May 24, 2015

Upon leaving Summit Lake this morning we happened on a nice herd of stone sheep. Several big rams were delighted to pose for us on the roadway and seemed totally unaffected by the attention. Now I don’t know if this is a statement about man/female attitudes but the females stated well away from us and watched us warily from the cliffy outcrop. The stone sheep are much grayer than our big horn sheep in the US Rockies.

This drive from Fort Nelson on has been through spectacular scenery, lots of topographic and lovely vistas. Unfortunately, the air is thick with smoke from numerous forest fires raging through British Columbia and Yukon Territory. It does create misty photographs but does not do justice to the beautiful views.

This section of highway is amazing, steep hillsides with cliffs of tortured limestone, raging rivers, the Trout, the Racing, the Toad and the Laird, plus vast deltas flowing from narrow steep canyons in the mountains. Muncho Lake, “Big” Lake in Kaska, lives up to its name. Teal water laps at the base of sheer cliffs. This stretch of highway was the most difficult during construction. It required blasting the roadway from the cliffs. Occasionally, heavy equipment vanished into its icy depths. Caribou are found in the area, but not by us. Moose have also remained quite shy.

Bison have been reintroduced into this area and these seem to being doing quite well judging by the “calling cards” they have left along the road. We finally came across a small herd just south of the bridge over the Laird River. One young male was pleased to pose for us, the remainder of the group simply lay in the shade and took siestas. Another male was at the gate to the Laird Hot Springs Provincial Park and was quite photogenic.

Here are a couple of ewes just chillin' in the morning sun and soakers at Laird Hot Springs.

Laird Hot Springs was such a delight. The water is quite hot, 100 degrees mid pool hotter toward the spring entrance. The area is full of mud flats, ferns and wild flowers. The springs are a very popular stop along the highway. We camped for the night but others just stopped for an hour or two and drove on. We would stop here again in a heartbeat. The campground is wonderful with more privacy than we have seen at other provincial parks.