Friday, June 24, 2022 - What a beautiful day for a drive. Clear blue skies with not a cloud in the sky. The temperature was supposed to get to 77 degrees today, which would be much warmer than what we have been having lately. Yesterday, the drive was in the upper 40s and lower 50s for most of the day. The roads turned out to be very good with just occasional construction going on that slowed us down for a short period of time. There were some very short stretches of gravel, but they did not amount to anything. We were going slow and there was no damage to the RV.

We arrived in Muncho Lake at around 2:30 after a four hour drive. We did not have any reservations, so we tried to get into the McDonald Campground at Muncho Lake Provincial Park, but there were no sites available that could handle our size. We then drove back to the lodge and they had a full-service pull through available for us for $75 per night. A little pricey, but the only game in town.

After setting up the RV, we pulled out the kayaks and went for a kayak float for about two hours. Muncho Lake is very long and narrow. We crossed the lake and toured the coastline heading south and then crossed back across the lake to Highway 97 side to look for animals along the road. We had seen some goats coming into the lodge area on the Alaska Highway along the lake. We tried to find them from the kayaks, but "no joy." This lake is exceptionally beautiful. The water is a green-blue color and we had a day without a whisper of wind. Be sure to take a look at the photo gallery and videos of this area because they are hard to describe in words. We have not cellular phone service in this area and we have a very poor WiFi through the lodge. I can write some text, but there is no way to upload a photo. I will get them posted as soon as I can.

We are getting farther north and the days are quite long. Daylight until after 11:00 p.m. and we have to use "blackout shades" to get to sleep. Luckily, between the shades and being pretty tired, we can get some sleep. The Sun also makes its presence know at around 5:00 a.m., so we feel that we should be getting up. Takes some getting used to up here.

Animals seen today included a fox (or coyote), a big black bear, two sandhill cranes, and a herd of white stone goats. I think they can climb on stone.

Saturday, June 25, 2022 - We had and early breakfast and "lit out" for the Liard Hot Springs (pronounced; lee-yard) located about 40 miles north of us. This is a campground attached to the hot springs, so there is camping there too. We tried to get into this campground, but the online reservation system would not work for us. On the way to the hot springs, we came across a mature male buffalo grazing along side the road. I got some great pictures. They are technically called "wood bison" and there are about 100 of them up here, so we saw this one and another walking along the roadside a little later. When we arrived at the Liard Hot Springs, we noticed that there were numerous campers parked in the large open lot across the street from the Provincial Park. We asked the entrance manager about camping and she showed us where we could drive in to camp and told us that the opposite side of the highway was for overflow (or campers too large to fit inside the campground). That would have been us. We drove through the campground, but there were only a couple of sites that could have handled us. Many of the sites also had steep slopes, so leveling would have been a challenge, at best.

The entrance manager (for lack of a better term) took our $5 entrance fee and directed us to the hot springs. The entire campground and the parking lot for the hot springs is surrounded by and electric fence. You have to be careful not to bump up against it, or it might "light your fire!" We parked the truck and took our towels and headed for the hot springs. We went through and electric gate onto a boardwalk that would take us all the way to the hot spring which was .4 miles away. The walk took us through a swampy area with marshes filled with warm water. There are some minnows that actually exist in the warm water and thrive on the minerals in the water. At the hot springs, there are areas where you can change into swim wear and there are "cubbies" where you can stow your belongings. We did not feel any concern about theft as virtually everyone there was a retired traveler. The water was two to three feet deep with a gravel base that made walking easy. The temperature was nicely warm on the top half and a little cooler on the bottom half. As you walked closer to the source of the hot water, the temps increased by about five to ten degrees. As you got real close to the source, the water became very hot, so you would move back downstream to find the temp that suited you. After a while, we went exploring. This is a natural stream with a gravel bottom, so there was water flowing into the stream in several places. As we walked downstream, we noticed that the channel narrowed into a fun little stream to explore. We went as far as we could down this channel until it ended abruptly. We had to go under logs and limbs, but it was fun to do. We have video, so be sure to see the photo and video logs once I get them posted.

After getting out of the hot springs and getting dressed, we walked farther up the boardwalk to stairs that took us up to the "Hanging Gardens." The hot mineral water bubbling out of the Earth, is perfect for certain plants to grow and several were in bloom near the source. It was fun to look at the flowers and the water cascading down the hill after oozing up out of the Earth. After leaving the hot springs, we stopped at a small lodge and bought some muffins and diet Pepsi'. We had fun snacking on their chairs outside the entrance. They were preparing for a large caravan of campers that were scheduled in that afternoon.

On the drive back to the RV, we drove into a short thunderstorm with substantial rain for about two miles. Then we again encountered the grazing buffalo that we had seen on the way out. After that, we managed to come across a beaver that was walking across the road. It was on the shoulder when we got up alongside it, so we got a good view of it, but could not get any good photos. Bummer! Back at the RV, Lisa had a salad for lunch and I began updating the blog. We had another intermittent thunderstorm blow through, but with not too much rain at all.

The plan is for more kayaking later today if the weather stays nice.