Watson Lake, Yukon Territory, Canada

 Good morning, my friends! It was a short and easy drive to Watson Lake yesterday. As we pulled out onto the main highway, this was our view.

We passed by Liard River for the last time.

And on down the road, we came across a herd of bison grazing by the side of the road. We pulled off to the side.

They were on the driver's side, and so Mike took these pictures. There were some young calves.

When we reached the tiny town of Contact Creek, we crossed over the border into Yukon Territory. We're in the hinterlands here, my friends. I don't know about you, but I've never been this far north. Neither has Mike.

Contact Creek consisted of approximately one small building. Here's what our Milepost had to say about it.

Here's a little blurb about the Yukon.

And take a look at those mountains off in the distance. 

The road dips below the border into British Columbia for a few miles here, but we crossed again just before reaching Watson Lake. Our drive was about 130 miles yesterday, reaching Watson Lake around lunch time.

Here's what our Milepost had to say about Watson Lake.

Right away we saw the Sign Post Forest, and this is truly the object of our desire here.

Just across the street is the Northern Lights Centre. We'll see that today. There are hourly planetarium shows. 

There aren't many places to choose from for a stay here in Watson Lake. We're in what amounts to a parking lot with full hook-ups. We're also walking distance from the Sign Post Forest. In the image below, I was standing next to the hood of our truck. Look off in the distance there, and you can see it across the street.

Mike was prescient enough to think about bringing a ladder, and so we ended up driving across. He had the sign, a screwdriver, and the ladder. I had my cell phone, my cell phone tripod, and my point-and-shoot camera, and so there was plenty to carry. The image below was where we parked.

And, oh my goodness...so many signs!

It was a little overwhelming. You know how you feel when you walk into a giant fabric store? You see lots of fabric, but not any one thing? That's how I felt about the signs. I could see lots of signs, but not any one in particular.

A couple of them caught my eye.

This one seemed especially romantic.

We walked on and through looking for a place to hang our own sign.

This sign told us all we needed to know about the place.

We finally selected a tree. Mike erected his ladder, and he hung our sign at the tippy top of the others located there.

And ta-da!!! We're documented, baby! We're told there are 90,000 signs here. Now there are 90,001.

And here's our sign one more time for those in the back:

Take a good look because that's the last time you'll see it. When we move on, it'll be left to care for itself for all of eternity. 

We decided to stay two nights here in Watson Lake so that we could see the planetarium show, and it also seemed like a good place to do some laundry and pick up a few groceries. One of our four jacks on the camper has stopped working, which is annoying. It means hand-cranking it up and down (it usually runs on an electric motor). The other three are still working fine. Mike tried to figure out what was wrong with it, but he doesn't have the tools he needs here. No worries. We don't always need it, and hand-cranking will get us through.

So breakfast is next. We'll get the laundry done this morning, and then we'll have the rest of the day to spend however we like.