LIARD HOT SPRINGS, BC TO WATSON LAKE, YUKON

The first picture is representative of the Alaska Hwy from Liard Hot Springs to Watson Lake.  It's an excellent road with green belts on both sides, and the scenery, well........it's the Alaska Hwy!  We saw Black Bears in 3 or 4 different locations, and for the first time on this trip, some wild horses.  Most folks don't normally think of wild horses existing this far north, but they are here, and I took some photos to prove it. 

 

We had a short run yesterday, so we weren't in any big hurry to leave the hot springs.  I thought about another dip in the warm water, but decided that the two soaks the day before were enough.  

 This small group of wild horses looked like they needed some nutrition after a long, cold winter.

Just before getting to Watson Lake, we crossed into the Yukon Territory, and had to stop for a picture at the sign.  The entire population of the Yukon is under 40,000 people, and almost 30,000 live in the capitol city of Whitehorse.  The population of  Watson Lake is around 2,000.

 

 They have pretty signs up here.

The Downtown RV Park is exactly that.  It's centrally located, where you can walk to several attractions in Watson Lake, and the grocery store is right across the street.  The park is really nothing more than a large gravel parking lot with hookups, and the spaces are tight, but it's location is convenient.

We walked over to the sign post forest, Watson Lakes most well known attraction.  Started during WWII, during the construction of the Alaska Hwy, a lonely GI put up a sign that had the mileage back to his hometown in Illinois.  The number of signs now number around 75,000, and growing daily.  We first checked out the visitors center next to the sign post forest, and watched a short video on the building of the Alaska Hwy.  Then, we walked into the forest, looking for familiar names and places.

I had to take a picture of the Los Banos, CA sign, a place where Patty and I first met, and a Central CA town where we lived for several years.  Right above was a Tucson, AZ sign which is our current residence.

The girls walked over to the grocery store, while I caught up on the blog.  The WiFi here at the Downtown RV Park is OK, but it's not setting any world records for speed.  We're still contemplating another night here, or more probably moving on up the road.  We have a tentative arrival of this Saturday in Skagway, and we'll be there for about a week.

Liard Hot Springs - $21.00
Downtown RV Park Watson Lake - $39.50  Cumulative - $427.93
Diesel Petro Watson Lake - 263.6 liters @ $1.45 per liter = $5.48 per gallon = $371.88
Cumulative - $2,022.61
MPG - 8.0  Cumulative Average - 7.9
Miles driven - 130  Cumulative - 3,515