Camping With Bison

We’ve made the trek between Alaska and the Lower 48 many times throughout the years, in every season except spring, until now. For this particular trip we’ve really slowed the pace and are taking time to stop and explore. There’s a lot to see along the way. As the landscape sheds it’s last blanket of winter, it’s waking up and coming alive once again. Spring is beginning to peek through.

A hint of green in the trees and grass

It had been 17 years since the last time we’d stopped for the night at Liard Hot Springs. It’s a popular place for travelers to stop, with a beautiful picnic area, playground and great campground. The original boardwalk to the hot springs was put in while the highway was being built in 1942. Imagine walking through the tundra all those years ago and coming across a stream of 102-106 degree water flowing through the forest! These days it’s the reward for travelers to relax after the day of driving. The hot springs are a good ¼ mile walk, on a beautiful boardwalk over wetlands and boreal forest. We were looking forward to taking a dip in those soothing waters once again.

We’d just finished setting up camp, took Maggie for a walk and were about ready to hike to the hot springs when we realized a bull wood bison was in the campsite just across the road from ours. Duane grabbed the camera and walked back to take a look. There he was, a huge bull, munching away, not really caring who was around. Soon enough he meandered back into the woods. 

The next day as we were leaving the campground, we had to stop for another bull blocking the road. It was cool seeing the massive animals up close and gave us a new experience. Not everyone can say they’ve camped with the bison. The hot springs were pretty awesome too.

This is the big guy blocking the road. Best to let him have his way

Wood bison were introduced into this area many years ago. We usually see some along the highway. Last year we saw groups of them for at least a one hundred mile stretch of highway. This time we didn’t see nearly as many. I suppose with the early spring and plenty of feed in the woods they don't have to hang out along the roadway. However, we did see several small groups of bison and got to photograph this big guy enjoying the sunshine.

With spring emerging, so are the bears. We’ve been excited to see many black bears and several grizzlies. We’ve also seen an abundance of elk, Dahl sheep, some caribou, stone sheep, moose and a gorgeous red fox, which decided to pose for me to take his picture. Thank you Mister Handsome!

 Grizzly & cub

Young Black Bear

We stopped along the way and hiked into Rancheria Falls. There were still some snowy patches on the ground, even though it was warm and no longer freezing at night. It wasn’t a very long hike, but well worth taking the time to do it. We walked for most of the way on another wonderful boardwalk, with big decks overlooking the falls.

Rancheria Falls

Nice place to hike on Mothers Day

Maggie has stayed incredibly busy the last few days keeping watch of our camp and making sure squirrels don’t get too close. It must be instinct for them to pester dogs because they arrive as soon as we do and start squawking at her. We can rest assured Maggie’s on guard. She’s been going to bed exhausted and in the mornings can hardly wait to get back outside again. She takes her job seriously!

Our journey continues. We’ve found awesome places to park each night, enveloped in this natural wonderland. We sit  around a roaring campfire, enjoying each other’s company, sharing a glass of fine, boxed wine, reminiscing about what a great day we’ve just had. Life doesn’t get much sweeter than this. 

 Big Creek Campground, Yukon Territory

Pine Lake, outside Haines Junction where we camped one night

Buffalo Jump, Big Beaver & Best Buns In The Galactic Cluster

Now that should get someone’s attention!

We’ve left the U.S. and are driving through the country of our best friends to the north, Canada.  After spending about 10 days in Northern Idaho, visiting Duane’s mom and camping on our friends’ Ted & Donna’s property, getting some much needed work done on the fifth wheel, Maggie having surgery to remove a thorn in her foot, and having fantastic visits with all our good friends in the area, we hit the road to travel to Alaska. Internet is sparse to none, and expensive at that, so this post won’t be published until we reach civilization once again.

Here's Maggie sporting her pretty pink booty after surgery

I said in a previous post that it’s the journey, not the destination that matters, but when we were looking at our trusty “Milepost Magazine” we found a historic site we were drawn to. Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, in southern Alberta. Just for the name itself, we had to go.  It didn’t seem too far out of our way, maybe 30-40 miles at the most. This time it was all about the destination. We were only a few miles off the main highway when the road to Head-Smashed-In turned to gravel. 

Dust billowed up behind us for what we found out was 37 kilometers until just before reaching the site of the buffalo jump it turned back to a paved road once again. What we later found out is if we had taken the road from the opposite direction, which was about the same distance, we would have avoided the gravel altogether. However, it was beautiful, high plains country that we wouldn’t have seen if we changed routes.

Those cliffs the actually jump site. Years of erosion have worn it down. It use to be a 1,000ft drop.

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump is the most well preserved, largest known archeological site in the world where Indians, for what is estimated 6,000 years, stampeded buffalo over the cliffs, to their death. Today it is a World Heritage Site. There is a beautiful state of the art interpretive center. Some of the First Nation People working there are decedents of the very Indians who took part in the hunts. They show a film, reenacting what a hunt would have been like. The preparations were well thought out and everything had to be just right. The People created long lanes, using piled up rocks and branches sticking up to look like trees on the high plains. Through studying their behavior, the Indians learned the buffalo would see the stones and trees as solid barriers and not try to break thru them, thus running through the created pathway.  After rubbing buffalo scent on a “chosen” warrior from the tribe, wearing buffalo skins over his head and body would work his way into the herd. Several others wore wolf skins over their bodies and tracked the buffalo from the edges of the heard. The ‘chosen’ young man would make his way to the front of the herd. Timing was precise. This lead warrior would walk ahead and make the sound of a wounded calf. Once the herd was all making their way to investigate the ‘wounded calf’, the other tribesmen would start running behind them and the ‘wolves’ along side. This would eventually get the buffalo into a complete frenzy and they would start moving. Other tribesmen, women and children who had been hiding along the lanes would stand up and wave robes and blankets as shields, causing even more of an uprising of the buffalo. The warriors would run, the buffalo would run, leading the unsuspecting buffalo to the cliff, and ultimately to their death below. The young warrior chosen for the job of honor, to act as the wounded buffalo, would run fast and then veer off the path just before reaching the cliff himself. The Indians would then give thanks to their Creator for a successful hunt. Nothing was wasted.  They’d process the enormous animals and the village could live for months off their good fortune. It all sounds quite gruesome, yet the planning and ingenuity the People possessed was astounding. The archeological findings there show the bones to go down as far as 10 meters into the ground, dating back thousands of years and as recent as the 1800’s.

The name, Head-Smashed-In was given because history tells of a young boy who wanted to watch the buffalo fall off the cliff from what he thought was a great vantage point, at the base of the cliff back up against the mountain. As the buffalo fell and started piling up, there were so many that the boy was crushed between the dead animals and the cliff. When the tribe finally dug him out, his head was smashed in and so the name came to be.

It seems most towns have some claim to fame. We’ve gone out of our way to see with our very own eyes attractions like The World’s Tallest Wind Chime, The World’s Largest Jackalope, The World’s Largest Truck, etc. Beaverlodge, Alberta wanted a draw to their small town, so they erected The World’s Largest Beaver in the town’s cultural center. The beaver is very symbolic to the Canadian People. At least that’s what the sign says. This 15 foot tall beaver, perched on a 19 foot log is hard to miss. We could see it for blocks as we drove into town. There’s a huge parking lot where visitors that choose to, can stop, stretch their legs and admire the extremely large mammal. I guess our names can be added to that list. We’re suckers for roadside attractions.

Had to stop for the World's Largest Truck too!

Our drive north until now has been a lot of fun. So far, we’ve seen bighorn sheep, coyotes, one scrawny moose and a black bear, which could have cared less about us trying to get a picture of it. Even though we’ve driven The Alaskan Highway many times, this trip is a slower pace, stopping to see those things we’ve never stopped for before. We’re enjoying the journey. It really is wild, beautiful country that few people will ever see.  We’ve visited with folks at rest stops along the way.  There always seems to be camaraderie among those making the long drive between Alaska and The Lower 48. People are generally interested in finding out your story, where you’re heading and where you’ve been. Just today Duane talked to exchange students from Germany, met Peter, a man on holiday with his wife from Germany, and people from various towns in the U.S.  We became friends with Pam and Warrick from Australia and saw them in several towns along the highway. We even met folks from our hometown of Willow, Alaska! It really is a small world, isn’t it?

Our stop for tonight is a lodge/RV park in Interior BC, on the Tetsa River. The woman running the place is a very friendly, yet a no nonsense kind of gal, with a sign above the desk that reads “No Sniveling”.  “No Sniveling” is also on their gas pump outside, where unleaded fuel is sold for $1.75 per liter. 

Their signs, which we’ve been seeing for miles, claim The Best Cinnamon Buns In The Galactic Cluster. How could we pass up something as out of this world as that? However, their ad also says they have electricity, but they asked us not to use too much or it will overload their system, plus they shut it down at 10pm anyway. They advertise WiFi, but warned us not to download anything or it will kick them offline. They offer showers but have no hot water. And they asked us to park sharing a space with another big fifth wheel because it’s the only site with a water line that’s hooked up.  It remains to be seen just how cosmic the cinnamon buns actually turn out to be.  

 Our campsite for the night

Tetsa Lodge

This lodge is typical of what we find in the Far North. Amazing pioneers, working with what is available to them in this harsh land, providing services to weary travelers who make their way along this long road. Many of these lodges, like Tetsa River Lodge, have been here since the Alaska Highway was being built during WWII. Tetsa Lodge is run by a third generation family and it’s the life they know and love. Fuel is trucked in from hundreds of miles away and in some cases lodges are run by generator power only. Wood stoves still warm the insides. In a lot of ways, not much has changes except the road itself. The real pioneers are those who came before us, who battled their way over basically a muddy trail all those years ago to settle in this wilderness. We simply follow in their steps.

So goes our migration to Alaska. Good times, fascinating people, interesting wildlife, and as always, a great adventure.

 Muncho Lake area

 Caribou, caring less that the camper is passing 

 Grizzly Bear 

Black Bear

Stone Sheep