Remember that time I said we loved spotting wildlife? Well we really loved the drive down through British Columbia into Alberta.
As we pulled away from Liard Hot Springs, we made it about 100 feet before spotting this darling lineup of wood bison.
We read in one of our travel pamphlets that while wood bison are a subspecies of the American bison, they differ slightly from the plains bison that are more common in the States. The most obvious difference is in size: these guys are much larger than the bison we’d seen before, and when we looked it up we learned that they are the largest land mammal in North America. Large males can weigh over 2,000 lbs!
I found this handy visual online which compares the two:
As I read this information aloud to Andy as we drove, he tapped my arm and pointed up ahead.
There, on both sides of the road, were about 60 or more wood bison! They ranged in size from hulking males to darling little fuzzy babies.
We pulled over to watch them graze and nap in the tall grass, while others crossed the road right in front of us to meet their group on the other side.
It was very, very exciting—for us, not the wood bison. They seemed pretty nonplussed by the whole encounter.
After a while we decided to move along, and the landscape along the Alaska Highway was just as incredible to watch as the wildlife.
It wasn’t long before we came across another neat animal: a female rock sheep. She was the only one we saw during that portion of the drive, despite the signs all along the road telling us to watch out for rock sheep.
After we passed rock sheep country, we stopped to take a picture of the beautiful rainbow of fall colors on the hill, and this time I was the wildlife being observed from someone inside the Turtle.
The drive took us up into the mountains and then back down again as we approached Fort St. John, B.C.
Once we’d left the mountains we thought the wildlife spotting was over, but just outside of town we came across this handsome couple:
We hadn’t seen as many caribou as Andy had hoped, so this close-up view was just perfect.
There’s a great rocky beach just south of Fort St. John that lots of locals go to launch boats and spend the day, and we saw other boondockers there for the night as well. That night we watched the Northern Lights while Scout and Gracie sniffed around on their leashes, and in the morning we played outside for a while before getting back in the Turtle and driving some more.
Typically we prefer to move really slowly and drive a maximum of two hours a day when we’re not camped out. We’re not in any hurry, it’s cheaper and uses less gas, and we get to see so much more of the world and have more impromptu adventures that way. But since we were trying to stay ahead of the weather, we’d been driving much more frequently than usual, and it was starting to catch up with us. Being in a van all day is not why we’re living in a van!
So when we finally reached Whitecourt, naps were in order. Gracie is the best nap buddy a person could ask for.
Waking people up to interact and play is much more in Scout’s wheelhouse.
We pushed on, and within about 20 minutes of each other we watched a black bear cross the road in front of us, and then a lynx. I speculated that British Columbia wanted to make sure we left satisfied and was quickly sending animals out for us to have one last treat before we crossed over into Alberta.
Alberta felt very metropolitan compared to the rural areas we’d gotten used to, but it was exciting to have cell service and reasonable gas prices again. We decided to take a trip to the West Edmonton Mall to get our wave pool and waterslides on at the World Waterpark. It was a great way to spend a blustery day, and as full-time travelers we always appreciate a fun activity that ends in free showers.
The next day we returned to check out Galaxyland in the mall and went on the “largest indoor triple-loop roller coaster,” the Mindbender, which is very aptly named. Holy moly.
After a few days in town, we escaped back to nature. We had plans to meet up on the road with some friends we met at Diablo Canyon in New Mexico last year, Eric and his PBD (plain black dog), Willow.
We stayed for the weekend at a dispersed campsite outside of Hinton, AB. It was a great spot to catch up on the past year’s travels, have a few beers, enjoy a nice fire in the pit Andy built, and watch some animal playtime.
Now that we were moving away from the land of many predators, we let Gracie have a little supervised off-leash time, and she chose to use her freedom to revisit her favorite sun porch and oversee everyone else’s activities.
While we’re on the subject of wildlife, there are three pets in this picture. Can you spot them all?
Eric is a 5-star animal lover and was a patient and accommodating friend to Scout, throwing toys for him almost every time Scout asked. That meant he was busy from morning to night. Willow loves a cozy chair and a sunbeam, so she didn’t mind watching her human play with another dog.
In case you were wondering, this is what the aftermath of two days of being totally spoiled looks like:
The next day, he was back to his old self and ready to go again!
Of all the wildlife we’ve gotten to see along the way, these two are the strangest and sweetest.
Hmm . . . make that “these three.” Wild beasts, all. I think I’ll keep them.
Blue Turtle Crossing 