Bison and Hot Springs

We began the day by driving in to the town of Watson Lake to visit the Sign Forest.


A homesick soldier who was working on the Alaska Highway posted a sign pointing southeast toward his hometown in Illinois. Others followed suit, and today there are 67,000 of them, from all over the world.


We didn't have anything to make one out of or we would have left one, too. Next time! There were a few from NH, the closest being Greenland. Also there were several license plates from NH. The Visitor Center had a short film on the construction of the Highway.


I didn't know that the United States had troops on the ground here working a couple of months before the Canadian Government gave permission for them to be here. The Prime Minister was afraid of the USA taking over. Imagine that!

We then drove south out of the Yukon Territory and into British Columbia.


The scenery was gorgeous, and there was lots of wildlife. Over the past two days we have seen moose, mule deer, black bear, grizzlies and bison.


Yes, buffalo, in the wild. Certainly, I never thought I would see that in this century. They are wood bison, and are endangered so are protected by the Canadian government.


I have no idea how they differ from Plains buffalo and since I have no Internet access I can't look them up. They look identical to me- huge, with massive heads and bodies that look too big to move. The forest is very thick here so It must be difficult for them to move around in it. When we saw them they were grazing beside the road. The first one we saw was scratching his back on a tree. There are warning signs everywhere about them, as they have the right of way, and know a good highway when they see it, so herds of them stroll across and along the roads at will.


On a dark, foggy night they could be a real hazard, as they are very dark brown.

We are camping at the Liard Hot Springs Provincial Park.


There is geothermal activity in the area so some plants grow here that should not survive at this latitude. Also, some of them grow very large.


The Queen Anne's Lace in the photo is taller than I am, and the blossom is at least 6 inches across.


There are two pools that you can swim in so of course we did. The sulphur smell was not as pronounced as near other hot springs and volcanos we've been near. The temperature in one pool was supposedly 126 degrees, and the other somewhat lower.


We tried both pools.


I found the hotter one too hot, but there was an area of it that had been dammed off and was cooler and had a waterfall you could sit under.


It felt really good to soak. In the hottest portion the cold water would sink and when the top got too warm you just stirred up the water from the bottom.


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