Day 11: Coal River

Today has been the best day of our drive so far. Without a doubt. To write in words all that we have seen today is nearly impossible and it seems like our pictures don't do justice either. But, I'll attempt at giving an idea of our journey today as best I can. To load all of the pictures will take a very long time. But I'll include the most important ones.

Bison

To anyone who ever doubts there is a God, a Creator, a Master Painter, must be lacking a brain inside their skull. Being from the south and growing up among aspects of nature; deep woods, rivers, sunrises and sunsets and of course vast ocean, I'm often reminded how awesome God is and how beautiful His creation is. But THIS...out here... among massive rocks, enormous mountain ranges, lakes, creeks, wildlife, open road, gorgeous skies.... it's breathtaking to say the very least.  And the wildlife! OH MY GOSH!(<-- said with the most intense southern accent one has ever heard) I can't keep an accurate count of all of the lakes,rivers, and creeks we drove past today but it was a lot.  I'll re-cap this day in the order our route took us...

[Our magazine/book "The Milepost" is our bible for navigating through Canada and Alaska. It's how we planned our whole trip through Canada and how we know when to stop for gas, get food, or find a place to stay because there won't be anything for x amount of miles. Another cool thing about this book is we can literally follow along almost mile per mile and know exactly what we are looking at, what the road conditions will be like, how big a town is we are coming up on, historical bits about places, and most importantly what animals we may encounter along the way. It has been super helpful to have for sure! It marks most of the Alaskan Hwy by "historical miles", and while we haven't seen these markers at all along the actual highway, we get a pretty good idea of how far apart things are from main signs.]

For our day today we started at the lovely place we slept at, Sasquatch Crossing, mile 147. We have driven 3,834 miles at this point...

Tetsa River Lodge

 Our first stop was at mile marker 357 in Tetsa River Lodge to get a tasting of (according to the book) the "best cinnamon buns ever". They were huge and indeed delicious! Layne and I split half of it before lunch and the other half after lunch... =) The lodge was very rustic and cool- it opened in the late 50's- a log cabin type with all sorts of items made by hand, paintings, clothes for sale, plush toys, 2 tables to eat on, a kitchen... pretty much an all-in-one place- like every other establishment on this highway!

Cinnamon Roll

  

 A quick 16 miles  up the road we came to Summit Lake. The book describes the Summit area is "known for dramatic and sudden weather changes." It was dramatic alright! Eighty percent of the lake was still frozen, with many snowy patches all around.  The temperature dropped almost 10 degrees I would say.  Mt St George peak sits behind it. It was beautiful.   

Summit Lake

After driving an hour or so more, and taking in every single moment of the passing scenery, we came across the Racing River. We were told the "river ran clear" up here, but we didn't realize it was like this! We decided to pull off alongside a path by the river and have our lunch. It was totally perfect, minus not having an actual place to sit and eat. It was a perfect light blue and looked so refreshing I wanted to dive in and start drinking from it! Layne spotted an elk on the other side of the river, so we had a friend eating with us as wel! ;)

Racing River and Racing River Bridge

Eating on Racing River

After our peaceful lunch by the Racing River, we continued our drive onward.  After stopping again for another area of roadwork, we made it to the much talked about Muncho Lake. The lake was what you would see in pictures, nothing like our brown lakes in GA. This lake was breathtaking, with turquoise colors that looked like glass instead of water.  The lake was huge and as we wound around it, our jaws pretty much stayed opened- wowing at the beauty of it.  I saw in our book there was a lookout later down the road and so we stopped there to take it all in.  It was total tranquility and peacefulness. I think Layne and I both could have stayed there the rest of our lives. 

Muncho Lake- true color of the lake

View from the lookout point on Muncho. Pic doesn't show the water color as it was. 

We drove further and came to the Toad River, which flows all over BC and in the Yukon at various spots. It was a gorgeous sage color and flowed rapidly, resembling a glassy look like the other bodies of water did.  The Liard River, which flows from northwest area of the Yukon down into British Columbia, was a pretty river as well.  We first came across it not long after passing Muncho Lake. The Liard River bridge that we crossed over is the only remaining suspension bridge on the Alaska Highway.  It is 1,143 feet and was built in 1943! We then came upon a campground called the Liard River Hotsprings Provincial Park where we stopped next.  We walked through the park and on a boardwalk that was at least a quarter mile long to get to these natural hot springs.  It was incredible.  The water was literally crystal clear and had an unmistakable odor to go along with it!  There are two pools, beta pool which was to the far left is the cooler of the two pools at a starting temp of 108 degrees.  The alpha pool, which was to the far right was incredibly hot… max temps reaching 126 degrees!!  Layne and I stuck our toes in the water for a few seconds and decided that was enough for us! I couldn’t imagine getting completely in the water in that area… it would have to be freezing outside! 

at the Liard River Hot Springs

We arrived at our lodging area for the night called Coal River Lodge.  It was another quaint little place with only 6 rooms to stay in, they had a kitchen, gas pumps, horse corral, souvenirs, and homemade jams and jellies made by the owner.  Though small and not pleasant looking from the outside, the rooms were quite nice and we felt safe.  Our Milepost book talked about their famous Bison burgers so I was already set on having that for dinner! It was absolutely delicious. Bison and other large game have meat that is normally on the dry side because it is so lean, but this burger was made perfectly.  I wish I could’ve had another one! But the price of the burger alone was almost $12.00, so I didn’t. Layne ordered a bowl of homemade chili made with elk meat that was really good too. (<--which if you knew me you’d know I hate chili!) Having different food like this readily available excites me even more to live in Alaska! 

Stone Sheep

Moose 

  Our whole adventure of sights was completed today by seeing a plethora of animals along the way: we made a list of all we saw, so here it is:

Moose:3

Elk:2

Caribou: 4

Stone Sheep:4

Bison:3

Black bear:1

Grizzly:1

Bald Eagle:1

We saw a total of 19 animals (that we remember) and if you include the 2 bushes, 3 rocks, and a street sign Layne thought were animals it would be 25! Haha. =) It is so incredible to see all of these massive animals in person instead of from a magazine or picture on the Internet. They are HUGE, especially the bison! They stick close to the road, so we have definitely kept our eyes peeled so we don’t total our car, but also because I want pictures!  The grizzly was huge and came upon us suddenly.  He was stout and posted up on the side of the road just glaring at the passing cars.  I was perfectly fine not slowing down to take a picture of him, but it was a cool opportunity to at least see one in real life!

Caribou

Black Bear

Total Miles driven: 365

Total Hours: 8 (including almost 2 hours of stops)

Total overall miles: 4,199

Miles left: 1100

Days left on the road: 3

Much love,

Jenni