A day of surprises

Another early start with clouds and rain dogging us all morning.  From Whitehorse to Teslin, the road threads its way through a series of mountain ranges, heading first southeast, then northeast, then southeast once more.  From there to the town of Watson Lake, the terrain forces the road down into British Columbia once, but for the most part it heads east.

At noon, somewhere west of Watson Lake, we pulled off at a rest area to make lunch and stopped in front of a set of roadside informational signs.  It was raining lightly, so we just looked out the window to read them and discovered to our delight that we were parked right on the Continental Divide.

As soon as we started down the other side, the weather turned beautiful and sunny.

At Watson Lake, we stopped for gas and got our second surprise of the day--the Sign Post Forest. It contains hundreds of signs of all kinds, and it was hard to do it justice in just a few photos, but I gave it a try.

Beyond Watson Lake, the road continues eastward, dipping into British Columbia 5 more times before finally turning south into BC for good.  Somewhere in this stretch, we spotted a wild stallion, a splendid looking animal, on the shoulder of the road.  As we slowed to pass, he never moved at all, and we could see that he was standing guard over a small herd that was grazing in the low ground next to the highway.

By this time, we were about out of steam and had selected Coal River as our stopping point. The Milepost map shows it as a dot where the Alcan crosses Coal River.  It turns out there is nothing there but a small cluster of buildings known collectively as the Coal River Lodge.

The Lodge sits on the far side of the river and as we slowed to cross the narrow bridge, we were amazed to see this bison at the edge of the road, scratching himself on a pole.

Our first bison.

The Lodge consists of a gas station, motel/restaurant, a small home, and an RV park.  They have mostly shut down the park for the season and the only hookup still in service is the electric, but we were hungry and tired and that sounded just fine.  We parked then went straight to the restaurant for dinner.  We had just barely ordered when an employee came in and told us there was a bison in the parking lot.

Of course, we all ran out to see.   The parking lot is gravel with a number of sizable mud puddles, and the bison stopped at every one and took a drink.  He then began to use a tree as his scratching post. Fortunately, I have started carrying my point-and-shoot camera with me everywhere.

These are most likely the same animal.

By the time I had finished taking pictures, our food was ready.  Ironically, I had ordered a bison burger (I had never had bison before), and the photo below was taken within minutes of the photo above.

Day 4
Whitehorse, Yukon Territory to Coal River, British Columbia

Daily Mileage:  362.5
Total Mileage:  1,082.1