Happy Canada Day, July 1

Canada Day was rainy and foggy, so not too many good photos. For us it was mostly a day of driving, as many of them will be from now on. However, there's always something to see. We began the day by driving up over a hill and literally into a herd of bison on the road.


They were everywhere! There were at least 30 of them, and more kept coming. There were several calves, and if something that big can be cute, these babies sure were!


We waited until they decided to move along and the traffic could actually use the road, too.

We drove along beside the Trout River for several miles. It was a lovely turquoise color, thanks to the minerals in the silt it carries.


There were sweeping views of the Trout River Valley. Muncho Lake was also lovely, with 7000 foot peaks behind it and deep blue and green coloring. "Muncho" means "large" in the local Athabascan dialect. I think it's interesting how that word is so like ones with the same meaning in other languages.


We passed many huge areas of outwash, which is where gravel, stones, and even boulders have washed down from the mountain valleys. As time goes on, they eventually become evenly distributed across the landscape, in the shape of a fan. This is known as an alluvial fan.


No trees or grass grows there, just a bit of scrub, and not much of that. The mountains here are not jagged peaks, but sort of softly fold into each other creating gentle valleys. This is the northern tip of the Canadian Rockies. Thanks to this trip, I know I'll never look at landscape in quite the same way as before.


Along the way a caribou wandered across the road.


During today's journey we crossed both the highest and lowest points on the Alaska Highway. When we approached Summit Pass the rain turned to snow for a while. As we got lower the road became relatively straight and flat, passing between walls of trees. The forest is different now; more mixed woods, and no more skinny Black Spruce. Finally we came to Fort Nelson, a fairly large town. The largest natural gas processing plant in North America is there, as well as a plant that creates sulfur pellets out of the waste products of the natural gas processing. Also many of the fast food franchises. They're everywhere! Farther on we camped at Buckinghorse Wayside Provincial park, tucked in among the spruce trees beside the rocky Buckinghorse River.


It's peaceful here. It really says something about the scenery we drove through today that it could be as gorgeous as it was, even when it's raining.


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