Day 8, A "Red Letter Day"

Day 7, has us climbing the Canadian Rockies with an overcast sky and periodic sprinkles. We did not get 5 miles out of Ft. Nelson when Babs spotted this baby moose along side of the road. The calf ran alongside the car and Babs tried to get a good shot but couldn’t get the camera to turn on.

Unlike previous days, this was a “Red Letter Day” both in terms of scenery and wild life. This shot is pretty well representative of our view all day.

This rock formation is aptly called Indian head.

We did a bit of hiking today. Our first hike was a one mile round trip to view something called “Hoodoos” which look like large petrified vertical sea worms but are really the result of wind erosion on sand stone. That was an easy hike. Later in the day Babs said there was a 5-10 minute hike to see wild life. It was a loop that went downhill, and downhill, and downhill to no wild life. Unfortunately what goes down must go up! The 5 minute hike took us an hour, UGH!!!

After the exciting hike, we once again happened upon more wild life, Stone Sheep. One ram was up on a ledge about 20 feet from the ground.

Another ram was just off the road and the women were in the road!

Further down the road, was the Toad River Lodge. In addition to bathrooms, they are famous for their collection of 6800 hats that adorn their ceiling.

Our next wildlife encounter was this cow moose which was grazing near a lake. She smiled for the camera!

There were a lot of lakes on the route today but Muncho Lake was, hands down, the most beautiful. It has emerald green waters and is surrounded by mountains. The lake is over 7.5 KM long.

We have seen buffalo in the US but this is our first Canadian sighting. As you can see, they go where they want to go.

We took our picnic lunch at a water falls viewing area. Of course it was another of those 10 KM, banjo music, roads where you couldn’t pass an oncoming vehicle. Thank God we didn’t meet another vehicle, coming or going.

Babs is getting to be quite the animal spotter! Twice she spotted Dall sheep high on the mountain side. We took pictures but the sheep only show up as white specs on the mountain side.

These Grizzlies were right off the road, a mother and two cubs feeding on the grass.

The Canadians use asphalt and gravel to repair their roads. Sometime the dust from these repairs actually gets so dense it is hard to see.

Tonight we are at the “NICE Motel” in Watson Lake , Yukon Territory. Just down the street is the “Sign Post Forrest” which is thousands of items attached to 4X4 posts. Pretty amazing!

Tomorrow, west to Whitehorse.


Babs Says: Last night and tonight our rooms have had fully equipped kitchens.  I was so tempted to go to a grocery store (small IGA last night and tiny store tonight) and buy some fresh or frozen ingredients and cook dinner in the room. On second thought...this is vacation!
My new name is Eagle Eye Jr. Frank has always been the expert wildlife spotter, but today I found the moose calf, the sheep on the mountain. Second new name is Drill Sargent. I want to go on little hikes and Frank won't let me go by myself so he is forced to go to exert himself (to the max on the river walk today).