Observations

North of Watson Lakes for many miles, rock messages are spelled out along the highway on the slopes of the ditches. The rock messages were started in 1990 by a Fort Nelson swim team. Now there are lots of names and messages.

The continental divide divides two of the largest drainage systems in North America--the Yukon River and the Mackenzie River watersheds. The Yukon goes 2300 miles to the Pacific Ocean and the Mackenzie flows north and empties into the Arctic Ocean after 2650 miles.

The landscape is full of small, calm lakes surrounded by pines just like the pictures you have seen. We did follow a lake for a while that was 86 miles long, so there are huge lakes here too.

We have crossed the Rocky Mountains and now are in the Cassian Mountains, which are not quite as rugged as the Rockies.

We are traveling with a couple who were here four years ago and there were not many people traveling then. This year there are lots of campers and trailers. The RV parks are about filled by evening. There are many pull-outs along the highway for truckers and travelers.

It is light here 23 hours of the day this time of year. The sun was still not set at 10 p.m. The first day of winter they have about 5.5 hours of daylight.

British Columbia is the energy capital of Canada with gas wells everywhere. The RV parks had many oil workers living in them.

Today we are riding a train to Skagway.