinner in the trailer.

Prophet Airstrip Dispersed Camping, Prophet River, British Columbia, Canada


Day 10 - Tuesday July 2nd

Today we drove from Prophet Airstrip Dispersed Camping (Prophet River Wayside Provincial Park) to Summit Lake Campground in Stone Mountain Provincial Park, for a total of 155 miles/250 km.

Sunrise today was 4:15 AM at Prophet Airstrip Dispersed Camping, Prophet River, BC

Sunset today was 10:28PM at Summit Lake Campground, Stone Mountain Provincial Park, BC.

The rain continued this morning, and decided to pickup some as we prepared to hook up the trailer to the truck.

Image of steady rain while hooking up the pickup and trailer, with Diane in the background.

Prophet Airstrip Dispersed Camping, Prophet River, British Columbia, Canada

As we got on the road this morning, you can see that it had been raining for a while. But it made for a pretty drive in the warm and dry truck.

Image of very wet Alaska Highway leading into the distance.

Alaska Highway (Hwy 97), near Prophet River, British Columbia, Canada

The rain finally let up as we approached Fort Nelson.

Despite there being a lot of RV traffic heading both north and south, as can been seen when we are in significant towns, while out on the road it feels like we are almost alone with very little traffic. It is very nice!

Image of dry Alaska Highway leading into the distance.

Alaska Highway (Hwy 97), South of Fort Nelson, British Columbia, Canada

At Fort Nelson the Alaska Highway takes a hard left and starts heading west. After a little while we saw a couple of deer, a mother and baby, on the highway in front of us. Fortunately, for both us and them, they were a fair distance in front of us, because the baby deer was very young and did not move that fast.

Image of a doe and fawn walking across the highway in front of us.

Deer, Alaska Highway (Hwy 97), Just west of Fort Nelson, British Columbia, Canada

Diane managed to get a photo of the fawn as it jumped through the tall bush off the right side of the highway.

Image of deer fawn jumping away through the tall grass.

Fawn, Alaska Highway (Hwy 97), Just west of Fort Nelson, British Columbia, Canada

We saw a couple of black bears today, but only managed to get a photo of one of them.

Image of black bear along side the highway.

Black Bear, Alaska Highway (Hwy 97), Just east of Steamboat, British Columbia, Canada

We have been traveling up the eastern side of the Northern Rocky Mountains since Dawson Creek. Today offered an excellent view of them, tonights campsite will be right in the middle of them.

Image of Northern Rockies off in the distance.

Northern Rockies, Alaska Highway (Hwy 97), Just west of Steamboat, British Columbia, Canada

Diane took an excellent textural photo of this metal truss bridge with metal grating deck as we crossed over the North Tetsa River on the Alaska Highway.

Image of metal truss bridge with steel grate roadbed.

Bridge, Alaska Highway (Hwy 97), North Tetsa River, British Columbia, Canada

As we entered Stone Mountain Provincial Park, along the Alaska Highway, we saw our first warning sign for sheep. Although we later read that the sheep only winter in Stone Mountain Provincial Park, so we do not expect to see any.

Notice the bare stone mountains. There are many of them here, the one off to the right appears to be a ridge coming off of Mt Saint Paul, although I have also seen a reference to it as Summit Peak. I have not been able to find the names to most of the other ones.

Image of a caution sheep sign with stone mountains in the background.

Sheep Warning Sign, Alaska Highway (Hwy 97), Stone Mountain Provincial Park, British Columbia, Canada

Kenny’s photo of our campground today. Note that we plan to spend two nights here.

Fortunately Starlink is working great, although my shorter Starlink cable seems to have gone bad, so I need to order another short one. The long one I am using is unwieldy.

Mt Saint Paul is straight ahead in this photo, the actual peak is the dark one in the middle in the far distance, whereas the larger looking mountains in the foreground are just large ridges coming off of Mt Saint Paul (check it out in terrain mode in google maps), although, the one on the right might be also called Summit Peak (there is a Summit Peak Trail to the top of it).

Image of the campground with water in the foreground and stone mountains in the background.

Summit Lake Campground, Stone Mountain Provincial Park, Northern Rockies, British Columbia, Canada

A photo showing the view we have of Summit Lake from the window of the dinette in the trailer.

Image looking out the trailer's dinette window across some tents to Summit Lake and stone mountains in the background.

Summit Lake Campground, Stone Mountain Provincial Park, Northern Rockies, British Columbia, Canada

Do you suppose Kenny, Lucy and Snowball are looking a little nervous standing next to this sign? The sign is only about 30 feet from our trailer.

Image of Kenny, holding Lucy and Snowball, in front of a yellow danger problem bear in area sign.

Summit Lake Campground, Stone Mountain Provincial Park, Northern Rockies, British Columbia, Canada

A photo that Kenny took showing some nice moody clouds over Summit Lake.

Image of the campground with some tents in the foreground and Summit Lake and a moody gray sky in the background.

Summit Lake Campground, Stone Mountain Provincial Park, Northern Rockies, British Columbia, Canada

Kenny and I were walking around with our cameras and he decided this old, abandoned, outhouse was ripe for taking a photo. While we were standing there, some guy who just came down off of a long hike up in the mountains asked us if we were there to fix the steps or if he needed to just use a tree. I pointed out to him where the new outhouse was but I suspect he decide to just use a tree anyway.

Image of an old and falling apart campground outhouse with a large do not enter sign on it.

Summit Lake Campground, Stone Mountain Provincial Park, Northern Rockies, British Columbia, Canada

Summit Lake is a pretty lake with its aqua blue color against the gray rock and green trees, and on this day the gray sky.

Image of Summit Lake with blue water, rocks in the foreground and mountains and moody sky in the background.

Summit Lake, Stone Mountain Provincial Park, Northern Rockies, British Columbia, Canada

Kenny working hard to get the perfect shot of the little stream flowing away from the lake.

Image of Kenny standing on a small foot bridge over the outlet of Summit Lake and focused on taking a picture downstream.

Summit Lake Campground, Stone Mountain Provincial Park, Northern Rockies, British Columbia, Canada

And here is the photo Kenny took.

Image of small steam flowing away in some tall green grasses.

Summit Lake Campground, Stone Mountain Provincial Park, Northern Rockies, British Columbia, Canada

You may have noticed that the lake level seemed high, well I think the culprit is right here. This beaver seemed to be building a beaver dam under the small bridge over the lake outlet that Kenny is standing on a couple photos above.

Image of beaver swimming in shallow water.

Summit Lake Campground, Stone Mountain Provincial Park, Northern Rockies, British Columbia, Canada

For those following along on our culinary journey as well, while we don’t have a photo tonight, we had chicken sausages, tater tots and corn for dinner, followed by some chocolate chip cookies (or in my case oatmeal raison cookies).


Day 11 - Wednesday July 3rd

Today was a relaxed day where we stayed a second night at Summit Lake Campground in Stone Mountain Provincial Park and spent our day around camp and some hiking, so no mileage on the truck.

Sunrise today was 4:18 AM at Summit Lake Campground in Stone Mountain Provincial Park.

Sunset today was 10:27 PM at Summit Lake Campground in Stone Mountain Provincial Park.

Below is another photo of Summit Lake showing the aqua blue water and green ridges on one side of the lake.

Image of blue water lake with green trees in the background.

Summit Lake, Stone Mountain Provincial Park, Northern Rockies, British Columbia, Canada

Summit Lake is stocked with fish, and it showed where our campsite was just before the outlet, the baby fish were abundant.

Image of lots of small fish swimming in shallow water.

Summit Lake, Stone Mountain Provincial Park, Northern Rockies, British Columbia, Canada

The morning had very good sun, and just look at the amount of watts my 1000W solar panels were putting out (see PV Charger). This is the most I’ve ever seen them put out.

Image of trailer battery and solar  panel  status.

Summit Lake Campground, Stone Mountain Provincial Park, Northern Rockies, British Columbia, Canada

I tried to duplicate Kenny’s photo from yesterday, with a few changes to be unique, I think Kenny still wins.

Image of small creek flowing through green grass.

Summit Lake Outflow, Stone Mountain Provincial Park, Northern Rockies, British Columbia, Canada

This afternoon we decided to take a hike up the ridge on the south side of the lake so we could get a better view. When we got to the hiking trail sign below, I was hoping it was leading where we wanted.

Image of trail sign, that is nearly unreadable due to most of it has peeled off.

Summit Lake, Stone Mountain Provincial Park, Northern Rockies, British Columbia, Canada

The trail was not too bad, but there were some moderately steep sections.

Image of Steve and Kenny walking up a moderate grade trail.

Summit Lake, Stone Mountain Provincial Park, Northern Rockies, British Columbia, Canada

Deneen does not like steep trails.

Image of Deneen climbing up the trail.

Summit Lake, Stone Mountain Provincial Park, Northern Rockies, British Columbia, Canada

Diane found a patch of Moss Campion flowers.

Image of lots of small flowers in a green background of leaves.

Moss Campion, Summit Lake, Stone Mountain Provincial Park, Northern Rockies, British Columbia, Canada

Today’s view of our campsite.

Image looking down on the campground and Summit Lake from atop the ridge.

Summit Lake Campground, Stone Mountain Provincial Park, Northern Rockies, British Columbia, Canada

Another view of our campsite from a different angle.

Image looking down upon the campground.

Summit Lake Campground, Stone Mountain Provincial Park, Northern Rockies, British Columbia, Canada

Kenny and Diane on the way back down.

Image of Diane and Kenny hiking down a trail.

Summit Lake, Stone Mountain Provincial Park, Northern Rockies, British Columbia, Canada

And just as we got back to the trailer.

Image of Steve, Kenny and Diane standing on small bridge after hike.

Summit Lake, Stone Mountain Provincial Park, Northern Rockies, British Columbia, Canada

The view from our campsite looking towards Summit Lake

Image of late afternoon taken from campsite looking across other campsites to Summit Lake.

Summit Lake Campground, Stone Mountain Provincial Park, Northern Rockies, British Columbia, Canada

Dinner tonight was Beef Stroganoff and peas.

Image of us sitting around the dinette for dinner.

Summit Lake Campground, Stone Mountain Provincial Park, Northern Rockies, British Columbia, Canada


Day 12 - Thursday July 4th

Today was one of our short drives, a total of 70 miles/113 km from Summit Lake Campground at Stone Mountain Provincial Park, BC, to Northern Rockies Lodge/RV Park at Muncho Lake, BC.

Sunrise today was at 4:20 AM at Summit Lake Campground, Stone Mountain Provincial Park, BC.

Sunset today was at 10:34 PM at Northern Rockies Lodge/RV Park, Muncho Lake, BC.

It was a beautiful day as we started out.

Image across a blue green lake with trees and mountains in the background.

Summit Lake, Stone Mountain Provincial Park, Northern Rockies, British Columbia, Canada

Not long after leaving the campground we saw numerous Stone Sheep along the highway.

The poor, bow legged, sheep on the left looks a little old and rickety.

Image of Stone Sheep alongside the highway with mountains in the background.

Stone Sheep, near Summit Lake, Northern Rockies, British Columbia, Canada

Some nice examples of rocky mountains as we drive through the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

Previously I have said that it often feels like we are alone out on the road, even though we know there are other people on the road with us. When we do see other traffic, it is pretty clear that a major portion of the traffic is RVs.

Image of road with RV on it and mountains in the background.

Alaska Highway (Hwy 97), near Toad River, British Columbia, Canada

More rocky mountains in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

Image of empty road curving away towards some mountains.

Alaska Highway (Hwy 97), near Toad River, British Columbia, Canada

Since our drive was so short we went as slow as we reasonably could, so when we came to a nice large pullout next to the Toad River along the Alaska Highway we stopped to look at the scenery.

Diane caught a cool photo below of Kenny and I taking photos pointing opposite directions.

Below is a gallery of photos, click on one of the photos and you can see enlarged versions that you can click through. Once you have enlarged a photo, if you hover over the image you will see the image title and description, to remove the title and description just move the mouse pointer off the photo.

We arrive at Muncho Lake.

Image of Muncho Lake with two RVs on the road in front of us.

Alaska Highway (Hwy 97), Muncho Lake, British Columbia, Canada

There was another interesting pullout along the Alaska Highway next to Muncho Lake that we pulled out in. This is where we learned the specific type of sheep we have been seeing.

Image of Stone Sheep sign.

Pullout, Alaska Highway (Hwy 97), Muncho Lake, British Columbia, Canada

This pullout had a large plain of rocks leading away from the lake into the mountains. I assume, but don’t know, that this was originally glacially carved and then flash floods have turned it into a large alluvial plain.

Image of rocky plain going back in to the mountains.

Pullout, Alaska Highway (Hwy 97), Muncho Lake, British Columbia, Canada

Diane took some cool photos of plants while walking out on this plain.

Once we arrived at our campground, Northern Rockies Lodge/RV Park, we were directed to a premium RV spot on the lake shore.

Image of truck and trailer backed into a tree covered campsite, with the starlink antenna poking out the front.

Northern Rockies Lodge/RV Park, Muncho Lake, British Columbia, Canada

The only catch was that to get to it, we have back the trailer all the way down a portion of the lake front to get to our site. Where we had to start backing down is shown in the photo below where the white RV is in the distance.

Image looking down the lake front road in front of the campsite.

Northern Rockies Lodge/RV Park, Muncho Lake, British Columbia, Canada

We had RV site “RV 1”, right next to the floatplane docks. It was a great site.

Image of Northern Rockies Lodge/Campground map.

Northern Rockies Lodge/RV Park, Muncho Lake, British Columbia, Canada

Here is Deneen hanging out and enjoying the scenery.

Image of Deneen sitting in a Adirondack chair looking out at the blue green lake.

Northern Rockies Lodge/RV Park, Muncho Lake, British Columbia, Canada

Not long after we arrived, a floatplane flew in that we were able to watch land. The lodge has several floatplanes that they fly customers out to remote, non-accessible, lakes to fish and stay at the lodge’s outpost cabins.

Since this is the 4th of July and the place we are staying has a lodge dining room we ate out this evening.

Kenny of course had steak, and Diane, Deneen and I had their Northern Rockies Pork Schnitzel with creamy mushroom sauce. It was all very tasty.

The dining room also had some interesting art.

Below is a gallery of our desserts for tonight!

Contentment while walking back to the trailer after a great dinner with Diane, Kenny and Deneen, and not to forget the two bottles of wine.

Image of Steve walking along the lakeshore.

Northern Rockies Lodge/RV Park, Muncho Lake, British Columbia, Canada


Day 13 - Friday July 5th

Today we drove north west on the Alaska Highway 36 miles/58 km, from Northern Rockies Lodge/RV Park, BC, to Liard River Hot Springs, BC.

Sunrise was 4:22 AM at Northern Rockies Lodge/RV Park, BC.

Sunset was 10:38 at Liard River Hot Springs, BC.

Below is the view this morning from the front of our campsite.

Image of floatplane at dock being loaded.

Northern Rockies Lodge/RV Park, Muncho Lake, British Columbia, Canada

It was fun to watch on the of the floatplanes get loaded with gear and passengers and take off.

Then is was time to head down the lonely road. Today was also not a very long drive so we were able to take it easy.

Before leaving we used the RV dump station at the Northern Rockies Lodge/RV Park. While we were using it, we noticed a caribou running down the road, being followed by a car. We were not in a position to take a photo, and so far we have not see any other caribou.

Image looking down the road at mountains in the distance.

Alaska Highway (Hwy 97), north of Muncho Lake, British Columbia, Canada

A ways down the road, we did see a large number of Bison hanging out near to the Alaska Highway.

Once we reached Liard River Hot Springs, it was interesting to see the measures they have taken to keep the wildlife out of the campground. When I was last here, back in 2007 with Tony, there was no electric fence and I remember the rangers chasing a bear out of the campground with flash bangs.

We had a very large and very private campsite. Unfortunately this meant that Starlink did not work that well. It was only good from some news, texts and emails, it did not work for any interactive use of the internet. But compared to back in 2007 the communication ability was outstanding.

Image of trailer in large and very nice campsite.

Campsite, Liard River Hot Springs Campground, along Alaska Highway, British Columbia, Canada

While the campground is surrounded by an electric fence, the 700 meter boardwalk leading to the hot springs is not. It caused me to look over my shoulder a few times.

Image of boardwalk leading out through a marsh.

Boardwalk to Liard River Hot Springs from Campground, along Alaska Highway, British Columbia, Canada

The walk out to the hots springs was pretty.

Image of boardwalk leading out through some trees.

Boardwalk to Liard River Hot Springs from Campground, along Alaska Highway, British Columbia, Canada

The hot springs was even prettier.

Kenny has never been to a hot springs before and was excited to try it out. We spent a fair amount of time soaking and trying to get as close to the hot end of the pool as possible, which is the foreground of the photo below. The challenge was get close enough to stack a rock on the edge of the pool. It was very difficult to do, the water is very hot, and the only way to do it is to constantly swirl colder water from below up to cool the water off. All of us, except Kenny (mostly because I would not let him do it) made it to the end, and maybe Deneen and/or Diane actually managed to stack a rock. I only managed to touch the rock pile before escaping back to cooler water.

Image of Liard River Hot Springs with people in it.

Liard River Hot Springs, along Alaska Highway, British Columbia, Canada

Diane captured some great flora photos while we were out there.

For dinner, we had stir-fried chicken and carrots mixed with rice noodles.

Image of dinner on the dinette in the trailer.

Dinner, Liard River Hot Springs Campground, along Alaska Highway, British Columbia, Canada


Day 14 - Saturday July 6th

We spent two nights at Liard River Campground, so today is a full day here.

Today at Liard River Campground sunrise was at 4:21 AM and Sunset was at 10:37 PM.

While we did not move the trailer, we did drive 88 miles/142 km to explore and do some hikes.

We spent part of our day this morning working on our computers. Kenny has found a way to relax while he waits.

Image of Kenny relaxing on the couch with Snowball.

Liard River Hot Springs Campground, along Alaska Highway, British Columbia, Canada

Once we finished our computer work we headed out for the first of several short hikes.

The first place was Smith River Falls at Smith River/Fort Hackett Protected Area. It involved a 5 km or so drive out a one lane, very bumpy, dirt road. Once we got there we could see the falls, as shown below, from the small parking area.

Image of waterfall in bright sunlight.

Smith River Falls, Smith River/Fort Hackett Protected Area, BC, Canada

From the parking area there was a short, but steep, trail down to the bottom of the falls. Kenny did not enjoy going down some steep, and very uneven, stairs nor some steep trail sections. But he was happy to be at the bottom and to see the falls from a different perspective. Going back uphill was not a problem. Meanwhile the rest of us kept an eye out for any bears around the next bend in the trail.

We saw three black bears today from the truck and we were able to take photos of them. My favorite is Kenny and a large black bear having a staring contest.

Image of Kenny looking out the window of the truck at a black bear that is looking back.

Kenny & Bear, Alaska Highway (Hwy 97), Coal River, Northern Rockies, British Columbia, Canada

Below is a closer photo of the bear from above, and a couple other bears we were able to photograph.

British Columbia has the most manicured highways I have ever seen.

Image of road driving off into the distance next to mountains.

Alaska Highway (Hwy 97), Northern Rockies, British Columbia, Canada

We also visited a place along the Liard River known as Whirlpool Canyon.

Our final hike of the day was to Teeter Creek Falls. It was a little over one kilometer hike in through some dense forest and bushes. It seemed like an ideal area for bears to be hanging out in, so we were looking very carefully around every bend in the trail. Below is a short road into the trailhead, once on the trail, the brush left just enough room to get through.

Image of Steve, Kenny and Deneen walking down a forested two track path towards a trailhead.

Teeter Creek Falls Trailhead, Alaska Highway (Hwy 97), Northern Rockies, British Columbia, Canada

Despite staying bear aware, it was a pleasant hike to a small but pretty falls. One interesting thing was that once we got there, there was this strange bridge structure crossing the creek that did not go anywhere. After looking at it closely it looked to be a structure supporting water flow measurement equipment. I think this was a designated water flow measurement point.

Diane found some pretty butterflies and flowers along the trail.

By this point in the trip, we have basically run out of all our booze except for some vodka. So we invented a new drink which we named an Alaskan Sparkle.

Alaskan Sparkle

1-1/2 oz Vodka

3/4 oz Pomegranate Syrup

1 oz Dry Vermouth

3/4 oz Fresh Lime Juice

3 Dashes of Regans’ Orange Bitters

Garnish with dried orange slice

Image of Snowball and Lucy on dinette table next to a red cocktail.

Alaskan Sparkle, Liard River Hot Springs Campground, along Alaska Highway, British Columbia, Canada

Tonight we had mushroom risotto for dinner.

Mushroom Risotto, Liard River Hot Springs Campground, along Alaska Highway, British Columbia, Canada

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2024 Alaska Road Trip (Week 3)

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2024 Alaska Road Trip (Week 1)