To Frances Lake, Cassiar Highway

After getting up and doing the 2 mile trail at the other end of Boya Lake to see the beaver’s dam and lodge, we depart for Watson Lake, taking the final part of the Cassiar Highway.

After an uneventful drive, stopping at the Yukon border, we arrive at Watson Lake where we do shopping, gas and fuel fill, water dump and fill and go to the visitor centre to make sure that the Campbell Highway is open and passable.

The famous Signpost Forest is here and so we have a lovely walk around it - 100,000 signs and still counting, all started in 1942 by Carl Lindley who was homesick while working on the construction of the Alasaka Highway, and put up a sign with the mileage of his hometown of Danville Illinios. Others followed suit, and so started a tradition of signs, which became the Signpost Forest we see today.

We leave Watson Lake, and after 20 miles on the Alaska Highway, we turn off onto the Campbell Highway.

The road is deserted, as most people take the route via Whitehorse, but we want to see the wilderness and are glad to be on the less travelled path. The road immediately narrows and after a brief stop at Watson Lake Airport 5 miles out of town (very bad midges/mosquitoes) we feel as though we are really on our own.

Pines and decidous trees line our route which is now gravel, and the verges are covered in wild purple lupins, a real feature of norther BC and here. We stop briefly a couple of times to look at various wildfowl on roadside ponds, and then see a moose crossing the road in the distance.

Stopping at the northern end of Simpson lake, we spot a moose in the shallows, plus lots of waterfowl, and on an island in the middle of the lake there is a large nest in a dead tree, with the bald eagle perched nearby, keeping watch.

Driving on, a jack rabbit leaps across the road in front of us, his white winter socks gleaming, and then we spot a young grizzly bear by the roadside. We go past him very slowly and he disappears quietly into the woods as we pass.

Rounding a rare bend in the road, there is a young golden eagle having an argument with a tern, and it flies up from the ground right in front of us and perches in a nearby tree. We watch if for a while and then move on.

As we near the campsite at Frances Lake, we spot a black bear and her cub in a clearing, and they stop and look in our direction and the disappear into the woods.

The campsite is a dream. A beautiful still lake surrounded by tress, with layers of mountains the distance. We choose a pitch (there is no-one else here) set a fire and then sit on the beach for hours enjoying the sunset. It is a truly magical place.

Miles: 175

Sunset: 11.30

Grizzly Bear: 1

Black Bear : 3

Moose: 2

Jack Rabbit: 1

Golden Eagle: 1