Whitehorse Adventure - Day 7: Fort Nelson to Liard River Hotsprings

Day 7 (305 km traveled) - Today we traveled back over the rocky mountains heading West and then North from Fort Nelson to Liard River Hotsprings.  The landscape is once again changing quite dramatically as we are leaving the foothills which are lush and green with thick dense forests of mainly deciduous trees (from what I can tell from the highway at least).  As we enter the rocky mountain range the road quality is also getting much worse.  The road is not constructed like modern highways with their carefully banked corners and gentle slopes.  Instead it is more reminiscent of the roadways of earlier eras which follow the landscape with little human interference other than moving of major obstacles.  This section of the Rockies is barren and looks like a glacier has only just receded (although I cannot see any from the road).

After a long climb we reach Summit Lake campground in Stone Mountain Provincial park.  Unfortunately it is not in our plan to stop here mainly because we did not know about it.  It is perched on the top of the mountain pass and nestled in between the rocky peaks.  (We have added it to our mental list of places that we would like to re-visit at some point in the future.)   After that is Muncho Lake Provincial Park.  It is another gem.  A long emerald colored lake that looks impossibly cold among the stark gray mountains and scree slopes.  (Also added to list.)

This area of British Columbia seems so empty and makes you realize how much of our province in uninhabited and untouched.  (Dave's theory is that you could fit any number of european countries in this "empty" space.)   Gas prices are also noticeably higher on this leg of the journey.  We stopped at the Tetsa River Services to buy some cinnamon buns (advertised in the milepost as the best in the galactic cluster) and the gas price was $1.58/L.  Luckily we are still fine for gas and know that there is another station within our gas tank range so we press on.  We filled up with gas at a little place called Toad River (between Stone Mountain and Muncho Lake) and gas was $1.38/L.  Dave was talking to a fellow coming the other direction who warned us that gas at the service station nearest to Muncho Lake was a whopping $1.80/L.  Glad we didn't have to stop there!!

The highway descends a long way into the Liard river valley and we are now out of the Rockies and into the lush green forests which are much more common in the rest of BC.  We arrive at Liard River Hotsprings and quickly set up camp so that we can have time for a soak in the springs before dinner.  The hotsprings are a 700m walk along a board walk that winds through a tropical marsh.  We are above 59 degrees north which is farther North than any of us had been before and the last thing that we would expect to see is large bushy ferns and other more tropical plants!  However due to the warming created by the natural hotsprings the plants nearest to the hotsprings are very tropical with large, broad leaves.  There are two areas at the pool called alpha pool (the closest to the campground) the lower area is cool enough to take the kids into.  After a full week of travel so far this is a welcome respite.  Our 20 month old son "O" is particularly excited to be at floating and splashing in the bathwarm water.  

The area is also bear territory and the beta pool and the hanging gardens areas are closed due to bear activity.  We are familiar with living in bear country and are careful not to leave any food out that might attract them to our campsite.

We enjoy it so much that we make plans to get moving early the next day so we can start our day of travel with a dip in the revitalizing springs. The only downsides are that there are no showers there (and we do not travel with enough water in the trailer for the luxury of showering) and the tropical environment is also much loved by the the pesty mosquitoes.

The smoke from the forest fire near the Alaska hwy and Hwy 37 junction (just inside BC) is starting to be really noticeable now as we are getting a lot closer to the area.  In talking to other people at the hotspring we hear that the road has been closed an that people are having long waits to get up through the fire area (following a pilot car).

Whitehorse Adventure - Day 6: Charlie Lake to Fort Nelson

Day 6 (372 km traveled) - The highway between Charlie Lake and Fort Nelson is the most isolated stretch of highway that we have driven so far.  This is a concern to us since we are not getting great gas mileage towing the trailer with the 4Runner.  We are averaging about 10 mpg (23 L/100km) and can travel about 290 km on a tank of gas in order to stay within the "Dave Comfort Zone" (thus not causing undue stress to our driver).  Since the gas stations are fewer and farther between they are also becoming more expensive, but we do not have the luxury of being too picky where we buy our gas.

Several of our stops were at the historical mileposts on the Alaska Highway. This is based on the original markings along the Alaska Highway.  Often they are accompanied by stories about what the highway was like or how it was constructed.  Our lunch stop was at historical "Mile 148" which was once an incredibly steep hill commonly called Suicide hill.  According to 2008 edition of the The Milepost (a comprehensive mile by mile guide to the Alaska Highway) there was once a sign at the top of this hill warning travelers to "prepare to meet thy maker".  The picture on the plaque there showed that the original hill looked to be at a +20% incline and was probably only one lane wide!  Glad there have been a few highway improvements over the past 60 years or so.

The trip was uneventful and we arrived in Fort Nelson around 3pm.   There are only two crowded camping areas in town and both are RV parks where the trailers are so close you can practically touch your neighbor.  We camp at the Westend RV park because out of the two it appears to have a few more trees and is also pretty close to the historical society's museum.  It also worked out in our favour that there is a brand new water (spray) park a short walk from the campground.  After setting up, the kids and I head over to the spray park to cool off.  Dave follows shortly after and I think that him and I had even more fun playing there than the kids do (read: we don't cry when we get water sprayed on us).

One very cool bonus was that the snowbirds (canada's military aerobatic team) were performing somewhere close by and flew over our campsite several times in different formations.

After dinner we headed over to the Fort Nelson Heritage Museum.  It looked like it a tiny museum that would only take 15 minutes to see the entire collection.  Instead it was a comprehensive museum that included a large collection of antique cars, several outbuildings including a trappers cabin and a 1940's house, a large generator (which was once responsible for powering the entire town) and many more pieces of old equipment.  It was the true surprise of the day and most unexpected.  Unfortunately for us we got there only 30 minutes before it was closing so we had a rather rushed visit!

Whitehorse Adventure - Day 5: Mcleod Lake to Charlie Lake

Day 5 (357 km traveled) - We didn’t want to be camping in a parking lot again tonight so we got another early start.  This is easy for us to do since the kids still wake early (often as early as 6am).

The terrain is becoming even more lush and green.  The highway passed through the Rocky Mountains today and we’re now in the foot hills and near prairies.  We stopped in Chetwynd for gas and as we were driving through town we could see quite a few examples of statues carved by chainsaws.  Apparently Chetwynd is the chainsaw carving capital of Canada (if not the world).  However we didn’t have the time to go look at the carvings more closely and didn’t want to stand around in the rain either.  This is the first rain that we’ve had for the entire trip and it is badly needed to help with the high risk of wildfire conditions.

We took the slightly longer route to Fort St. John (Charlie Lake) because we wanted to stop at the Mile “0” of the Alaska Highway in Dawson Creek.  This meant we are not going to drive through Hudson's Hope and we will not see the W.A.C Bennet dam.  It is too bad that we couldn't do both, but it is not at all practical and we don't want to extend our journey any more than we have to.  

We had lunch in the parking lot at the Dawson Creek tourist info and the got our pictures taken in front of the sign.  It is rather daunting as we drove into Dawson Creek to see a distance sign saying “Whitehorse-1500km”.  Yikes, that means we are slightly less than half way through our driving journey just to get TO Whitehorse not to mention getting home again afterward!

After lunch we drove to Fort St. John and on to Charlie Lake (about 5min further).  We stayed at the Rotary RV park which was like a large gravel parking lot, but it was fully serviced, had free wifi, a playground and was near a large dock to fish off of.  For dinner we went into Boston Pizza in Fort St. John which was our first restaurant dinner out.  After dinner Dave and “A” went fishing from the dock and “A” was able to use his fishing rod for only the 2^nd time since he got it last Christmas.  They didn’t have any luck, but later after the kids were in bed Dave went back again and snagged a small walleye.  Unfortunately it was too small and had to be released.

We are concerned about a wild fire that we have heard about that has closed down HWY 37 (Cassiar Hwy).  It won’t affect our trip to Whitehorse, but we were planning to come home that way.  We’ll watch the reports and may have to adjust our return trip.  Luckily we have almost a full week until we need to come back that way.

Whitehorse Adventure - Day 4: Barkerville to Mcleod Lake

Day 4 (326 Km traveled) - We got an early start leaving Barkerville since we have no reservations at our destination (Whiskers Point Provincial Park on McLeod Lake) and we were foolishly traveling on a very busy long weekend that is one of the more popular camping weekends. 

We have to drive back through Quesnel to get back on Hwy 97.  We stop for a few groceries in Prince George at Super Store.  In order to park there we have to park across 7 spots and we’re not even the longest rig there.  We have our lunch there in the parking lot and then get back on the road headed for McLeod Lake. 

As we near our destination we can see a sandy point jutting out into the pristine lake.  We are definitely are in need of a swim after our long drive and after a couple of dusty days at Barkerville.  To our dismay when we arrive at the entrance to the campground we see the “Campground Full” sign hung out at the front gate.  We drive in anyway in order to check if anyone has left earlier that day (wishful thinking, I know).  As we drive in we meet in facility operators and ask about their vacancies.  Our luck has run out and there are no vacant sites, however we are told that we can camp in the overflow site.  It turns out the overflow area is just the parking lot that is closest to the beach.  At this point we are hot, tired and the kids have been in the car for longer than they want to be. We park the truck and trailer do a quick change and then head down to the beach for a little sun and sand and a cool dip in the lake.  We feel guilty leaving the dog in the trailer, but the beach is a dog free zone so she has to stay behind.  The lake is cool and crisp and perfect when countered by the heat of the sunshine.  After cooling down we dry off while building sand castles for Dave and the boys and snoozing in the sun for me.

Because of our trip to the grocery store earlier that day we had a feast for dinner: fresh corn, steak and new potatoes!  Delicious after such a busy day and a step up from the burgers and dogs that we had been dining on!

We did learn two very important things today.  One: it never hurts to ask if there is vacancy.  Our parking lot campsite was just fine for one night and we were really close to the beach!  Two: Always double or triple check that the fridge door is fully closed and latched before traveling.  We had a near disaster after grocery shopping.  When we entered the trailer at the camp site we found several things that had obviously come out of the fridge at some point during our journey.  Among them was an unopened 2 liter bottle of tonic water and a couple of cans of coolers!  Whew, that could have been super messy especially since there was also a 4 L (gallon) of milk in the fridge!

Favorite parts: The beach!

Wildlife spotted: black bear (south of Prince George – seen from hwy)

Whitehorse Adventure - Day 2/3: Green Lake Provincial Park to Barkerville

Day 2 (350km travelled): We continued north. Driving through 100 Mile House and William's Lake on Hwy 97.  At Quesnel we turn East following the large, impossible to miss, signs directing us to the historic townsite of Barkerville.  Barkerville was the site of a gold rush in the late 1800's.  The town stands essentially intact and is complete with period actors who help make it feel authentic.  We camp at the Lowhee Campground (one of three close by).  We got a great campsite directly across from the all-important playground which was fantastic because it gave our 4 year old son a bit of independence while at the same time we were able to stalk him see him, and know he was safe!  The only downside to this site was that our kids go to bed earlier than many of the older kids so it was a little noisy (but only because Dave and I were ready for our quiet, kid-noise free time).

We arrived early enough the first day to be able to go to Barkerville before dinner.  Since we were there late in the day on a weekday there were few tourists and we were able to go on a stage coach ride through town practically by ourselves.  The kids loved it and were thrilled to pat the silky noses of the huge horses after the ride was over. We spent some time watching the black smith work and walking along the main street and then it was time to go home for dinner.

Ready for our ride!

Blacksmith at work.

Day 3 (no travel):  Because the road into Barkerville was so long (80km each way) we decided that we had better stay 2 nights there so that we would be able to spend a full day at the townsite.

Our kids are early birds so we are woken up at 6am even while on vacation.  The upside of this is that it gives us time to have a nice leisurely breakfast of pancakes (only on non-travel days).  Fuelled up and bathed in sunscreen we headed to the townsite to catch some of the stuff that we were not able to fit in during our first visit. We meandered through the town one of the first tourists to arrive we were able to get some prime pictures of the ghost town in a vacant state (before it is crawling with tourists)!

We bought a simple lunch of sandwiches at one of the stores that operate on site and then headed over to watch one of the scheduled events.  This one is at the Cornish water wheel on the site and it involves a woman who has inherited a mine and is trying to scam recruit investors.  She is an upper class woman and is presenting to the crowd along with her worker who is a true gold hunter with a gleam of "crazy" in his eye!  The actors never break character and get the whole audience involved.  They even show a working example of the cornish water wheel.  It was well worth standing out in the hot sun, while trying to wrangle an energetic 21 month old!


As we were leaving Barkerville, we stopped by the gold panning station.  For $6:50 you can pan for gold (guaranteed gold flakes in every pan) and they even had someone to help 4 year old "A".  He was smiling the whole time and now may or may not have gold fever! 


After the much required nap time (even mom got to nap) we headed to the nearby town of Wells where they were starting to set up for ArtWells a big arts festival.  Not too much was going on yet since it was only friday afternoon and most things were starting later that evening and the next day.  We did walk around the small town core and marvel at the bold colour schemes that many of the old houses were painted.  Most were very bright and in colours you don't commonly see houses painted.

Whitehorse Adventure - Day 1: Vancouver to Green Lake Provincial Park

The next few postings will be a daily journal of my family's 3 week trip to Whitehorse YT from Vancouver, BC (and back again).  We are traveling with our 28 ft long travel trailer and camping along the way.  The PLAN is to take 9 days to get to Whitehorse driving along Hwy 97 and the Alaska Highway.  Once in Whitehorse we are going to spend 3 nights there and attend a wedding.  On the way home we have up to 11 days to make the trip and no pre-made reservations we are planning on coming south on Hwy 37 (the Cassiar Hwy). 

Day 1  (450 km travelled)- The first day we traveled from our home near Vancouver, BC to Green Lake Provincial park (located near 70 mile house, off of HWY 97).  We traveled along the TransCanada Hwy #1 through the rugged and scenic fraser canyon until the junction with hwy 97 north.  After leaving the lush green of the lower mainland the Fraser Canyon section of the Hwy 1 was rugged and dry.  We stop for gas and stagger out into the arid 34C weather and melt after being kept cool by the A/C. For me it brings back memories of the last time I traveled this route more than 20 years ago as a kid.  Our '78 GMC Jimmy had vinyl seats and no A/C!  I remember being excited that my parents were encouraging us to eat chips (to help keep our salt up I guess now).  

This section of hwy 1 is an area in decline (from outside appearances at least), since the Coquihalla hwy was opened in 1986 and provided travellers with a quicker route from kamloops to Hope the fraser canyon portion has been used by fewer people.  Now the only traffic that we see mid-week is a steady stream of RV's.

As we head turn onto hwy 97 and head north to our campsite for the night the air is smoky from the growing number of forest fires that are in the region.  A campfire ban has been implemented and is starting on the 2nd day of our trip because the hot dry weather has caused the risk of fire to edge into the extreme ranges.  Heading north the terrain changes once again and is less desert like and more rolling green hills and mountains.

We have planned this first day to be one of our longer travel days just to take advantage of the kids being excited tolerating travel at this point in our journey.  We finally arrive at our campground for the night around 5pm.  There is a swimming beach right there so we head on down to the beach for a well deserved dip in the lake!  We camp at the Emerald Bay Campground which has our main requirements for great camping... a swimming beach and a playground. 

What happens in Vegas gets a Blog Posting...

We went, we drank, we shopped, and we may have even gambled a little!

This is a very late post for our vegas trip which was about 2 months ago.  We stayed at the MGM grand and the room we had was nicely appointed, but small and with no view.  However, this wasn't a bad deal since we didn't go to Vegas to hang out in a hotel room.  We went to have fun and to see the oppulent sights.  We went from a Sunday to a Wednesday and here are the details as best as I can remember.


Sunday - Our night of Free shows and expensive margaritas!
The first day we arrived we got in around 2 pm local time.  We skipped the shuttle and opted to pay a bit more and get to our hotel more quickly.  I think it was well worth it because we were just eager to get started on our vacation.  After checking into the hotel we grabbed a drink at the pool and enjoyed the warm afternoon sun. 

We had previously decided to check out Margaritaville for dinner on the first night so we walked up the strip to the Flamingo hotel for our dinner there.  The food was decent (burgers/fries) and the margaritas were yummy!  The best part was that they had a free floor show which consisted of 3 guys on stilts doing a bit of a dance and then a woman joined in the dancing.  The woman then climbed up to the top of the indoor volcano, the volcano "erupted" and the woman slid down a slide in the side of the volcano into a giant blender full of water.  After getting out of the blender she danced around in her bathing suit and "Margaritaville" was played on the sound system.  The funnest part was that the whole restaurent sang along with the song!  It was a fantastic way to start the evening!

We decided that we would continue up the strip to see more free shows at the Mirage (the volcano) and Treasure Island (The Siren's of TI-pirate show).  We were early for the pirate show so we grabbed a primo spot right at the edge of the water.  I sent Dave to get us another margarita and he came back with giant skull mugs full.  A bit excessive, but apparently it was the best deal they had going.  The pirate show was not exactly as I had expected.  I had heard that it was a pirate battle and one of ships sank... pretty family friendly.  Apparently they felt the need to "vegas" it up a bit and had turned it into a sexy show where it was the "sirens" tempting the pirate into attacking basically so they could have their way with them.  The women were scantily clad and the innuendos were thinly veiled.  (Seriously here's one of them: "My name is Cinnamon, but all the seamen that sail into my cove just call me 'sin'.")   We were standing near a family with 2 tween aged kids and the mom made the statement about how it had changed since she last saw the show.  The special effects were pretty cool!  They included fireworks and other pyrotechnics and the "guys" pirate ship moved and then sank as they lost the battle and had to swim over to the HMCS S.T.D.  (OK maybe that's not ACTUALLY the name, but whatever.)

We caught the end of the volcano at the mirage.  Its a pretty fancy show.  Before we went I read up on how they had recently revamped the entire thing and the new volcano was designed by the same company that had done the fountains at the Bellagio.   Afterward we decided to take the Monorail (basically to try it out) from Bally's back to the MGM Grand.  All I have to say is don't bother.  We had to walk as far off the strip just to get on the mono rail as it would've been to walk down the strip.  Not only that it cost like $5 for the ride.  Totally not worth it at all!


Monday - The day we got our money's worth on the transit system.
This was the day we decided to check out the outlet malls (something I hadn't done last time I was in Vegas in 2004).  The plan was that we would check out a couple of the hotels near us (NY-NY, Excalibur & Luxor) and then try to find the correct bus to the outlets.  You would think that finding out where to buy a ticket for a bus would be easy in such a tourist town, but you'd be wrong.  We asked at a drugstore, we asked a concierge, we finally found the ticket machine ourselves.  Since we were planning to go dowtown to Freemont street that night we bought a ticket that was good for 24hrs and I think it cost only slightly more than the single use mono-rail ticket.  The buses run frequently and they have an express bus that goes to the outlets and downtown as well as a strip bus that stops at every bus stop on the strip from Mandalay bay to the Stratosphere.  After spending all our shopping money we headed back for some pool time. 

For dinner that evening Dave really wanted to go to the Buffet at the Bellagio which is supposed to be one of the best.  I hate buffets, but against my best judgment we went there.  It was an excellent buffet with a huge selection of gourmet foods.  Of course I ate way too much.  Way, way too much.  This is really my problem with buffets and once again I know better and should not go to them... too late now. 

After dinner we took the bus to check out "old" Las Vegas at Fremont St.  It was pretty amazing down there with the old neon signs and the marquee lighting.  They've built a roof over a few blocks of Fremont St. and turned it into a pedestrian zone.  There were a couple of bands playing and then there was a light show on the roof.  The roof was really a bunch of curved "jumbo-vision" type TV screens so they had a big show up there with music.  The day was going great until we tried to get a bus back to our hotel.  Apparently the bus that we had taken to Fremont street had only started operating the day before so they were still working out some timing issues.  That combined with construction that caused heavy traffic on the strip increased our ride home from 20mins to nearly 2 hours.  So we definitely got good value for our 24 hr ticket from a $/per-hour-on-bus standpoint.


Tuesday - The day we walked a whole lot and saw a Cirque-de-soleil show.
Since our bus ticket was still valid for a couple more hours we decided to ride the bus up the strip and walk back, walking through some of the hotels we hadn't seen and then walk back to our hotel.  We started at the Venetian and worked our way through the Forum Shops and Caesar's Palace.  We had lunch at Wolfgang Puck's Spago.  It was simple and elegant food with fantastic flavours.  I would eat there every day if I could afford it (oh yeah and lived near one). 

After more pool time we got ready for our "fancy" night out at the show.  We had dinner in our hotel at a mexican restaurent called Diego.  The food was great the the drinks were even better (margaritas again - of course).  They would even make guacamole at your table if you ordered some (we did not because it bothers my stomach - much to Dave's chagrin). 

We had bought tickets before leaving home for the Cirque-de-Soleil Zumanity show.  It is billed as the sensual side of the cirque-de-soleil.   It was a fantastic show with unreal acrobatics mixed in with sensual topics and a good sense of humour.   All-in-all perfect for a kid free getaway!  Our only concern was that we were seeing the 9pm show and we're such early birds we weren't sure if we could stay awake long enough! 

Wednesday - The day we left...
The trip home was uneventful (which is always a good thing when you're travelling by plane).  We were a little sad to leave the child-free freedom of Vegas, but we missed our kids and were excited to be going home.  

On a closing note one of the highlights for me was seeing all the people in crazy costumes.  We saw Batman, Superman, Elvis, Austin Powers, Gene Simmons (Kiss), Micheal Jackson and Capt. Jack Sparrow.