A Bunch More BC Beauty
- Kay Helberg
- Jul 10
- 5 min read
Finishing our British Columbia stops on the Alaskan Highway began with a 99mile ride to Pink Mountain - which sounded pretty scenic. But our stay at the Sikanni River RV Park on the Sikanni River was basically a one night stay of mud and mosquitos. We added another layer of mud to our Oliver, but it was kind of cool to be right next to the steady stream of the muddy and powerful river. Karl and I thought it would be a good idea to “get our steps in” and walk around the campground for a while. Luckily we sprayed ourselves with mosquito spray first, but while we did accomplish our goal, the amount of mosquitos hovering around us was pretty crazy. Guessing this is why they said we would need hats with mosquito netting on this Alaskan adventure…although I must admit they didn’t prove all that helpful in whatever bin they were stored in in the back of our truck!
The next day we travelled 123 miles to Tripe G Hideaway Campground in Fort Nelson. On our drive we were struck again by the evidence of forest fire damage. It was fascinating to view the exact path that the fires would take accross the highway on both sides and then, almost as quickly as it started, it would stop, and there would be lush greenery everywhere. The other significance of the drive is we had our first bear siting! It was off on my (the passenger) side of the road having a snack! It was a cute black bear and very exciting to see. Sorry I didn’t get a pic, but I did on a subsequent day that I’ve included in this post
.
It was a nice day when we arrived at Triple G, so we took the opportunity to walk into town to get some groceries - namely, the chicken and milk essentials. We were getting pretty good at getting groceries when it was an option, because it wasn’t an option every day. Luckily we had many tools at our disposal in getting the essentials: our powers of observation, our Starlink Mini for research while driving, our trusty bible The Milepost (2026 edition), and word of mouth of campers who were coming from the opposite direction.
Triple G had a restaurant on site, so we went to dinner there and had an all-u-can-eat buffet and Karl had a salad extravaganza with said buffet! We also had breakfast there the next morning - simply because we could. The other thing at Triple G that we unfortunately did NOT make use of was an RV Wash station. We didn’t realize it was there until we were parked and set up, and it basically was a concrete pad with a high velocity hose run by putting tons of quarters (oops, I mean loons) in it. Given the level of filth, we really could have used some of those scrubby implements they tend to have at carwashes, not just our sponges/mitts etc… so we didn’t partake in the cleaning up of our baby. We did take note here that the days continued to get longer…the sunsetting later AND rising earlier…crazy!!
The next day we were on our way for a two night stay in Toad River, BC (a 115 mile jaunt). This was our first experience with a misfire on the GPS. Apple Maps said we had arrived at 422 Alaska Hwy, but it was NOT our RV park but an out of business lodge with a different name. So…we just kept on trucking - assuming that, if needed, we would come up with a plan B and stay at another campground, or we would happen upon the actual Toad River Lodge & RV Park. Luckily the 2nd option occurred and our planned 2 night stay was eventually a go! The views of the lake it was set on (which I later learned was aptly named “Reflection Lake”) were beautiful. We watched a pair of swans taking care of their nest and going on separate swims in the lake. There were lots of bird houses on the trees for what turned out to be cute little tree swallows.The whole place was beautiful. The next day we walked down the road and watched what we thought was a young elk grazing in the meadow…That was pretty amazing to watch!
We met a nice couple from FLA who were taking a similar journey (we had seen their trailer at Triple G because he was washing it and I remember being jealous)! Well when Karl and I came back from our walk we realized we not only had a new neighbor but it was one we’d seen before. Steve was washing his trailer (yet again) and Karl and I agreed he would get along well with my big brother, Jeffrey, and we took to referring to him as “Jeffrey JR” until we changed our mind and changed his moniker to “Jeffrey SENIOR” because his love of clean vehicles had my brother beat! He and his wife Joan had two adorable mini poodles, Betsy & Boomer, and we enjoyed chatting with them. We exchanged numbers since we’d determined our paths would cross again and Joan pointed out that it’s nice to have numbers of folks on this journey in case we need help and/or to report road issues or experiences etc…
Also located at this campground were lots of cabins that were being occupied by men working in the area on construction sites. It made me realize that driving along these roads with no homes or businesses, also meant no workers! I had assumed the guy driving the bulldozer or grater or rollers in the “Road Work” areas were locals, but realized they come in here to do a job and stay where they can until the job is done! And they had to leave early in the morning to get out to their job sites. Yikes - the things involved in remote places!
After a lovely three days and two nights, we left Toad RIver and were on the road around 10AM for a 202 mile drive towards the Yukon and some more beautiful sights. The views on this day were glorious and breathtaking, as were the animals we saw. I’ve included one view of the gravel road that was happening intermittently at this point. When the road became gravelly we knew we were in for a halt from construction in the relatively near future. These pictures below all took place on our first hour of our drive. The reflections in the incredible colored water were breathtaking and the stone sheep were very cool climbing up the steep rocky embankment along the Alcan.
The stone sheep sighting was at 11:07AM. And then at 11:44AM we saw a sign warning us about bison. At 11:57AM we saw another cute bear feeding along the roadside and then a big herd of bison on both sides of the road at 12:30PM. Sorry I didn’t get better pictures, but it was all pretty damn exciting in the moment!!!! Our final day of driving in BC was definitely memorable.
Comments