From the Buckinghorse campsite / work camp, we drove north on the Alaska Highway. We stopped in Fort Nelson to resupply with food and fuel along with the requisite exploration of the local splash park. You might think that being nearly at nearly 60 degrees north latitude that it would be cold outside at least some of the time. In reality the temperatures have been quite warm (hot even) during the day, but it does cool off at night. So the outdoor splash park is definitely a pleasant diversion for us.

Fort Nelson splash park

That night we found a very nice campsite in a provincial park, complete with river views and lots of tall shady trees. We ate like kings for dinner — mussels and wheat crackers for appetizers, salad, steak, corn on the cob, along with some nice red wine (from a box). The food plus the ambiance together were really upgrade from the buggy, hot, and noisy work campsite from the previous night.

Tetsa River

Any river is good to throw rocks into

There were several surprises in store for us on our drive the next day. We started our climb up the Canadian Rockies and oh how the views improved. The flat, treed terrain was replaced by towering peaks and glacial-fed rivers. Since we had to stop fairly frequently for the numerous ongoing construction projects, we got plenty of opportunities to really enjoy the scenery. It was also interesting to see the constant stream of RVs headed in the opposite direction from us. They are apparently returning from their northern adventures while we are still heading north.

We stopped at Summit Lake for some photos and ended up staying for a short hike and some lunch. This is the highest point (elevation-wise) on the Alaska Highway, yet the pass itself is surrounded by rocky peaks as they cradle the edges of the crystal-blue lake. The trail markings for our hike unfortunately petered out pretty quickly and since we didn’t really want to do much bush-wacking, we turned around after a short while ate our lunch on the shores of Summit Lake.

Summit Lake

The road continued to provide excellent views. We passed Muncho Lake and almost decided to stay there for the night because the area was so beautiful. There were even several caribou grazing nearby to complete the scene. In the end, we opted to continue on to camp at Liard Hot Springs — a place whose reputation for being a “must stop” had been made clear to us by numerous other travelers.

Muncho Lake

Caribou on the road near Muncho Lake

The Liard River suspension bridge was built in 1943 and is the only remaining suspension bridge on the AK Highway

The hot springs are amazing — they are still natural and rustic (and not cemented into a swimming pool) and they recently added beautiful changing areas right next to the pools. The hot springs are accessible from the campground via a nice boardwalk. Ahhh… the waters are very nice.

Ahhh… Hot Springs!

We’ve decided to stay for an extra day to take a break from all the driving. Witt and Quinn are getting haircuts and there’s some minor van repairs that need to be done.

Haircut time!

I guess Quinn isn’t a fan of haircuts by mom…