July 21^st, 2001

In the morning we stay on the Icefield Parkway (highway 93, northbound). It runs through most of Jasper national park and passes endless woods, marvellous lakes and untouched valleys.

Again and again glaciers can be seen above which clouds form and offer spectacular views.

We also pass the Columbia Icefield, a remainder of the last ice age that stretches across 325 km² and which sends its melting waters to three different oceans (Atlantic, Pacific and Beaufort sea). With big trucks tourists can get a lift onto the glacier, but we think, it's not only expensive, but rather useless. The visitor center closed, the parking lot empty, and we just don't feel like hiking.

After a short stop for washing clothes in tourist-packed Jasper we know that in this weather it doesn't make any sense to plan for a trip around Mt. Robson, the highest mountain of the Canadian Rockies.

From Jasper on we stay on highway 16 eastbound for about 70 km und take the exit onto the Bighorn highway (#40) northbound. The ride on this narrow but therefore even more idyllic road becomes an adventure due to the weather and the animals alongside. As the sun comes out for a while  we pass a herd of caribous, which stand on and beside the road and don't bother to get out of the way.

Little later a big stag crosses the highway just in front of our van in order to go for a refreshing swim. About two hours later weather becomes worse again, dark cloud form and it starts to rain. Our mood is still good as we are in the warm van and nothing else than driving is planned today anyway.

Ok, it is a bit sinewy, rain turns into a downpour. Suddenly the road is closed due to a little flood which can be crossed only slowly.

In the afternoon we pass Dawson Creek, starting point of the famous Alaska highway which we follow from now on. Here we meet four daddies who made all their way up from Michigan to drive the Alaska highway. We help them taking some group pictures and get back on the road afterwards. A few kilometers later we exit onto an old part of the highway which leads to the Kiskatenaw river and the campground of the same name.

During the last days it must have down poured a lot as the river is swollen up and carries muddy water and many uprooted trees. Therefore the ride across the biggest curved wooden bridge in Canada becomes an adventure.

July 22^nd, 2001

Today again nothing else than driving is planned, about 700 km we have to cover. The first hours are rather boring, even though we meet the biker gang again. But 400 km of road with woods to the right and woods to the left are of interestingly little fun.

At a gas station right in the middle of nowhere we have our lunch break.

On the road again from time to time  we discover moose on green strips on both sides. Finally it starts to get some more hilly, the landscape changes as we drive on. We stop at a nice lookout and a man warns us about a black bear that roams in the area.

As we drive on we keep our eyes open but can't see a bear. A little later I detect something black in the bushes and stop the van. Indeed there is my first black bear, no 20 meters away, and feeds on the green leaves of some bushes.

We sit for more than 10 minutes and watch the scene. Finally it disappears behind some bushes and we ride on. The road to Fort Nelson is not as good as before, big parts are just gravel road. While driving on gravel one should always concentrate on the traffic as the cloud of dust of the cars ahead takes most of the sight.

In the afternoon we pass Stony Mountain provincial park. Here again some caribous block the road and signs warn of dall sheep, too. We see one just beside the road, a young one, no horns yet.

From time to time one gets confronted with civilization, for example when a plane lands on a field right beside the highway.

The landscape astonishes us again and again with its beauty and we enjoy the rain-fresh air, listen to some tapes. In the early evening we set up camp on Muncho lake in the provincial park of the same name.

The greenish blue water invites for a swim and isn't too cold either. We spend the evening relaxing at the camp fire, eating and chatting.

July 23^rd, 2001

On our way up to Watson Lake we stop at the Liard hot springs. It's overcast again and at temperatures of 15 °C it cheers us up to sit in a natural pool at 40-49 °C.

After we relaxed for a while we get back on the road. On one of the longer gravel parts we pass a convoy of at least 30 RVs. Shortly before Watson Lake we pass the provincial border to the Yukon Territories and stop close to the town at Lucky lake where we have our lunch break.

As we sit down the first of the convoy just stops here, too. by the time we leave the last of them is yet to arrive. We enter Watson Lake and visit the collection around 40,000 street sign from all over the world. Among them there are a lot of huge German city signs, where one just wonders how they might have made their way up here.

Many of the signs tell their own little story, makes us smile or laugh...

We get going once more today and cover the remaining kilometers to Whitehorse, capital city of the Yukon Territories. With its 20,000 people it hold half of the population in Yukon, a province as big as Germany. I hoped to meet Mary here, who I met on our road trip to Nova Scotia some month before. Unfortunately she isn't home and so we set up camp on a local campground and go for a huge (and expensive) pizza in civilization ;-))