Autumn Splendor And The 60th Parallel
Fort Nelson and north to the Yukon
Since it’s over 500 kilometres from Fort Nelson to the next real town… that being Watson Lake, Yukon, we fuelled up and took on potable water before heading north. There are a few fuel stops at some locations along the route, but the prices for fuel are very high. One also doesn’t know from one season to the next which stops will still be in business, and some are seasonal, so may be closed depending on when you are traveling.
Fort Nelson has a great sign showing all the communities along the path, and what's open, but we found this sign not to be entirely accurate. Some places may have been open, but their fuel pumps were closed down. No problem for us, but for small cars it certainly could be. That’s why you see a lot of cars traveling the Alaska Highway with fuel cans lashed to their roof rails or bumper.
Since it was already mid-afternoon by the time we had fuelled up and bought some diesel exhaust fluid from the local parts store, we knew we’d not make Watson Lake this day. So we planned for an overnight in a regional campground. Sometimes it’s just easier than looking for a wild camp, and it helps the local economy. Especially when it’s a regional park rather than a provincial or national one. Regional parks are most often open year round, whereas the others often close in September and don’t open again until the following May.
As with all good things that eventually come to an end, so did our smooth new pavement. It ran out onto old pavement, and that ran out onto gravel and the building of a new road surface. But we’d not see new pavement again until the return trip.
This new road building started at the exact location of our next stop… Tetsa River Lodge and RV Park. What makes this stop special is not it’s location on the river, or the grandness of its facilities. Its attraction, at least for us anyway, is the fact that they produce amazing, Food Network recognized, cinnamon buns. They’re definitely worth stopping for, and like diesel fuel, taking on as much as our truck can carry. Mile 375 on the Alaska Highway should be highlighted on everyones travel itinerary.
From Cinnamon Buns to a Sign Post Forest
The mountain overlooking the Racing River is quite impressive, especially when in full colour.
Having loaded up with sufficient cinnamon buns to last us until our return trip (no, we didn’t buy out their day’s production), we carried on north. As we went further along the road we entered the more defined range of the northern rockies, and this means more dramatic mountains, and larger, more active rivers.
We also entered an area with more diverse wildlife than what we’ve seen so far on the trip. We came across deer, bison, and for the first time for us in the wild, a grizzly bear and numerous caribou. As terrific as it was to see the wildlife, the intensity of the autumn scenery continued to amaze us.
