June 10, 2012: Liard Hot Springs, Our New Home till the Road is Reopened

June 10, 2012: Liard Hot Springs, Our New Home till the Road is Reopened

We had wanted to spend a day or two at the hot springs and now it looks more like a week as the Alaska Highway is closed from major washouts and mudslides. We were able to get a spot at Liard Hot Springs and to that we are thankful. The staff here is full of kindness and understanding and the Ranger at the park entrance even asked us if we have enough food, (we do).

So we have settled in here to the usual grind. Wake up at the break of dawn, Renita even woke up this morning at 4:30 am, and take a walk. Next we read a bit, eat lunch, and then go to the hot springs for a daily soak. The excitement here is the periodic bangs as the rangers set off large fireworks to adversely program the bears to stay away from the campgrounds.

As you walk to the pools on the boardwalk, you first cross shallow ponds where a rare species of chub lives. They have adapted to the warm water, but we are not sure how they will last with the cigarette butts which people casually toss off the trail, (Sometimes you wish the Rangers could train the bears to eat the litterbugs, or at least mess them up a tad bit).

Today we walked to the Hanging Gardens and enjoyed the Tufa and cascades as the hot water tumbles down the dirty white and iron stained calcite terraces. Ostrich ferns are one of the dominate forest floor plants and these are interspersed with a plethora of wild flowers.

The Beta pool is closed permanently due to the discovery of an endangered species of red snail so everyone is restricted to the Alpha pool and that’s ok as the water is so hot that you can only stand it for about fifteen minutes before you are in actual danger of hydrothermial!

Renita’s first attempt at the upper section of the pool ended in a hasty retreat and most people stayed below the man made waterfall, preferring the cooler water. I found that once you got past the hot surface water the water underneath was a bit cooler, all though I didn’t attempt to get closer to the up welling springs where the temperature is about 125 degrees Fahrenheit/54 Celsius.

So we soaked away another day and its ok, we aren’t going anywhere for awhile. Talk is that the Canadian engineers may even have to put in a Bailey bridge, wouldn’t that be a kick. The gap is over four hundred feet long and one hundred plus feet deep as the water even took out a bridge. It’s frustrating to be within eight hundred miles of Alaska, but it is what is is! Clear skies

Ps The rvs are stacked at Watsons Lake and the road is also closed at Telson, and near Klune Lake. Furthermore the Klondike highway is closed above and below Watson Lake and Whitehorse so there is no way to go around it. We are a bit frustrated to be in a complete dead and off the grid but it happens.