RoadNotes: Liard and Lucky, Life is good

Liard Hot Springs Overflow Parking, BC & Lucky Lake Parking Lot, Near Watson Lake, YT – May 27 & 28, 2014

Rolling down the hill to the Toad River Lodge, mountains rise in the background. In every direction its “Wow! Look at that!”.

The famous Toad River Lodge.

What is the Toad River Lodge famous for you ask?

EJ is counting, but there is supposed to be 8,000 plus hats stapled to the ceiling.

Next is Folded Mountain. If you look close at the picture you can see how the rock layers making the mountain are folded back on themselves.

And the other scenery it’s bad either.

I sure hope this guy chickens out,or I’m going to need to change my shorts.

Actually they were washing the road. Out here in the middle of no where. That’s a water truck. I guess maybe the pavement got dirty.

Next are the Sawtooth Mountains.

Then Mucho Lake. In the native language, Muncho means big lake. So that makes its name is “Big Lake Lake”. How ever you look at it, it truly is a big and beautiful lake. And it’s still frozen over just like Summit Lake was.

And here is a post card shot.

And of course, I had to see just how cold that ice really was. And yes, John, it is colder than the springs!

Yup! That’s ice! It is really intricate in detail.

At a pull out about a mile down the road there were plaques indicating what a great place this was to view Stone Sheep. EJ said she didn’t see any sheep. Not wanting to disappoint her I pointed to a ridge of gravel about a quarter of a mile away.

On our list of places to stop next was the Northern Rockies Lodge. We thought we might get a spot of lunch here. A chicken sandwich was $17.50. And fries were extra. We decided a bologna sandwich back in the RV sounded pretty good. Oh, and they also won the award for the most expensive diesel fuel so far at $1.99 per liter. With the exchange rate today, that is about $7.54 a gallon. Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!

Then we ran into a veritable zoo of animals. Caribou, Bears, and Bison.

The Lower Liard River Bridge is the only remaining suspension bridge on the Alaska Highway. It was built in 1943.

Mocha, buried in her blankie, can’t be bothered by such mundane stuff as historical structures and wild animals.

Around 3 in the afternoon, we arrive at Liard Hot Springs. Well, actually we stayed in the free parking area across the highway. The campground didn’t have any services and we’re pretty self sufficient so we decided to save a little money.

Most of the Loosey Goosey group arrived here yesterday. At 4PM we wandered over for Happy Hour. More stories, more new people joining the group. This thing is starting to reach critical mass.

The next morning we pay our $10 and wander over to the hot springs to see what the fuss is all about. There are three pools (more or less natural) with each having a different temperature. The upper pool, which is the hottest, is closed due to bear activity. The second pool which has the changing rooms, deck and seats was the most popular. The lower pool is slightly hotter than bath water. Our verdict? Liard Hot Spring is a great value for the money.

We leave a day ahead of the group, just to see what it feels like to arrive first at the next destination.

We had planned on going all the way to Watson Lake today. but more animal sightings slowed us down.

The Alaska Highway in this area swaps back and forth between the Yukon Territories and British Columbia so many times you lose count. Even the GPS gave up announcing borders.

As we near Watson Lake, we’re scouting the area looking for a place to park for the night. All the turn outs have “No Camping” signs posted. Uh oh! Things are starting to look grim. We really don’t want to pay campground fees just to sleep somewhere.

Just 7.5 miles from town, we spy Lucky Lake. We park Big Guy across the street and walk over to inspect the parking lot. Not the first no over night parking or no camping sign. Yes!! This will do just fine.