The view!! The vistas!! The scenery!! Oh my!!

Day # 8 – Fort St. John, BC to Muncho Lake Provincial Park, BC  (620 kms)

Today's blog is not being posted until we reach Whitehorse because we are staying in a 'resort' in the middle of the mountains in Northern British Columbia.  You get 20 MB of WIFI for free and then you pay pay pay, which we are not doing.  

Our first (and hopefully last) encounter
with a rock on the windshield!

Today felt like a week unto itself with all the experiences we had, the good the bad and the incredible.  We got the first chip in our windshield today....a tiny little chip the size of a sandfly, which we laughed about.  It was a good thing we had purchased the clear nail polish that was recommended by to us to seal the cracks in the windshield to prevent them from spreading.  About half an hour later, I got the scare of a lifetime when a transport truck passed us in the mountains in a construction zone going well over the reduced speed limit, and a rock the size of my fist hit the windshield on my side in the lower right corner!  We pulled over and yanked out the nail polish....again.  Sigh.  After I stopped shaking, we put it behind us, but I don't like seeing the nasty smashed glass...not a very nice reminder of what was otherwise an amazing day.

 Words cannot describe the views of the Rocky Mountains we saw today.  There were rivers where the water was so clear it had a green tinge to it with a swift current.  We saw rolling hills filled with tall spruce trees, and jagged rocky cliffs.  We saw low lying clouds swallowing up the peaks of mountains that could go on forever, and then all of a sudden, we had driven so high those peaks didn't seem so high after all.  On the low side of things, we drove through valleys with roads right up against the shores of lakes on one side and against the mountain on the other side.

Everywhere we looked we were blown away by another view and another and another!! I went from smiling like a mad woman to crying with the beauty and wonder of it all!  The colours were another thing we couldn't get over.  All the shades of green in the trees, and the shades of blue for water and the skies, the browns and grey colours of the mountains. I wish we were all more 'outdoorsy', because the hiking, fishing, camping and sporting here would be incredible.

Sometimes it rained, and not just a light mist. There were localized downpours all day. and just when we'd start to think about pulling off the highway because the rain was so heavy, we would drive out of it.  It was so strange, because you could actually see the line on the road where it went from soaking wet to nothing.  And we'd all look at each other and exclaim, "Did that rain even happen?" because it was beautiful and sunny!  There were moments when I seriously thought that Mother Nature was bipolar today!

We were also blown away by the wild animals we saw

along the road, just minding their own business.  We purchased this great book about driving in the North and it told us to look out for specific animals during different mile makers along the Alaska Highway, and wow, was it ever bang on!  We saw elk grazing along the side of the road and they didn't even bat an eye when we drove up alongside them and took their picture from a few feet away! We saw long-horned sheep that reacted the same way.

It rained on and off throughout our trip today, and at one point we saw two full rainbows, one inside the other.  The beauty of it all was overwhelming, and we felt privileged to be able to drive through this area of Canada.  At one point, we all got out of the van and were just staring dumbfounded at these rainbows!  Charlotte remarked very sagely that it looked the rainbows ended just behind the first layer of trees, and maybe we could finally reach the gold there.  Patrick had his iPad out and he was snapping photos like mad.  He exclaimed shrilly, "I don't know which way to look first and what pictures to take! It's so beautiful all around me!".  His words really captured how I felt most of today.  These sights are not just photos to capture on film...they are memories for my heart and food for the soul.

There are sections of the Alaska Highway where truckers have to pull off and add chains to their tires in order to give them extra grip as they ascend some of the steep grades on their way through the mountains, and, when they reach the bottom, there are spots for them to pull off and remove the chains.  It is like this throughout the Alaska Highway. The other thing you see from time to time is a Greyhound bus pulling a trailer.  It's kind of funny when you're in the middle of the mountains and you come upon one, but we followed this one in the picture for a while before it was safe to pass it.  It was on its way to Whitehorse, which is our scheduled stop tomorrow night, so the passengers have a long way to go.  I feel bad for them, too, because they can't take pictures from either side of the vehicle or stop at any of the lookout sites.  Bummer.  Thank goodness for Greg, who equally loves to stop on the road in the middle of the mountains when nobody else is around to capture a 'perfect' photo. We thought we would try the 'through the wet windshield' look for this photo, and Greg got as close as he dared considering the road conditions at the time.

We are staying at the Northern Rockies Lodge tonight, which is a mom and pop operation.  We had a chuckle when we saw that we were staying in the 'Bush Pilot's Room', and opened the door to find two queen sized beds and one twin sized bed crammed into the room.  It is well-worn, and the floor is all linoleum tiled, but it's clean and it's better than camping any day of the week.  The kids were a little unsure at first, generally because we are Marriott Rewards members and earn points when we stay in their chain of hotels.  This means we try to do so as much as possible.  Last year, with all the traveling Greg did for his job he racked up enough points and nights away to become a platinum member, which means you get treated like royalty when you arrive at one of their hotels.  It's lovely!  This means that the kids are used to the Marriott quality hotel.

We figured that the place would not have much to offer in terms of food and if they did, it would be expensive, and we were correct.  When we stopped in Fort Nelson for lunch today we had a bigger lunch than usual, and then went to the IGA and picked up fruit and sandwiches for dinner, which we ate  while watching TV together in our tiny bed-filled room.  Afterward everybody had a shower, they all jumped into bed voluntarily and that was it!  As I type this there are four snoring Wilsons all around me, and I intend to make it five shortly.

I was thinking as we drove through the mountains and we took photo after photo of God's beauty all around us that God Himself must have been our personal tour guide today.  Some of the photos show roads that are so twisted, you would think that you'd have to be pretty crazy to be following this road through these mountains, and yet here we are.  I saw turns today that were so sharp, you didn't know what was behind the corner as you turned, and yet we turned to face whatever was there.  I saw raindrops the size of my fist fall from clouds that were literally all around us and yet still we soldiered on. We saw a rainbow so beautiful it made me ache to look at it, and yet only the privileged few who were brave enough to travel this mountain pass saw it. We saw angry waters raging and bubbling along through creek and river beds that were now shadows of their former selves, and yet they continued to flow, not matter how big and important or small and lowly they were.  We saw wild animals that looked at us with gentle, trusting eyes and continued on their way rather than bolt with outright fear.  I am in awe of everything I saw today and my heart is full of gratitude for the lessons I learned along the way.

I admit that the rock to the windshield scared me to death.  It made me realize what can happen in a blink of an eye, and afterward, I felt small and vulnerable.  Only three more days until our drive up the Dempster Highway toward Inuvik.  Maybe this is a test run to get us used to it?  Either way, as we face the challenges of the coming days and weeks ahead, we are going to be brave together.