THE ALASKAN ADVENTURE Day 110 September 3, 2009 Dease Lake to Watson Lake, YK

We left Dease Lake this morning and headed north. It would be our first look at the lake as it is north of where we were staying and north of the turnout for Telegraph Creek. When we reached the lake we realized that all the cut outs were over grown and you really couldn’t see anything. We did manage to find an old road that let us make our way down to the lake.

After taking our pictures we were just about to leave when a curious Red Fox walked into the clearing. He or she was really nervous but stayed close enough to allow us to get a bunch of pictures. Okay about 30 pictures.

We stayed and watched for about 15 minutes before we finally had to leave.

We continued along on Hwy 37 and followed the lake for 24 miles and then Dease River came into view for a few miles.

It was just about this time that we left the Coastal Mountains and entered into the Cassiar Mountains. The Cassiar Mountains were quite stunning in their own way. They were very heavily tree covered except for the top which would have been above the tree line. We actually followed them all the way to Boya Lake which is 60 miles inside of the Yukon.

During our drive through the Cassiar Mountains we came to Jade City. As you can imagine the focus of the town was Jade and we stopped at a Gift Shop on the side of the Highway. The people that owned the shop also mined the mineral and we were shown a picture of a huge jade stone that was worth about $6,000,000.00. They export most of the jade to China and Argentina. We also learned that Jade is an extremely hard stone and has to be finished with Diamond Polishers and Diamond Cutters.

We left the gift shop and just enjoyed the scenery for quite a few miles. There were some nice views that didn’t involve the mountains directly. Two of them were Good Hope Lake and Mud Lake.

Good Hope Lake

Mud Lake

Mud Lake

Shortly before reaching Boya Lake the mountains started to take on a pink hue. I have no idea why. It was very unique.

We had planned to spend the night at Boya Lake Provincial Park. However, after picking out a campsite and setting up we decided that we didn’t want to stay. It had started to rain and dry camping in the rain is not all that much fun.

So we packed up and headed for Watson Lake and all of sudden found ourselves back in the Yukon.

When we reached Watson Lake we had come full circle as we were here May 19th on our way to Alaska.

We picked out an RV Park, set up and then went for supper. After eating we headed over to the Northern Lights Center and watched a couple of films. One was on the four seasons of the Yukon and the other was strictly about Northern Lights. Our main purpose in coming back north is to see the Northern Lights in their full glory. However, two things have to happen. One, it has to be a clear night and two, we have to manage to stay up until the wee hours. What do you think the odds are of that happening? I’ll let you know tomorrow how we made out.