Liard River Hot Springs, BC
Saying that the Liard River Hot Springs is in the middle of nowhere would be a vast understatement. The springs are located in the extreme north of British Columbia. To give you an idea of how long it would take you to get to this place, if you were not in an RV already driving the Alaska Highway, this is how you would do it. Lets say you lived in the middle of the country in Kansas City. From Kansas City you would fly to Seattle. From Seattle you would fly to Edmonton. From Edmonton you would fly to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. In Whitehorse you would rent a car and drive 8 hours or about 400 miles southeast to get to the springs. Like I said….the middle of nowhere.
As in life however the hardest places to get to are usually the most beautiful. The hot springs were no exception. The Liard River Hot Springs are the largest in Canada and we were super excited to be able to spend two nights here. We had reserved a campsite about a week earlier and good thing we did. Summer is the high season for this park and without a reservation there was no way we would have gotten a spot.
After making dinner we threw on our bathing suits and walked over to the springs. The pathway to the springs is almost as neat as the springs themselves. In this area, water sort of pours out from the swimming area around the springs themselves, covering the surrounding ground in a few inches of warm water. This is a major contrast to the dry pines surrounding them. In this area you almost have a Florida like swamp. You walk along a raised boardwalk for about a quarter mile until you reach the springs themselves. You first go through a small rectangular changing building then to the springs. The main spring is about 100’ wide and 500’ long. Temperatures range from 108F to 126F. That pool then goes over a small waterfall into a lower pool, which is a bit larger with lower temperatures as the water is further away from the source.
After two long days of driving on the Alaska Highway sitting in this spring was just what the doctor ordered. As we were so far north too, nighttime doesn’t really exist. At this point where we were the sun would “set” around 11:30pm then just goes into sort of a twilight light. Being in the hot springs around 9 to 10pm still felt like it was around 5pm. It was a pretty neat feeling all around. After a relaxing soak we dried off and made our way back to Bubbles for the night.
The next morning after a leisurely breakfast we hiked over to the hanging gardens part of the park. While most of the hot water in the park comes out of the main pool in the springs, a little bit comes out in other locations like up on a hillside, that they have named the hanging gardens. Much like the area that the raised boardwalk leading to the springs goes through, the hanging gardens area is also vastly different than the surrounding forest. Here there are natural orchids and other hanging types of plants almost cascading down the hillside. It’s quite the sight to see in the middle of the forest.
After the hanging forest we walked back to Bubbles setting up our hammock (Thanks Lindsay and Steve for this great gift) and reading a bit before lunch. After a few hours of that we threw our bathing suits back on and headed back to the springs. The springs were crowded with people so we started to chat with the people around us. The people directly next to us were a father and son from Alaska who were on a trip together to go to a wedding in Washington State. They had never done the drive south and thought it would be a fun time together. We talked about what they would be seeing going south and they told us what was coming up on the road north. It was pretty neat to be able to exchange tips for both our upcoming days.
After getting out of the springs we dried off and headed back to Bubbles. We relaxed the rest of the day before taking down the hammock and making dinner. After being on the road for so long it was nice to be able to stay in one campground for more than a night.
Watson Lake, YT
The next day we woke up refreshed after our two nights at the Hot Springs. We were ready to hit the road once again. Today we would be crossing into the Yukon Territory, Canada’s most northwest area. The road from the Hot Springs follows the border between British Columbia and the Yukon Territory, crossing back and forth across it seven times before finally entering the territory for good. There aren’t many towns in the Yukon so when you pass through one it is always a good idea to stop and check it out.
The first town that you come across is the town of Watson Lake. Watson Lake, other than having a few nearby lakes doesn’t really have a reason for existence. Most towns in this continent spring up due to being next to a river, a spring or have some much valued natural resource that it was vital to be able to house people. The reason this town exists is solely because of the highway. It was at this point that a supply station needed to be built and so a few small buildings were erected. This eventually grew into the town that it is today with a population of just under 800.
What the town does have is one of the big attractions on the Alaska Highway, the Signpost Forest. The story goes that in 1942 a GI was recovering from wounds and was instructed to fix up some of the distance signs around town. While doing this he also included a distance sign to his hometown in Illinois. Over the years travelers thought that this was a fun thing and have added their own signs to their hometowns. To date the Signpost Forest has over 80,000 signs.
After arriving in town we headed over to the visitors center in their community center. I had remembered back in 2007 being given a piece of wood, a nail and a hammer to be able to create your own sign. While the wood wasn’t free this time (we had to go to the local hardware store for a piece), they did provide paint, markers and everything else needed to make a sign of our own. After designing our Cruisin’ with the Careys sign we headed over to the “forest” itself and looked for an empty spot.
Before actually putting up the sign I wanted to see if I could find my old sign that my friend Matt & I had put up 12 years earlier. Unfortunately for me the area had changed a lot in the last 12 years. There were literally thousands more signs put up since 2007. After searching for about an hour and what felt like looking for a needle in a haystack we called it quits on that search and looked for a place to hang our own sign.
When hanging your sign at the Signpost Forest here is how it works. Find an empty spot on one of the wooden posts or trees and hammer your sign in. Julie and I found a newer area of the forest with multiple new posts put up, found a chair and grabbed our cooler, put the cooler on the chair (we tried to get it as high as possible on the post so that no one would be able to potentially mess with our sign) and nailed it in. Damn did it look good! From Watson Lake we drove the short drive to our campground at Nugget City (Its own campground, motel, store & restaurant, seemingly its own little town) and rested and relaxed for the rest of the night.
Teslin, YT
The next day after breakfast we headed off once again driving northwest deeper into the Yukon. Today we were headed to the Yukon’s capitol and largest city of Whitehorse. Within five minutes of being on the road we had an amazing animal encounter. We were all alone on the road, no cars behind us, in front of us or coming from the opposite direction. All of the sudden an adult moose was jogging next to Bubbles on the opposite side of the road. Within a few seconds her baby calf joined her and for what seemed for about a minute we were all traveling down the road going the same direction together. Julie, of course, was freaking out a bit she was so excited. After the minute of being on the road they took a left turn and headed back into the woods leaving us with an amazing memory.
On this day we had our second run with the feared northern logging trucks. While the Alaska Highway is fully paved there is generally a lot of construction projects going on in the summer. If an area of the road is in poor shape road crews will turn it into gravel and smooth it out then come back at a later date to properly pave it. With these gravel areas however it seemed that the big logging trucks generally do not slow down.
We had almost reached the town of Teslin when we were hit again. Julie was driving and we were descending down a large hill towards town when a truck flew past us at high speed then it sounded like a shotgun shell hit the car. We both yelled and pulled the car over as soon as we could. While the windshield did not break this time the rock was big enough that it did leave a big chip and it was starting to crack. We knew we would have to get this repaired while in Whitehorse to prevent further cracking and additional damage. What was it we thought about the corners of Canada? The van had been hit by a box escaping from a truck bed going down the road and cracked the windshield while in the far east in Newfoundland. Now its been cracked again in the far west in the Yukon.
After catching our breath we continued our drive into Teslin. Teslin is a tiny town (population 122) that is made up of mostly Teslin Inland Tlingit First Nation tribe. We stopped at their community center and museum, which had four gigantic totem poles. This was pretty awesome. The totems were about 10 feet high and beautifully painted. We then walked behind the museum, which was built on the shores of Teslin Lake. This was pretty neat as Teslin Lake is huge. Seventy-five miles long and three miles wide with crystal clear water. We walked down to the waters edge taking pictures with one of the tribes hand carved dugout canoes and walked along the shore for a while. We then hopped back into Bubbles and continued on our way.
We soon reached the outskirts of Whitehorse. We started to pass small subdivisions along lake shores before coming into town. While Whitehorse is the territory’s biggest city, only 30,000 call this city home. Still though after seeing only towns with a population less than 1000 for days this already seemed like a metropolis to us. We pulled into our campground just south of the city ready and excited to explore.
Next up….Yukon’s Capitol city and a daytrip to Skagway, Alaska!
