The drive to the Yukon was filled with many animal sightings. It started with a family of big horned sheep. Up close, these guys are not nearly as big as we thought. Perhaps they were a skinny bunch of sheep. Next, we encountered a herd of bison. These guys were huge and seemed uninterested with our big rig passing by them. Thank goodness as they were huge! Lastly, we passed a cute little baby moose who appeared lost. He was rambling down the highway seemingly without any real destination in mind. He was so adorable and if Hobie would have let us, we would have adopted him!
We arrived early at our campground and tackled a bunch of chores. Some of the passes along the Alaskan Highway were dusty (as in we can’t see in front of us) and our RV and van were looking pretty gritty. After our big clean up, Andrew and I walked across the street of this teeny town of Watson Lake to the “Department Store”. This place was a cross between the dollar store, a swap meet and a pricey department store. What a collection of stuff! (Ken would have used another term). Later in the day, Ken and I walked over to the small Wye Lake adjacent to our campground and enjoyed a glass of wine while looking out over the lake. I have forgotten to mention the length of our days at this point. It doesn’t get dark until after 11PM and we are all staying up way too late. The sun rises around 4AM and we are thankful for our black out blinds!
In the morning, Andrew, Ken and I went for a nice bike ride around Wye Lake. We then packed up our signs and headed over to the Sign Post Forest. What a place!! “Signs” is a loose term and could mean virtually ANYTHING from a wooden sign to a metal sign to a spatula or a pair of sandals. Anything to leave one’s mark in the forest. The Signpost Forest was started by a GI during the construction of the Alaskan Highway. The original signpost has grown to a true forest with over 10,000 signs. We had fun looking for signs of places we visited or lived. We found a big one for “Carmel Indiana”, one for “Simi Valley CA” and another one for “Boise Idaho”. We put up our family sign (had one made that should withstand the harsh weather conditions) and added a sign for our dear Canadian friends (who weren’t aware of the Signpost Forest on their trek to Alaska last summer). We also mounted a sign for the guy who made our sign in California. He was a great guy and had never heard of the Signpost Forest. We insisted he put up a sign here as he is in the business of signs! It was great fun to mount all the signs and it was even more fun to drive by and see them from the road. Perhaps our kids will take their kids to the Signpost Forest one day and find their sign.
Northern Lights Center
Tomorrow we depart for Skagway Alaska. We are so excited to finally reach Alaska.
