Morning finally came and we ventured out from under the covers to find the mosquitoes had headed to all the dark corners they could find, to spend the day light hours. This is the thing about northern mosquitoes…as long as it is bright and sunny, you don’t really notice them….come night time or a dull cloudy day and it is a different story entirely. We won’t venture back up into that country again without proper mosquito hats and jackets – or we’ll wait until late August when the first frosts have killed the little blighters off. They aren’t ‘vicious’ like the ones we are used to…but they sure are ‘in your face’!
You’ll note in this picture taken along the campsite roadway, that it is sort of ‘bushy’ – that is another thing ‘bush’ equates to ‘bugs’ (of course that is the same anywhere)….and they particularly like willows. There are some more of those Tall Bluebells….
after a trip into Fort Liard to the combination gas station/store we were back on the Liard Trail….up here you buy gas when you can find it….we also carried spare with us, just in case! Those are the Liard Mountains in the distance…
It was a pretty short trip of just over 100 km to our next destination which was Blackstone Territorial Park.
This park, situated on the shores of the Liard River has some of the prettiest scenery and is as close as you can get to the Nahanni. That ‘bump’ in the distance is Nahanni Butte…apparently in winter there is an ice road but the rest of the time the only access is by either boat or airplane.
This is as close a view as I could get of Nahanni Butte, I then started turning, taking photos as a turned….this will show you the scope of this massive river….
Now we’re back to the original point, this is the viewing platform situated at the back of the visitor’s center…
and a final scenic look….
I’ve mentioned the mosquitoes, but I haven’t mentioned the other bugs that are so plentiful….Butterflies…they were everywhere….the grills of our trucks became butterfly graveyards….these Swallowtails were in the boat launch at the campground…probably getting minerals of some sort….
and here is a view of part of the campground itself…see that? BUSH and what do you get with bush….BUGS! Now it wasn’t bad this sunny afternoon…but lesson to be learned….don’t unhook your truck and trailer if you don’t have to!
in all that bush were lots of Wild Roses….I’ve mentioned before, but it bears repeating, that the further north you go, the more intense the colors of the flowers…
spotted this Red-eyed Vireo in the tangle…there was water under laying all of this vegetation…so water = bugs….we have since heard that this park has the reputation of being the ‘buggiest’…..
Here is another of those Eastern Phoebe’s that I first spotted back at Taylor, B.C. The shower buildings were located in this area and there were at least one pair of Phoebe with nests built on the buildings. I mentioned in my report on this years trip that all the campgrounds in the territories offer hot showers, despite being ‘off the grid’….they simply have set hours when they fire up the generators to heat the water and supply electricity to the buildings.
Not to be out down by the birds….there were also Snowshoe Hare running about in the campground.
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