Traveling the Alaska Hwy and arrived in Fort Nelson, north east British Columbia

Another day of beautiful Canadian landscape, and this time lots of wildlife! We each saw our own moose, and then shared a moose sighting at the side of the Alaska Hwy.

Oh hello!

We also saw three caribou trudging through the snow, not really near any place (there were lots of >100km stretches of no places with names!). The animals were all a few metres off the road, and seemed happy to continue doing what they were doing as we quietly squealed to ourselves in excitement. Then there was this other one... an unidentifiable mammal, the size of a sawhorse, possible feline or canine, that Lauren saw ambling along the side of the Alaska highway just outside of Wonowon. It had light brown and grey fur, a tail and sorta sticky-up ears. There were no spots to turn around close by, and some wide loads that were going the other way, so Colin never got to see the animal to help with identification.

Today was also a day of seeing some incredible places. We left Mackenzie just before lunch today, and went back to Hwy 97 for a little while, until we got to Chetwynd.

Easy decision!

Colin's view for a few hours

Lauren's view for a few hours

Today: Mackenzie to Ft Nelson

 We wanted to stay close to the mountains, so instead of going along 97 to Dawson Creek (the beginning of the Alaska Hwy), we took a left turn on Hwy 29, and passed along the foothills of the Rockies, and through some nice little places, including a perfect little town called Hudson's Hope. Here's what the Northern BC Travel Guide says about Hudson's Hope:

"Midway between Chetwynd and Fort St John, you'll encounter the District of Hudson's Hope- a friendly community of 1,012 on the banks of the Peace River. Power projects, agriculture and forestry have long been economic drivers here, but oil and gas exploration, guide-outfitting and eco-tourism are growing in importance. Restaurants, campgrounds, gas bars and a grocery store welcome visitors, but it's "dinosaurs and dams" that capture their attention. Two massive hydroelectric projects were sited here in the 1960s. Their construction unearthed internationally significant, fossilized dinosaur skeletons. One newly discovered species of ichthyosaur was named after the District: Hudsonelpidia."

The town was perfectly designed, with lots of public parks and green space (although it was all covered in snow), neat big signs with dinosaurs pointing towards places in the town (senior's home, rec centre, library), there was no litter or abandoned cars, and it seemed like a lovely place. We didn't stop this time, but hopefully another road trip in the future will take us back there.

Time to stretch the ol legs

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Ahh...

It's sorta hard to see, but this is the first mileage roadsign that had Whitehorse on it (1342km)!

The driving has been incredible- totally empty roads, dry pavement, minimal potholes, clear blue skies with a few 30 second-long snow storms at the summit of mountain peaks. The occasional big rig drives by, and today we had the 'wide load' procession, when a huge 18-wheeler has something gigantic on it, like a school building or a part of a bridge, and there are trucks that drive a hundred metres ahead and behind it, with big flashing signs on their roofs announcing the upcoming wide load. Needless to say, the song lyrics "wide load, wide wide load, wide load, oversize load" was sung a lot today :)

One of the many wide loads today

The open road

As we wrote to Grandma in a postcard today, we're on the last leg of our trip! The Alaska Hwy will take us all the way into Whitehorse, although it changes its name from Hwy 97 to Hwy 1 in Watson Lake. Some of the best laughs of the day came from when Colin requested a stop at a rest stop, to take a photo of the Rockies. He was walking along the cement barrier and hopped off onto the snow bank to set up for the shot. As soon as his feet touched the snow, he sank up to his chest in the snow, but was able to save the camera and get himself out.

We managed to clean the dirt off the camera lens a bit later :)

Tonight we've gone the route of Boston Pizza takeout to our Super 8 in Fort Nelson- Hawaiian pizza and spinach salad. We've paired it with the Cannery Brewery mixed pack we bought in Kamloops. Thanks for the great beer, Penticton! We are hoping to camp at the Liard Hotsprings campground tomorrow, and then maybe stay in Watson Lake on Wednesday night, so that we have lots of time in the Aurora Borealis interpretive centre :)

Off to the hotel hot tub!
Lauren and Colin