Day 4: Fort Nelson, BC to Teslin, YT

This morning's drive was by far the most scenic drive we have had. We wound through mountains, saw giant rivers and lakes (one encompassed I believe 300+ square miles), and saw our first living wildlife (we've seen plenty of road kill). Wildlife count for the day: 4 caribou, 2 black bears, 1 stone sheep, 2 giant herds of bison. Luckily the only close call we had was with a ground squirrel. We crossed over the highest point on the Alaska Highway which surprisingly is only about 4,000 ft. Even though they may be short by CO standards, they come straight out of the ground and are quite majestic still.

 Really tall birch trees

 Cool bridge

Caribou

 Worrisome sign and another cool bridge 

Being geologically observant

Canada's largest suspension bridge I believe

Ralphies!!

(Imagine big jagged mountains, a herd of about 100 Ralphies in the road, and a dark Prancer)

My new boss at work has told me repeatedly that we need to stop at Liard Hot Springs so I figured we better stop for job security purposes. Needless to say it was VERY well worth it. It was an absolutely beautiful area in the woods with a large pool of sulphur mineral hot springs. The ground is so warm from the springs that it is like a tropical ecosystem with giant ferns, large leafy tropical plants, and supposedly 14 different kinds of orchids. They were quite warm at 108-126 degrees and took away our kinks from 3 days of driving.

(Imagine Grant with his handsome farmer tan in a pool approximately the size of a football field with pristine blue water and steam coming off the top surrounded by giant ferns and tropical looking plants in a forest)

Happy and refreshed after a break from driving

As we were walking back to the parking lot on our noodle legs, two women from Norway stopped us. They were researchers from Norway researching what makes people like driving obscenely long distances such as that of the Alaskan Highway so they could improve long Norwegian highways. Hopefully we gave them good answers. We had tried the heavy sedatives on Hank today so he enjoyed a nice long nap in the car while we soaked in the springs.

Our next stop was Watson Lake which is where the signpost forest is. Like everything on this trip, pictures don't quite do it justice. Just imagine this picture times 500. 

(Google "Signpost Forest" or imagine 300+ telephone poles covered in various license plates, city limit signs, and street signs, a lot of which were from Iowa)

The story goes it started with a homesick soldier who tacked up a sign from his hometown and now anyone who has a metal sign can add it to the posts. We saw plenty of Colorado license plates and for my mom, signs from Waterloo, IA and Cedar Rapids. Grant took a picture next to a sign from Eureka, CA for his aunt. There was also a plate from Iowa that said HALEY on it but the camera battery had died by then (not that it matters since there aren't pictures on here anyways now).

We drove onward to a place called Timber Point Campground about 20 miles past the town of Teslin. If anyone decides to ever drive the Alaska Highway, you MUST stop here!!! It is probably the most beautiful campsite I have ever been to. For $15 we had an amazing campsite with a view of the giant Teslin Lake surrounded by mountains, free firewood, and a canoe with life jackets to paddle around the lake as we pleased. (and free water for Hank!). Since we kind of just drive until we feel like stopping and then look in the Milepost for a campground, we were definitely taking our chances. This place turned out to be a little secret gem. I wish it were closer to somewhere I might be somewhat regularly and not 1000 miles from anything. It was the most perfect way to spend our last night in Canada.

(Imagine sun rays glistening off the water and surrounding Grant as he steps into a canoe on a 300 square-mile lake with giant peaks behind him, wearing his cowboy hat, orange flannel shirt, and his jeans rolled up to mid-calf)

We have decided to take an extra day as we're guessing we won't feel like driving 18+hours tomorrow. We are looking forward to doing some Alaskan camping tomorrow night! 2,396 miles down, 1,004 miles to go!