We left Muncho Lake early in the morning, because we know there is a mineral lick about 14 miles down the road and apparently the animals flock to it early in the day. We met Donna and Glen there and the four of us hiked the short trail to the look out. Although the view was pretty awesome, we were disappointed that we didn't see a single animal. Oh well.
Liard Hot Springs is a famous stop along the Alaskan Highway, and with good reason! Paul and I have been to many hot springs and we couldn’t think of any that were as nice as this one. There are two pools. The closest one has the hottest water and it cools as it enters the lower pool where it is mixed with cold water.
The setting is completely natural but the bottom of the pools are layered with round gravel, so its really clean, as well. We got here early in the day, since its only about 40 miles from Muncho Lake, and so we walked the short boardwalk to the springs twice while we were here.
One of the things we've realized about traveling in this area of Canada and the U.S. is that since it never really gets dark (still twilight at 1 AM) if we want to sight see, we can always drive later in the day.
In fact we could go on a 4 mile hike after dinner if we wanted, although our bodies are conditioned to slow down at that point in the day. Usually the three of us will just play cards or have a campfire after dinner.
We tested the travel theory out on the day we drove through Watson Lake, Yukon. There are two things we wanted to do here, and it was our intention to spend the night, but most of the RV parks have closed.
Our first stop was the visitor center, where we would pick up discount tickets to the Northern Lights planetarium show. And that's where things went a little awry. The woman we spoke with strongly recommended we change around our entire itinerary.
The road we were headed towards- Top of the World Highway, is all torn up, and will be in better condition later in the summer. And if we want to see whales, which we do, now is the time to head to Juneau. So, after doing some calculations, we changed around our travel plans and are headed to Juneau.
In the meantime, we checked out the Signpost Forest- #1 on our list of things to see. It started in 1942 when a U.S. soldier stationed here was asked to repair the directional signposts. He added one for his hometown of Danville, IL, and a tradition was born. There are now over 77,000 signs in the forest.
I was looking forward to the Northern Lights show. I am really hoping we’ll get a chance to see them before we leave Alaska in the fall. I did enjoy the information presented about how and why the auroras can be seen, but with today’s technology, I expected a much better visual presentation. It looked more like an old film, with washed out colors. Next time, I would skip this presentation (these pictures are NOT from the presentation)!
After the show, we left town, and put some more miles behind us.
