Yukon Trip 2009 - Days 28 & 29

Well you can tell that when I do two days together and there are hardly any pictures, that these days weren't terribly exciting! We left Tetsa River Campground on June 19th and traveled to Fort Nelson - I would dearly loved to have turned north towards Fort Liard in the N.W.T. but we didn't have time to repeat that trip, this time. Stopped in Fort Nelson for all the necessities, empty holding tanks, fill water and fuel tank, buy some groceries etc....and then, since Ernie wanted to put in a long day, headed towards Fort St. John. I was a little concerned about this as it was a Friday, it was now 'summer' and we were back in areas with a large population and anyone who RV's knows that in the summer you had better be where you want to be well before a weekend, if you want to find a spot to stay.......
We are now well out of the northern Rockies and heading to the Peace River Country....an area of the province that I absolutely love.......got to the outskirts of Fort St. John about supper time and headed to Charlie Lake Provincial Park campground, which was, as I had feared - completely full.

carried on to the very nice RV park run by the Rotary Club which is also on Charlie lake and spent the night there. This RV park backs onto a Duck's Unlimited enhanced area which is what this picture shows......

next day we travel through Fort St. John and take the short detour (dirt road) to Kiskatinaw Provincial Park just to see what it was like....

this is the original Alaska Highway and that bridge is the Kiskatinaw River Bridge which is the only original timber bridge built along the Alaska Highway that is still in use...it is also, although it doesn't show in this picture, a 'curved' wooden bridge.....

a sign explaining about the historical value of the bridge. Back onto today's Alaska Highway and heading to Dawson Creek, Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway. Anyone who knows me knows I hate cities, traffic and lots of people....and Dawson Creek offered all 3. We made a brief stop at the visitor's center and then continued on.......

crossing into Alberta about lunch time. The intended destination was Saskatoon Island Provincial Park which is just outside of Grande Prairie.....I've said it before, I had my doubts about the wisdom of this....it was now a Saturday....and sure enough when we got there, the campground was full....so now what? Looked at the map and decided to head south on highway 40 as there appeared to be quite a few recreational sites along it....so we did....checked out a number of them - all packed with ATV's roaring around all over the place....finally got to a Provincial Recreation Site called Musreau Lake

and found a spot. Alberta has 3 types of Campgrounds. The main Provincial Parks are really nice, well maintained and regulated, most offer a choice of electrical hookups as well as non, services such as showers, kitchen shelters etc. then there are Provincial Recreation sites, which are like some of B.C.'s more primitive campgrounds, no electrical, pit toilets only, not as well regulated but do ban ATV's, and then there are the rec sites where anything goes....

This would actually be quite a 'birdy' site, but it was so busy on this weekend that birding wasn't an option - we were the only 'non - Albertan's' and were made to feel like 'outsiders'....in other words - not a pleasant place to stay.

I did get a picture of this white type of vetch or wild Sweet Pea growing beside the campsite.

Campground fee: Fort St John (with power) $30

Campground fee: Musreau Lake $20 Total distance traveled to date: 7,030 km.