Views, Bears, and U-Turns

Friday and Saturday, July 1-2, 2022 Prince George and vicinities.

We spent the night at the Marguerite Rest Area outside Williams Lake. The mosquitoes are getting thick, but they are big and slow, so easy to kill. Met a lovely couple from Maine who are trekking to Anchorage, hoping to arrive for the fourth, in their truck with a truck cover on the back that they had outfitted with a bed. 

Today is Canada Day, their independence day, so much is closed, including the Costco we had hoped to gas up at in Prince George. Luckily the laundry was open.

Fields and fields of yellow flowers

Most Canada Day displays have been more subtle

Spent the night in a rest area outside Fort Saint John and awoke to mosquitoes, but also this view!

This sign was disconcerting - it was outside the entrance to a community next to a gas plant 😧 

Stopped at the visitor's center in Chetwynd, which is home to an International Chainsaw Competition, that we had just missed.

Here we learned that the road had washed up north of us and would be closed for an indeterminate length of time. This was so disappointing but, rather than try our luck waiting, we opted to return to Prince George and go up the Alaskan Highway and the Stewart-Cassiar Scenic Route.

New's image of the washout - grateful we only had to turn around 180 miles versus hundreds

But this gave us more views and another bear

and a chance to photograph the abundant roadside flowers along the route

and an opportunity to gas up at Costco, get some supplies, and eat poutine.