Bus trip from Maine to Alaska: Day 9 British Columbia, hot springs, animals galore!

This picture doesn't do these cliffs any justice

Mountain views driving through BC

Day 9

I got up early and wandered down to the river and went for a walk. It was an amazing river valley and the water was as blue and clear as I have ever seen. I wandered for about an hour enjoying the landscape and looking for both bear and moose. When I got back Jess still wasn’t up and I decided to go to the lodge for a cup of coffee and one the legendary cinnamon buns we had both heard about. It was a five dollar cinnamon bun and I had to wait for it to come out of the oven. It was as good as the owner had bragged. I ate half and brought the other half back for Jess for breakfast. She ate it happily. We packed up fed the cats and checked all the fluids in the bus. This was another big day of mountain climbs and our goal for the day was to make it to the Yukon and through British Columbia.

Stone Sheep on a steep mountain road

It wasn’t far from the start of the ride and we were driving along mountain cliff with drops that were higher than I can estimate. It seemed at times the road just ended and instead the road curved to the right out of sight. Right after some of the biggest and scariest sections we came across a Stone Sheep standing in the road. It was an absolutely inhospitable place for an animal to be. Not soon after we cam upon a herd of Caribou in the road and were able to take a few pictures. We were amazed at the amount of wildlife. About 15 minutes later a herd a mountain goats was standing inn the road. None of these animals seemed to be scared of us in the least and the only casually moved to the sides of the road. It was obvious it was their road. The days drive was already amazing and we were both excited for the hotsprings that we were to visit later in the day. The morning seemed to fly by. We saw a mother black bear with three cubs right by the road. Jess tried to get a picture but it was difficult getting a picture of the cubs due to thew length of the grass. The whole morning seemed to fly by with anticipation of what we might see next.

We arrived at the Liard hotsprings at about 1:30 in the afternoon. I had never been in a hotsprings before and it was all if not more than I expected. There were three pools. It was designed for people to start in the lower pool and progress into the upper pool. As you progress the temperature in the pools increases. There is a spot at the end of the third pool for you to place a rock onto a pile if you can make it that far. It was boiling hot but I made it. Jess couldn’t make it quite so far. We heard of a pool that was a walk through the woods that had been closed due to a bear sighting. A man had been killed at this pool the year before by a black bear that still is feared is lurking in the area. There was a young guy thinking the same thing. We grabbed our cameras and went to find the waterfalls that were suppose to have a hanging garden and then off to the forbidden pool for a dip. The waterfall was not that cool but when we got to the forbidden pool it was more like a giant swimming pool without a bottom. There were bubbles coming up from the bottom. We both dove in and swam around. We thought we heard something in the woods and both thought it was a ranger who had spotted us jumping the fence. We toweled off and walked back the path. There wasn’t anybody there and it is possible there was a bear close by. When we got back to the fence the guy’s mom was there and giving us a rash of shit, no big deal, she was just scared (the guy was about 23).

Enjoying the hot springs

Jess doing the same

The source of the hot liquid

After leaving the hotsprings one of the first things we saw was another black bear by the side of the road. Jess got some good pictures. He didn’t seem to care that we stopped the bus and were documenting his day. It wasn’t too much farther up the road and we came upon the first head of wild buffalo. These are woods Buffalo and only live in this part of British Columbia. I stopped the bus and Jess got out and took tons of pictures. This was by far the coolest thing we had seen so far on the trip. This wasn’t the only herd of Buffalo we saw that day. They just seemed to rule the roads in this area of B.C. The rest of the day sped by with the anticipation of more animals around every turn. We entered into the Yukon Territory late in the afternoon and decided we would stay for the night. We stayed at a campground on the Swift River where Route 1 winds in and out of the Yukon and British Columbia.

Bison by the road. They were so cool!

Herds of them

Black bear by the road

At the RV Park there was a lounge where they served supper. You could hardly call it a lounge but it did serve beer. Jess was pleasantly surprised to see that on the menu in the middle of nowhere they had homemade pierogies her favorite. She smiled and made cute noises throughout her meal. The owner came in and sat with us asking us questions about where we were going and where we were from. After some conversation he asked me if I wanted to do some fishing and I of course replied yes. He told me of a trail down to the river out a pointed peninsula. It was about a 15-minute walk away. The river was gorgeous and I cast for quite a while unsuccessfully. On the far bank I noticed something slinking up the shoreline. It was a wolf. He kept creeping up the shore in full sight of me. I felt like food. Where there is one wolf there are others. He was just across from the shallowest spot when I decided it might be time to walk out of there. It was very creepy. Back at camp we both had a couple beers and settled in for the night. Bedtime was at around 11:00 p.m.