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CANADIAN STOP #8 |
 YUKON TERRITORY |
DESTINATION: THE ALASKAN BORDER
| 78% | 22% |
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| COMPLETED - 2011 miles=(3236 kilometers) ⟺ 575 miles=(925 kilometers) - STILL TO GO |
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We weren't more than 15-miles down the road this morning when the wildlife sightings began.
First up were the massive Wood Bison that all the roadside signs warn you to watch out for. Accidently hit one of these creatures with your truck at 100KmPH (62MPH) and I guarantee you won't be happy with the outcome.
This is one out of a herd of about thirty we saw.
Check out the two little calves laying behind and below the new mama and papa bison.
A short while later Tricia got her wish when we had our first Black Bear sighting. We kind of saw a bear when we were exploring the Great Smoky Mountains National Park back in October of 2018, but all we saw then was a butt about 60 feet up in a tree, not very exciting.
This one appears to possibly be a younger adult bear.
This one looked like a younger juvenile bear to us.
Before today was over we spotted at least 3 more bears from the roadway.
Yesterday when we were headed to the hot spring for our soak we spotted the Park Ranger from Muncho Lake exiting the pool. He told us that our friends were just one day behind us and stayed the night on Campsite #8, only because our wonderful Campsite #9 was already occupied when they arrived.
We haven't had any contact with them for several days because of no cell signal. Our friends, Winston and VerJean are from Michigan, we first met them in Shenadoah National Park, VA in September of 2018 when we camped next to each other. Then in March of 2020 we found ourselves in the same Army Corps of Engineers Park in Texas completely by accident. We spent the next couple weeks traveling together and were both kicked out of Palo Duro Canyon State Park when COVID shut down the entire Texas State Park's system. Then in June of 2021 we found ourselves in the same neighborhood and once again camped together in South Dakota and that's where we made tenative plans to spend some time together in Alaska this year.
They are on a different time schedule than we are for their Alaskan visit, they've been here several times before, so I suspect we'll spent most of the next month and a half togehter since we have Denali National Park reservations together at the end of June. After that, who knows!
Anyway back to today's story. Just as we were pulling into Watson Lake Campground, they were pulling out after, after staying for just one night. This weekend is Victoria Day Weekend in Canada, our version of Independance Day Weekend (Fourth of July) in the United States. For that reason we planned on staying for the entire weekend, once we secured a spot, and they decided to join us here. The site next to ours was vacant so they pulled in and got comfortable again. They travel in a Dodge Pro Master van that Winston converted himself into a camper. They too have a very robust solar equipment package installed on their van.
Our extra extra long back-in site with a side view through the trees of the lake.
Still plenty of room in the back and you can see the rear of Winston's van in the next site over.
No beautiful snow capped mountain views behind this site,
but we do have a rather large pile of snow to look at.
I don't believe the boat ramp here in the park will be used anytime soon.
Yukon Territorial Parks all offer free wood for campfires,
as long as you have someone willing to split it so it will burn more easily, luckily, WE DID!
The "IT" is the Watson Lake Sign Post Forest that was started in 1942. Since then travelers have added more than 88,000 signs (as of the last count in 2018) and today was no different, as Winston and VerJean added their custom hand made sign to the collection.
It's really an interesting story how this all started and for a detailed explanation click HERE.
One of many entrances into the forest.
There are signs of all shapes and sizes.
Nothing is off limits when it comes to where you can place your sign.
Some people don't even put up signs and just tie their flip flops to a post.
Here is Winston and VerJean next to their van getting ready to add their sign to the collection.
If you visit the Sign Post Forest try and locate their sign, then send us a photo.
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Until next time
