June 10-13, 2006 - Liard River, BC to Whitehorse, YT

It was a short distance to drive today, 70 miles, but scenic.  We had to stop twice for stone sheep on the road.  One stop we made was on the shore of Muncho Lake where we took pictures.

Just before getting to our destination of Liard Hotsprings we saw a Wood Buffalo on the side of the road, the link to the picture comes a little later on this webpage.

We opted for hookups at the Liard Hotsprings Lodge, where we could run our washer/dryer.  We did get online here, but just barely:

We went to the hot springs and took a swim.  The water in the low 100s was not much hotter than the air temperature of almost 90 degrees.  We forgot to take the camera this time.  We ran into Roger and Toni, whom we last saw at the DatastormUser.com lunch at the Spring Escapade.  In the second picture on that webpage Roger is laughing with a drink in his hand and Toni is next to him in the green t-shirt.  We knew Roger and Toni were close by but did not know they were here at the hot springs.  They were camped at the Liard Hotsprings Provincial Park overflow area. 

We went back to the rig and showered and then Bill dropped by and visited with Roger and Toni a bit.  Then both of us took the camera and went back into Liard Hotsprings Provincial Park to take pictures, Part 1, Part 2

Afterwards we both visited with Roger and Toni.

After dinner we went looking for wildlife and succeeded, here is a webpage on the Large Wildlife Sightings this day (10th) and the next day (11th).

On the 11th we drove north, heading for the Yukon.  Here are views of the Liard River:

Soon we made our first crossing into the Yukon (the highway makes seven crossings back and forth between BC and YT):

About a mile after that sign we saw a brown bear on the side of the road but we couldn't see it well enough to know if it was a black bear or a grizzly.  Later in the day we saw another moose.

A while later at another crossing is the official sign:

In Watson Lake, YT we made a brief stop and visited the Sign Post Forest.

Here are some views of the Yukon from a pull off:

After 204 miles we were at Rancheria RV Park in Rancheria, YT.  Here is our campsite:

The electric power was strange here, the refrigerator didn't like it but it ran the microwave and air conditioning fine.  We had been warned the power was not very clean in the Yukon.

Rancheria is a term either the California or Mexican miners, or both, brought north for "village".

The campground is part of a lodge complex and the lodge is on a pretty lake:

Diane befriended a local cat:

Yes, those are bear prints on the campground road:

On the 12th we headed to Whitehorse, YT.   We stopped at the overlook to Teslin:

We determined that Mukluk Annies Salmon Bake was open so we stopped and tried it.  It was good, but seemed a bit higher in price than we felt it was worth.  Just a couple years back you could dry camp at Mukluk Annies for free if you had dinner and they also ran a free cruise for their guests each evening.  Now all you get is access to the RV Wash for eating at the restaurant, dry camping costs $10C/night, and the cruise is $5C/person.  This was the first meal we had in a restaurant since Prince George, BC on June 5th.

Since we knew people staying at Pioneer RV Park in Whitehorse, that is where we went even though we had recommendations against the place.  After 193 miles of driving here is our campsite:

Yes, tight spaces and lousy power, but we did have friends in the place.  Right next door are Roger and Toni who we saw at Liard Hotsprings:

Roger was able to get his dish between trees, but we were unable to so he was kind enough to let us use his Wi-Fi.  We also met others we had been corresponding with and a couple we had met in Congress, AZ in November 2004.  It is easy to chat with people till late when it doesn't get dark, we got home after 10PM and it looked much earlier by the light.

It turned out Roger and Toni had stayed at Mukluk Annies Salmon Bake the night before.  They found the area for dry camping was very soft and couldn't get level so they went to the hookup section.  They didn't get to eat at the restaurant since it is closed on Sundays.

Pioneer RV Park could only let us stay two nights because they had a caravan coming in on the 14th.  Still, we could stop and breathe here since we had been moving for five days.  We did some grocery shopping in town, prices are much higher than further south.  We looked around the area and had to take a picture of the Whitehorse Airport weather vane, a DC-3 that is balanced to work in the slightest breeze.  It is the world's largest weathervane.

We went to one recommended Swiss restaurant for lunch and their lunch menu was not Swiss food so we moved on.  Instead we ended up trying one of the two Mexican restaurants in town, a two star, but at least there were choices in this city.  We also checked out the other RV parks in the area since we are coming back in a week and picked one for our return.   We were not feeling much like being tourists after five days of driving, hopefully we will appreciate Whitehorse more in a week. 

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