D2D Day 18 Watson Lake, YK to Fort Nelson, BC 335 Miles

We departed Watson Lake, BC, after a quick breakfast and headed south on the Alaska Highway for Fort Nelson, BC. About 50 miles into the journey we arrived at Contact Creek where the WWII soldiers constructing the Alaska Highway, known then as the ALCAN Highway, working from the south and the north met connecting the highway.

We're always keeping an eye out for critters on the highway for two reasons, we enjoy seeing wild animals and they represent a hazard to vehicles on the highway. Regrettably, we saw a dead Black Bear alonside the highway this morning. A short time later, we also saw a dead Moose on the side of the road, presumably both occurred during the previous night. Very sad.

On the bright side, we also saw several live Black Bears feeding alongside the highway today and a family of Brown Bears just south of Liard Hot Springs.  There were warning signs at Liard Springs that there was a family of Brown, also known as Grizzly, Bears in the area. We consider ourselves fortunate to have seen them. Brown or Grizzy Bears can generally be discerned from Black Bears as they are generally larger, have a small hump between their should blades and have a more distinct nose as where Black Bears have a sloping nose from their forehead. Both Black Bears and Brown Bears can be almost any color from black to blond. The bottom line is stay away from all bears.  And, the mantra here is "A fed bear is a dead bear--don't feed the bears."

Liard Hot Springs is an interesting location. After a short 1/4 mile walk on a boardwalk, you come to the hot soaking pools of Liard Hot Springs, heated naturally by the Earth. Before you reach the soaking pools, your nose tells you that you are close. The sulfer smell cannot be ignored. Unfortunately, we didn't take time to soak, but it sure looked inviting. Maybe next time.

Just south of Liard Hot Springs is the very scenic Muncho Lake in the Munch Lake Provincial Park. It is unique in that the water is a very pale green. There is a very nice log lodge/hotel and float plane operation there taking sightssers and fishermen to remote mountain locations.

We stopped for lunch at theToad River Lodge. Tourists coming in reported seeing a Moose in Toad River adjacent to the lodge. Some of us were too hungry to go out and look.

We passed through Summit Lake and Steamboat and rolled into Fort Nelson around 5:30 pm. We checked into the Fort Nelson Hotel, most likely one of the original hotels in the town. We were met by the new owner Byron, who said that he just purchased the hotel and was making several improvements, which were in evidence. The decor is early 70's with Tiki God motif. The hotel had one of the few swiming pools that we have seen in the north country; unfortunately, is was closed and somewhat resembled Muncho Lake, at least as to the color, pale green.

Lane was craving Italian food and inquired as to the best Italian restaurant in town.