Day 6: Toad River, BC to Whitehorse, YT (493 miles)
With the car loaded up, our bathing suits under our clothes and the car filled with expensive, Canadian gas, we hit the road yet again and headed for Liard Hot Springs. As promised by my friend Alaska Jack, the drive out of Toad River was gorgeous.
Not too long after we were on the road, I saw something moving in the tall grass by the side of the road. It turned out to be a bison. We stopped to take a picture, then realized there were actually 5 total in the grass and the edge of the forest. As we drove away, we noticed the bull on the other side of the road watching us very carefully. Apparently, he was keeping watch over his lady friends! Yikes.
Next, we stopped for a photo op at a place called Muncho Lake. The water was impossibly bright blue and the lake was surrounded by mountains. A very nice couple from Virginia pulled over at the same time as us and they took our picture with the Macan.
Not too much further down the road was a hand-painted sign indicating what seemed like the turn off for Liard Hot Springs. There was one other car parked there. We parked in front of it, grabbed our towels and headed down a dirt path, feeling very alone. Vanessa reminded me that the book said there were bears in the area. Having forgotten the bear bells in the car, we gave each other a nervous look because we heard rustling in the bushes. As we turned around to hastily make our way back to the car (no hot spring is worth getting mauled by a bear!), we looked over our shoulder and saw the source of the rustling in the bushes: a friendly little ground squirrel. In fact, I think it was pointing and laughing at us. Back on the road, about ½ mile up, we came upon the real turn off for Liard. Yes, there were signs posted warning of bears, but it was an actual campground and there were tons of people there. We parked, and took a short walk down a boardwalk that went over a marsh to get to the hot spring.
The facility was beautiful. The actual hot spring was on the edge of the Liard River. Its sulfuric smelling water bubbled over the bank of the river and made a large section extremely steamy. It was hotter than any hot tub I have ever been in, and way hotter than the showers I take in the morning. The soak and the swim were a nice change of pace from sitting in the car for the past 5 days.
When we felt sufficiently poached, we headed back to the car and got back on the road and drove for what felt like forever. We saw lots more bison. Once had dug itself a little hole and was lounging casually in the dirt – for a big guy, he was pretty cute.
At a point, we pulled off into a turnout that looked out over a meadow, several hundred feet below. It was a big grassy area, dotted with pine trees, and there was a lone moose grazing. I tried to get to my camera on time but it strolled off into the forest before I had a chance to snap a picture.
After crossing into the Yukon Territory for the first time (the road wiggles back and forth between the BC/Yukon borders multiple times), we stopped in Watson Lake for lunch at a place called Kathy’s. It was a very casual roadside restaurant and the tables were all large. We sat down at the end of a 6-top and shortly after a group of 4 came in and asked if they could join us. They were 2 couples from Alberta, probably in their 70’s. We had our Girls Go North t-shirts on, and they asked about our trip. Since we finally had wifi, I was texting my former husband who is from Quebec that we make it to the Yukon. His response was, “Is there anyone there?” The Albertans found this very funny and told me to tell him there were igloos. “Do you know what an igloo is?” they asked us. I replied that I did, but we don’t have them in San Diego; we have sandcastles. They roared with laughter.
Our next stop was a town called Teslin on the Nisutlin River where we pulled over to check out a gift shop/wildlife museum.
The taxidermy on display ranged from moose, bison, and polar bear to a bobcat, owls and fox. The shop contained a variety of art produced by the Tlingit tribe.
That night we stayed at the Skyy Hotel in Whitehorse (no relation to the vodka brand). Since we were still not used to it being light until around midnight, we did not realize what time it was when we felt ready for dinner. It was well after 10pm, and the restaurant was closed. Fortunately, we had selected some freeze-dried meals from REI before leaving San Diego. We heated water up in the coffee pot and had a camping meal in our hotel room! Vanessa had mac-n-cheese and I had pasta fagioli. Both were delicious.