6-15-2013 Bears & Signs at Watson Lake to Teslin

We departed Laird Hot Springs for Teslin Lake, about 340 miles.  We left at 8:50 and by 10:30 we’d seen three bears!!!  Our first bear was a grizzly!!!  Two grizzlies and a black.  This whole day, we saw 4 grizzly and 5 black bears, along with the “usual” bison. 

 

We stopped at Watson Lake. Watson Lake is famous for the Sign Post Village.  Back in 1942, one of the workers on the Alcan (short for the Alaska/Canada Highway) got home sick and made a sign with the mileage to his home town in Illinois.

Well there are now over 72,000 signs from all over the world in this park.  Make that 72,000 plus 2 more. We put our signs up on the post in hopes that someday should our children decide to make the journey to Alaska they could stop and see if the signs were still there.

 

While we were there we took in a movie on the northern lights, Aurora Borealis.  (Bob calls them the amorous borealis.) But, they are not visible during these long summer nights.   (And, some of us slept through the movie.)

 Can you see our signs in the middle of the forest??

During this leg of the trip in addition to the bears and bison, we’ve seen Stone Sheep.  All the animals cause quite a commotion on the highway.    

 We made it to Teslin lake around 6 that evening but they did not have the proper facilities for us so we carried on up the road to Timber Point Campground, a beautiful camping area that was just a open field next to a lake.   Joy Jacobs had put a roast in the crock pot before we left that morning.  Let me tell you it was delicious!  After a walk down to the lake, we settled in for the evening.

 

We had another 300 mile plus day ahead of us to reach Skagway the next evening.   With all the super highways in the states 300 miles doesn’t sound like a lot of miles,  but when you are on 2 lane roads (sometimes 1 lane under construction ) with bears, sheep and bison, and loose gravel it makes for a long, long day. There are so many beautiful sights to behold that you are exhausted by the time you settle down for the night. You lose track of the date and places where you were. If we don’t blog each day, we need our notes and maps to fill in what we’ve done.   It’s almost too much for the mind to comprehend.  It takes your breath away. You never know what to expect around the next corner.  It could be fabulous waterfalls, a rock slide or a big ole bear.  You are constantly scanning the horizon.  You are mentally drained.