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| We drove 470 km, which translates to 292 miles. |
Good day! I say good day because even though I have began the process of writing this at 9:30 at night, it is still light out! The sun is already below the mountains, which were red for awhile. Now the sky has a nice rainbow effect to it. That said, it is still light out, not even the darkish color that is dark but not pitch black.
As some of you may know, Laura has her own personal blog. And she has been writing about this trip on there. Yesterday we were writing simultaneously, and before that only I was writing, so it didn't really matter much. However she already wrote about today, which means that now this blog post feels redundant. However I will still write my own post today instead of just copy hers, because hopefully I can provide more information for those of you who read both blogs.
We began today at Toad River. We slept in a great deal compared to camping. This was partially because I was tired from camping and in need of a lot of sleep, and partially because we stayed in a pitch black cabin. We didn't get up and out until around 9 in the morning. We got gas (6 dollars a gallon!) and hashbrowns (just as important as gas) and headed on North.
We were driving right alongside a river almost immediately, which was stunning as always. There were some fun and large alluvial fans to look at too. See!
Almost immediately we were greeted with our first animal of the day - a black bear! It was grazing off to the side of the road. Laura almost didn't see it because I noticed it almost as we were passing it. A car was passing us simultaneously, so I hope that a passenger of that car didn't notice me pointing right at them and yelling. I promise I was commenting on the bear behind them and not talking about them. I don't have a picture of this bear. Get it? That was a hint. Just wait!
A little bit later we came across the Sawtooth Mountains. The name is familiar to me from somewhere else in the states, but I don't know how these are related. They might be the same chain specifically, or maybe it is just the type of mountain... I would google it however I am too tired and just trying to finish this. It is now 10:30. Not because I've been writing this whole time, but because I've been distracted. I'll tell you with what later!!
Laura and I continued along our drive until we came across another beautiful lake. This lake was so clear, it was unbelievable. It was very blue, except for where it was shallow it was green. I believe the lake was called Muncho Lake. It is 7 miles long, 1 mile wide and used to be a dangerous part of the road, until they blasted away the rocks at the edge of the lake and made a nice smooth road. Apparently they lost machinery into the depths of the lake during this process!!
Laura and I saw more Sheep (confirmed as Sheep. Now I just can't remember the type of sheep). They were on the road. There are mineral and salt licks in the area. Here are the sheep:
Laura and I then hiked to a viewpoint of the mineral/salt licks in hope of seeing sheep or deer or cariboo! It was a touch scary though, because it was a 20 minute hike through the woods and I kept imagine a bear or moose around the corner. It isn't a ridiculous idea, either, since we had seen a bear recently. We sang a song to keep the animals away. Unforunately we also didn't see any animals at the mineral lick viewpiont... but it was beautiful!
Later on we came across a Yellowstone type Bison herd. There were actually two herds, the first with about 30-35 bison and the second with more like 50-60. There were bison of all sizes. At one point two young bison were fighting with each other, and a mama bison came and told one of the kids to knock it off. It was very fun to watch! The bison also made a very purposeful line across the hwy and watched us sit and wait for them. I think they consider catching humans a game... anyway, those two herds plus one solitary bison later (I hope that he is alright, don't know where his herd was...) brought our animal count up substantially.
Later on Laura and I pulled off to see a whirl pool, which is just the interaction between two directions of river. It was very beautiful. The rocks were slaty, so we skipped rocks for awhile. It's fun when you're pretty much guaranteed one skip even for the worst throw!
Look at this toilet - doesn't it look like someone wanted in there bad???
That is the same place as this beautiful view.
Apparently an old group of thieves used this over look to see which boats they wanted to steal. Makes sense, you are way above yet also pretty close to the boats! Perfect view.
The Alaska Hwy goes in and out of the Yukon about 7 or 11 times or something before finally staying in the Yukon. Until today, Laura and I had spent our entire road trip in BC. That is a massive province! Obviously we have never been to most of BC before so this has all been exciting, however it is also exciting to go to a completely new state/province so you can check it off your list. We were therefore excited each time we crossed into the Yukon. The first time we crossed, there was a small little sign that I think was actually an old advertisement for a closed down business. Later on we saw a real sign. Of course we posed with the first one, not the second.
Right now we are in the Yukon, but we'll go back down to BC for about 42 miles tomorrow.
This afternoon we noticed a car pulled over to the side. We couldn't see what they were stopped for, however we hoped it was an animal, so we slowed and pulled in behind them just in case. Luckily, we were right! There was another black bear sitting in the grass eating by the road. We were able to get pictures of him this time, because we pulled off next to him for awhile. See! Isn't he cute?
The town that we had planned on stopping in was Watson's Lake, however we arrived there around 4:30- pretty early for stopping! Instead we had a picnic, looked at their sign forest and found a place that we could stop later down the road. The sign forest is humungous, and people from all around the wrold add to it. It would be easy to get sucked into looking at every sign. Saw some from Port Angeles and Eastern WA, but nothing from the sound...
We stopped about an hour and a half later at Rancheria Lodge, which is in the middle of no where. Laura and I have now developed that pattern - we skip the city in favor of the lodge or motel in the middle of no where! We are right on a little lake with a view, and it is gorgeous. Laura and I actually have our own rooms because we asked for two beds and it seems like 2 rooms is the only way to make that happen. Luckily we only had to pay for 1!!
This evening after I had started writing this post I heard something outside. I went to go look and saw nothing. But then Laura came to my room and told me there was a moose in the lake outside! I really doubt I could have heard it myself, but somehow I knew to look out the window, which is cool! So Laura and I watched the moose for awhile.
Anyway, I am really really tired now so I'm going to bed. I just lost my connection to the internet, so apparently this is going up in the morning. Goodnight!!!
PS. The internet was bad in the morning so this is going up the next night!!
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