Today, we backtracked west on the Alaska Highway to the Cassiar Highway. Again, the weather has just been unbelievable.
The section of the Alaska Highway that we explored yesterday between Toad River and Liard Hot Springs is pretty spectacular, but the section between Liard Hot Springs and Watson Lake ain't too shabby with mountains and rivers along the way.
Here's the first of the two bears we saw this morning along that stretch.
We saw bison as well, but didn't stop this time, and we didn't get a photo of the second bear.
In Watson Lake, we fueled up both vehicles at Tag's Food & Gas & RV Park since services on the Cassiar are spread out, and I'm guessing gas prices are going to be higher. Because the Liard Hot Springs Lodge & RV Park where we stayed last night charges guests $20 plus tax to dump, we waited until we got to Watson Lake.
Tag's has a little RV park behind the gas station, and they allowed us to dump our tanks back there since we filled up our motorhome and Jeep.
About 13 miles past Watson Lake, we turned onto the Cassiar Highway, Canada 37 and headed south. For the first few miles, we were in the Yukon and the road was pretty good. Once we entered British Columbia, the road looked like this for a while.
It wasn't terrible, but the surface was rough and there were no lane markers or center lines.
After about 20 miles, the road suddenly changed to a smoother surface ......
that took us all the way to Boya Lake Provincial Park (now known as Tā Ch’ilā Provincial Park since 2018) which is about 53 miles south of the Alaska Highway.
Now that burned-out area at the beginning went on a long time, and we were wondering if we'd made a mistake taking the Cassiar. But the fire-torn area faded and the scenery improved.
We saw one bear along the road that scampered into the woods quickly. So, it was a three-bear drive today.
As we pulled into the Provincial Park, it was Saturday afternoon, and we were just hoping to find a spot on the lake. We got lucky as there was a pull-through available right on the water, Site 16.
The sites on the water are fairly close together, so there isn't as much privacy as you might think, but our site wasn't bad at all with some trees separating us from both neighbors. The sites off the lake seem to have better privacy, but Boya Lake is so beautiful, it's definitely worth a little closeness for the views.
The water looked like someplace in the Caribbean.
There are no hook-ups at this campground, no dump station, and no water tank filling station, but there is an artesian well to get water in jugs.
The campsites are $20 CAD (about $15 USD), and you can either pay at the self-pay kiosk or wait for a park attendant to come around in the evening. The park attendant also has firewood to sell.
Sites have firepits and picnic tables, and our site actually had two picnic tables for some reason. I'm thinking it may have been a double site at one time as there were a couple other spots like ours that were actually two sites.
I walked down to the day use area where there are kayaks and canoes available for rent - self serve.
There are two short trails or about a mile each, but I didn't venture out on either of them.
I was more intent on getting our Sea Eagle FastTrack set up for some paddling on the clear water.
It was really muddy on the edge of the lake below our campsite, so we had to launch wearing our rubber boots. In hindsight, we probably should have chosen another place to put in. But we got it done and were soon ready to paddle across the clear water.
It's a good sized lake, but it also has lots of back channels and inlets that make it pretty perfect for paddling.
We paddled around for a little while admiring the scenery .....
before heading back.
As we approached our campsite, I took a couple shots of our rig from the water.
We took out a little bit down from our site where the shoreline was packed sand rather than the mud, and then we carried the boat back a short distance to our site.
We considered staying here another night, but since it was a beautiful sunny afternoon giving us great colors and views and because were able to get the boat out on the water, we decided to go ahead move on tomorrow. So, we deflated the boat, cleaned it, and started packing it up.
One neighbor came over to watch us pack it away as he was curious as to how small it packed up after watching us paddle by. Folks are always curious about our inflatable kayak.
About the time we finished getting the boat back in the Roof Bag on top of the Jeep, the park attendant came by, and we bought some firewood from her. It was just such a pretty night, we had to have a fire and look out over the lake.
After leftovers for dinner, and while we were running our generator (again limited generator hours of 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. and 9:00 - 11:00 a.m.) we met our neighbors on the other side of us.
Robert and Leanne have a travel trailer and a truck with Texas license plates. But their accent is definitely not Texan. They are Australians hoping to full-time in the U.S. for four years (pending renewals of travel visas). So far, they are nine months in, and their story is pretty cool.
They are documenting their journey on their blog (Wander and Move) and on their Wander and Move YouTube channel.
We chatted with them for quite some time, long after we had to turn off the generator, as the sun sank and lit up the mountains on the other side of the lake.
That photo was from their campsite, Site 15 which has a more open view of the lake. Get that one if you can.
It was a pleasure talking to these positive folks that are jumping through the necessary hoops to enjoy RVing in North America, and they hope to inspire others.
Eventually, we returned to our site and burned the rest of our firewood, watched the stars, and looked for Northern Lights before calling it a night.
We're in travel mode rather than camping mode, otherwise Boya Lake would be a fantastic place to just relax for a few days.
Tomorrow, we're making a 300-mile drive to Meziadin Lake Provincial Park where we'll stay a couple of nights and take time to do a side trip to Stewart, BC, Hyder, AK and Salmon Glacier.
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