Day 11 -- Monday 7/18/2001

Liard River Hot Springs, BC to Continental Divide, YT -- 210 Miles

The highway north from the Liard River Hot Springs followed the broad Liard River for several miles. The road was broad, with wide shoulders in most areas, and fairly level. The wide, grassy right-of-way on either side of the pavement was well maintained, making it easy to see the wildlife along the way. We saw several buffalo, must of which appeared to be solitary bulls grazing along the roadside, although a couple just seemed to be casually ambling down the shoulder of the road. We also saw a total of five black bears; again, all singles, no mothers and cubs. We also caught a glimpse of a couple of brownish-colored bears which may have been grizzlies, but because we didn't get a good look we couldn't tell for sure.

It's about 150 miles from the Liard Hot Springs to Watson Lake. The highway skirts the BC-YT border for a few miles, criss-crossing the border five or six times before it takes a dip back into BC and finally officially entering Yukon Territory once and for all just a few miles south of Watson Lake. We had lunch at a small cafe where we talked with a local trapper at the next table. He told us that the grizzlies stayed mostly up in the mountains, so the brownish bears we saw earlier wer probably just lighter-colored black bears.

After lunch we popped into the local grocery store to pick up some milk and a couple of other things, then went to the famous Watson Lake Sign Forest. This is a grassy corner at the intersection of two roads which is full of literally thousands of signs from all over the world. I believe it started as a couple of posts erected by the soldiers who built the Alaska Highway that included just signs that pointed to their hometowns and gave the mileage -- the typical "Sheboygan 2500 Miles" painted on a wooden arrow type sign. But now includes everything from street signs to city limits signs fro towns and cities around the world to what I'd call "Kilroy was here" signs with peoples' names and hometowns.

After leaving the sign forest we went across the street to the Northern Lights Centre, a planetarium-like auditorium which shows a short film about astronaut training and then another film about the Aurora Borealis. The former seemed the be directed mainly at kids, although the latter was more interesting in that it discussed the science of the northern lights and then showed several minutes of video of this atmospheric phenomenon. I guess the main thing that struck me was simply to find such facility in such a small town in such an out-of-the-way location.

Leaving Watson Lake, we continued west for roughly 50 to 60 miles, stopping at the Continental Divide Lodge and RV Park for the night. The title "Lodge" is somewhat of a misnomer, as it consists of a gas station, a small cafe, a few trailer-like structures they call a motel, and several parking spots with utility hook-ups for RVs out back. You know you're in the boonies when the whole shebang is run off a single on-site diesel generator. At least they have (slow) wi-fi via a satellite internet hook-up.

The name comes from the fact that it sits on, or least near, the divide between the Yukon and Mackenzie River drainages. The Yukon River, of course, flows westward to the Bering Sea, and the Mackenzie eventually flows north to the Arctic Ocean. The elevation here is approximately 3200 ft.

Tomorrow we hope to make it to Whitehorse, where we turn north toward Dawson City and the Top of the World Highway. From the looks of things, we'll be passing through another range of substantial mountains to our west. These still have patches of snow on the higher peaks.