Back to the Dempster 2011 – Part 20

Now, on Sunday of the Labor Day long weekend, we would pack up and head back up the Alaska Highway to the campsite at the Liard Hot Springs…

hadn’t gone very far up the highway when we encountered this herd of Wood Bison….

so might as well take some time and look at Wood Bison pictures…

why did the bison cross the road?  To tie up traffic would be my guess!

they learn young…

more of them out this window as well…

kind of cute in a homely way…

 

and this would be the best ‘head shot’ I’d get – look at all the burrs and bits in the fur….needs a good grooming! 

proceeded on to the campground, and true to his word, the park host had saved us a spot.  It was even a fairly private spot in this rather packed campground.  By now the weather had cleared so we set off for a walk along the boardwalk to the actual hot springs…this is along the way…

 

there were a family of Mallards paddling around in the warm water….

closer look at one of them and the ‘muck’ they were feeding in….

this spot is a bit ‘off trail’ and behind where the actual hot springs are located…

the boardwalk now ends at the hanging gardens – not looking terribly ‘garden like’ this time of the year.  You used to be able to walk to the upper springs, but that has now been completely blocked off due to a very rare endangered snail that lives in those springs…

here is some of the vegetation along the board walk…

and a small corner of the hot springs themselves…I really didn’t want a picture of all the occupants of the springs…

Later, Ernie went back to indulge in a soak in the springs…and found that the signs warning ‘Bear in area’ are there for a reason as this guy was walking along not far from the board walk….

later in the afternoon, either the same, or another bear was in the campground – see it up that tree?

I like to call this picture ‘like father, like daughter’ – what were they staring at?

the bear of course!!

That would pretty much be it for our stay at Laird Hot Springs.  The next day we’d be heading to a spot I wanted to stay at….

Back to the Dempster 2011 – Part 19

Left Big Creek campground the morning of September 3rd.  We were now into the Labor Day weekend but, as it turns out, naively thought that it wouldn’t make a difference ‘up here’.

stopped at Watson Lake to dump the holding tanks.  There is a nice little park here with a free dumpsite…

while Ernie did the dirty work I wandered about and was surprised to see this Red-necked Grebe youngster, still being fed by a parent..

duties done we were soon back on the highway….that is the Laird River down there…

at another spot along the highway we saw a family of Swans way off in the distance…

we are now back in British Columbia and also back in ‘Bison’ country…

here is an up close and personal look at a Wood Bison head….

stopped at the Laird River – there is a very small ‘rough and ready’ camping area here…

The river makes an abrupt turn at his point…

These asters were in flower – not sure of the exact variety that they are…

Our plan had been to stay at Laird Hot Springs, however, when we got there the campground was full (remember it was Labor day weekend and this is a campground you can reserve and as we found out – it is a favorite long weekend destination for residents of Fort St. John)  so we continued on to Muncho Lake …

Where we found McDonald Campground on the north end of Muncho Lake to still have some vacancies so we quickly grabbed a spot.   I much prefer this campground to Laird…far more scenic and far less busy…but Ernie, for some reason had his heart set on staying at the hot springs…

All of these campsites back right onto the lake.

In spring the wildflowers in this campground are spectacular….now it was time for ‘fall colour’

found a few late bloomers….

and some interesting seed heads – I’m not sure what this is a seed head off…

but they were quite tall as this picture shows…

The High-bush Cranberry were pretty spectacular…

and there were some of those Northern Grass of Parnassus here as well.

  

here is an evening shot of the lake…

and another….if you notice there are some birds just off of those reeds…

They were Greater White-fronted Geese.   They had been on shore when Ernie (who took this picture) had been in the area, but had moved out by the time I got there.

This juvenile Bald Eagle was also there but it was getting pretty dark for taking pictures by this time.  It was about this time that the park manager came to collect fees and when Ernie complained about not being able to get into Liard….the fellow said ‘no problem’ I’ll leave your name at the gate, and save a spot for you…so in the morning we would be retracing our route back to Liard Hot Springs.

Back to the Dempster 2011 – Part 18

This won’t be a very exciting posting.  It was September 2nd when we left Whitehorse and headed east on the Alaska Highway.

it is a long stretch…

stopped at one point along the Alaska Highway – this is the view on one side…

and on the other a large marsh area….there were a couple of Moose down there…

Like the ones at Gravel Lake – too far away for decent pictures – this was the most moose we’ve seen on anyone trip though…

Stopped at Rancheria Falls again…

Found this interesting – the squirrels have been storing various mushrooms up in the trees – presumably to dry for a winter food supply…

and speaking of mushrooms there were a lot of these very pretty white ones at the entrance of the trail…not sure of the ID…closest thing I can find are Smith’s Amanita – if that is the case then they are also very poisonous!

Our spot for the night would be at Big Creek Territorial Campground – we had stayed here on our previous trip – although we swore it’s name should have been Big ‘Mosquito’ campground as it was the worst spot for mosquitoes we encountered.  Not so this time – bugs simply weren’t an issue this trip.  Had we realized at the time that there was another campground not too far down the road near Watson Lake, we would have pushed on – live and learn!  As it was we made the best of this rather uninspiring spot.

this is ‘Big Creek’….I went for a bit of a walk on the little bit of trail that exists there…

Found this, which appears to be a very late blooming cut-leaf Anemone

Was also intrigued by this clover – I’m not sure I’ve ever seen clover quite that colour before!

Here is a close up of one of the flowers…

there were also these strange fungi that I can’t find in my book…

and these, younger versions of the same type I think…

and this – a type of lichen I think, but again, I can’t find it in my books…

Some brilliant flower weed…and that would about do it.  The next day would be far more productive in terms of things to photograph!