Liard River Hot Springs revisited

We have been retracing our path from our drive North in June. We have spent the past two days driving on the Alcan from Whitehorse. We drove through the town of Teslin, which is the home of the George Johnston museum. He was the First Nations man who acquired a camera and took photos of tribal life before the highway was built. That museum had a major impact on us. The docent told us about a museum in town that focused on life of the inland Tlingit. We decided to stop there. They had some amazing art, but they asked for no photography inside. The museum was small and didn’t have the same impact as the George Johnston museum did. It was worth a try, but we would skip it next time.

We continued to drive until we got tired. We stopped in Watson Lake, home to the signpost forest. You may recall that we were unimpressed by the signpost forest. Our second impression wasn’t much different. They had free parking in a lot behind the signposts, so we spent the night there.

Today we continued driving to the Liard River Hot Springs.

Along the way, we passed an area with bison. There was a very sad scene. There was a pickup truck that had been totaled and a dead bison next to the wreck. Right next to the mom was a calf. Clearly, the mom died in the accident and the calf stayed behind with her. The rest of the herd was not far down the road, but that calf probably won’t survive without the support.

We have been surprised by the lack of wildlife that we have seen driving on the second half of our trip. You may have noticed that we have not updated the bear count. That’s because we have not seen bears recently. The bison herds were the first large animals that we have seen in a while.

The hot springs are about two hours of driving past the turnoff to the Cassiar Highway, the road we plan to take home. But we enjoyed the hot springs so much on the way North that we decided that it was worth the four hour detour. The hot springs are in a Provincial Park. (Back in British Columbia, yeah!) This park is unique because it has an electrified fence around the campground to keep the bears away. Unfortunately, you have to walk outside the fence to get to the hot springs. Hopefully we are making enough noise to scare the bears away. We arrived midday and took a trip to the hot springs. Our plans are to go again this evening and then in the morning before we leave.