May 26 - Teslin, Yukon Territory

 

Sunrise at Muncho Lake.

The mountains in the distance reflect the colors of the sky.

The wind blew the ice crystals onto the shore.

The ice crystals piled up on the beach.

This video shows the ice crystals in Muncho Lake being pushed into the shore by the wind.

The road follows the shoreline of Muncho Lake for quite a while.

On the other side of the road there's a hanging frozen waterfall. It's covered with netting so the icicles, water, and/or rocks don't fall on your car as you drive by.

My trailer gives you an idea of the size of Muncho Lake!

Eventually the road passes Muncho Lake, but what a surprise to see a herd of buffalo eating and relaxing next to the road!

Half of the buffalo herd on the left, half on the right...I wonder if they're headed to the same place I am?

I don't remember the name of this river, but I followed it for a while, meandering along with the storm.

I saw a lot of black bears and porcupines as I traveled along the river.

Watson Lake is in the Yukon! This photo is of the "sign forest" there. It contains all kinds of metal signs from places that people have come from. Because of COVID, it was closed. When Deborah and I were there in 2012, we left a sign, but because it was closed, I didn't get to go look for it.  I did notice that the "Sign Forest" is much larger now than it was in 2012!

Just outside Watson Lake, there was a Yukon Border Control Station. I had to take another COVID test and was told that I needed to be out of the Yukon in 24 hours, not leave my vehicle without a mask on, not camp in any provincial parks, and only stop for gas or groceries. I was concerned about the 24 hours to get through the Yukon because it was already 5:00 and I had already driven over 400 miles. I decided I would drive to Teslin and try to find a place to camp there.

The Yukon seemed much less populated than British Columbia and Alberta.

I could see the Canadian Rockies in the distance.

The Canadian Rockies were still covered in snow!

The darkness emphasized the mountains

Teslin is just across that bridge.  There was a private camping ground just on the other side of the bridge. The people there didn't seem to care that I was an American. I was able to take a shower and put on clean clothes- what a treat!

May 25 - Muncho Lake, BC

When I stopped for groceries, in the lobby of the store they had this elephant picture that they were raffling off for a local charity. You can't tell because of the reflections that it was made by sewing on individual seed beads to make the design! I can't even imagine how long that took!

You can see just by looking at my trailer that I have driven through more storms than sunshine!

Oh no! It's snowing again!

At least the snow is not on the road!

 It was so weird to be driving through snow on May 25th!

It was beautiful though!

Ice kept forming on the bottom of my side view mirrors!

Oh no - It's snowing again!

Now it stopped snowing and there are only small patches of snow on the sides of the road.

Yay, the snow is gone and the sky is turning blue!

There's beautiful mountains everywhere and animals too! I saw moose, black bears, mule deer and mountain goats (or sheep. They were too far away to tell.)

It's cloudy, but not snowing! The mountains look beautiful in the background!

There's both clouds and blue in the sky. Which one will win?

It's time to stop driving. I drove 432 miles today! This is Muncho Lake Provincial Park. There are about 20 campsites here, but I'm the only camper!

The snow stopped. The ground was dry. Muncho Lake was frozen in some parts, liquid in others and in between there were little hills of ice crystals. I could hear them smashing into each other as the wind blew across the surface of the lake.

The surface of the lake is that green color. The ice is white.

Some parts of the lake were frozen, some were liquid, and some were icicles,

The mountains in the background were beautiful!

The lake water was clear enough to see the bottom!

There were rivulets of liquid water everywhere!

I explored the campground. No snow!

Crystals of ice surround a rock.

It's hard to tell, but those crystals are about 5 - 6 inches long!

Look carefully and you'll see the kayaker out there! He doesn't even have a jacket on! I have my kayak, but there's no way I'm going kayaking in that freezing cold water and this foggy cold weather!

It looks like another storm is coming my way!

This bird seemed to like the freezing cold water!

Time for bed!