A Tale of Two Forts

Day 9

June 23 2016                         Fort St. John, BC            Beatton Provincial Park, site 21

340 miles (547 km)                                                                            10.4 mpg  (4.42 km/l)

Our destination for the day was Saskatoon Lake Provincial Park, just west of Grand Prairie, BC.  We left the KOA at 07:00 and turned left at the sign that said “The Most Scenic Route to Alaska” and turning north onto AB-40. 

It was very scenic, passing through very thick pine forests, mountains, and rolling foothills.  Between Hinton and Grand Prairie, we passed through just one town, Grand Cache.  Nothing in between.  There are signs telling us no services over the next 200 km, etc.  So we never let the gas tank get below ½ anymore.   (not true, see next post below)

It was a littly cloudy and mist for the first few hours towards Grand Prairie.

 A little cloudy starting out

But it got better

There were numerous caribou warning signs along the way, but we didn’t see any (caribou, not the signs).

There were lots of logging trucks.  We followed one for miles.  They slow down almost to a crawl going uphill and there are no passing lanes.  And the road is curvy so passing wasn’t an option.  So it was about an hour of this go slow up hill and fast downhill until there was a long enough straightaway to pass.  I need a lot of room to pass a big truck while towing a trailer.  There is almost no traffic, so we would get only a few cars behind us, but they were quick to get around us.  In spite of all this, it was a gorgeous ride to Grand Prairie.

Try not to get stuck behind one of these.

By the time we got to Grand Prairie, the land was much flatter and the trees turned to Aspen and shrubs.  Grand Prairie is an industrial town and supports logging, and oil and gas.  Lots of construction equipment like dump trucks, excavators, bull dozers, and the flatbed trucks that haul them.  We see a lot of roads being built in the middle of nowhere for access to logging or oil.

We got to Grand Prairie fairly early and thought it was too early to stop so we continued on to Dawson Creek, which is in British Columbia.  We also crossed into Pacific Daylight Time, three hours behind eastern time.

Leaving Grand Prairie we got behind a convoy hauling a house down the highway.  It took up the whole road except the left shoulder, where on-coming cars could pass.  It was about ½ hour before they could get over and let the long line of cars pass.

Dawson Creek is the official start of the Alaskan Highway.  There is a visitor center (spelled centre in Canada) there with a big sign for tourist to take a picture.  It’s referred to as mile zero. 

We met people there from all over the U.S.  Most people we meet, like at gas stations or visitor centers are all Americans going to Alaska.

Dawson Creek was much larger than I expected.  We stopped at a Walmart there for some groceries.  In the north, we are realizing that there is much less choices in groceries than back home.  We needed lunch meat for sandwiches, but had to get prewrapped sliced meats instead of getting it at the deli counter.  They didn’t have a deli counter.  Produce selection is even worse.  The same with meats.

Was glad to get back on the highway.  Outside of Dawson Creek there is an old section of the original highway that passes over a curved wooden bridge.  We took that bypass to see it.

We passed through the town of Fort St. John and ended up at Beatton Provincial Park a little west of town.  Got there at 3:00 in the afternoon after 9 hours on the road.  Surprisingly, it was full of large fifth wheels, almost all from British Columbia.  The campground was on the north end of a large lake named Charlie Lake and was about 10 miles off the highway.  It was OK for the night, but I wouldn’t stay again. 

One good thing there was we saw the first bald eagle of the trip and its juvenile, still living at home, The  juveniles are mottled instead of black and white.  Didn’t get a picture of the mommy.

Day 10  

Saturday June 24, 2016     Fort Nelson, BC          Tetsa River Regional Park, site 14

305 miles (491 km)                                                                            9.6 mpg (4.08 km/l)

Beatton Provincial Park was not one of the better campgrounds we stayed at so far.  Left at 07:20 and drove west on the Alaskan Highway towards Fort Nelson, BC.  Wasn’t sure where we were going to end up for the night.  Started out with ¾ tank of gas and had 300 miles to go without any real towns on the way.  But there are lodges and RV resorts that sell gas at high prices if you need some.  There are no real gas stations until Fort Nelson.  When I got down to ¼ tank I was getting nervous and stopped at some little grocery store, motel, RV campground, gas pump kind of place and filled up with $1.69/litre gas.  With currency and unit conversion that translates to $4.80/gallon in US money.  Cost me over $90 US to fill ¾ of a tank (20 gallons).

We stopped at the visitor center in Fort Nelson and used their free wifi.  Posted post 3, and 4.  But by the time you get this, you already know that.  Was there for two hours. 

Moved on to the next campground just west of Fort Nelson.  It was called the Testa River Regional Park and was owned by the town of Fort Nelson.  It had once been a BC Provincial Park and still had the same character.  Really liked it a lot and was the best campground we’ve stayed at in Canada so far.  The Testa River is a long river and we followed it for miles the next day.  It was very muddy from rain runoff, but is a very good trout river for Dolly Varden (the fish, not a person).  Was too muddy to fish. 

Tetsa River Campgound

Right after we arrived at 15:00, it was threatening rain and thunder, like most of the campgrounds we arrive at.  It finally did rain and we sat out under the awning.  It dispersed quickly and we were able to cook out and have a campfire with the free firewood at the campground.

The very friendly campground hosts walked over and chatted with us for a while and asked us to sign their guest book.

Overall, another very nice day in Canada.