Cheryl had told me that between Watson Lake and Fort Nelson, we would have our best opportunity to see wildlife. Not long after we left our motel, Doug pulled into a parking area. I wasn’t looking at the road, and as I looked up, I was a bit confused. There were numerous signs nailed to trees — not just a few — but acres of trees with several signs per tree. They represented a multitude of cities and towns, but somehow, they had all ended up here. I grabbed my camera and exited the vehicle. I had to decide how much I wanted to wander, knowing we had a long drive that day, but also wanting to capture the immense graphic appeal of this place.
After seeing the trees and signs, I sat ready with my camera in hand, not knowing what we were going to encounter next. It was a pretty dry spell for the first hour or so of the seven-hour ride. But then our luck changed.
We first came upon an adorable mother bear and her two cubs. She was lying in the grass on my side of the road, nursing her young ones. We noticed other cars had pulled over. We did as well and watched from afar. Then the other cars left, and we inched a little closer. I was able to get a couple of good pictures from a distance, and as we drew nearer, I found the mother’s behavior very interesting to watch. At the sound of something, one of the cubs popped its head up, and I happened to just get the right shot. As I kept clicking, the mother heard my camera and became concerned. She suddenly arched up and took a more protective stance. Then she sent her babies scampering, and she stayed to look intimidating. I caught the cubs as they ran off into the woods. I was pleased with the pictures and loved watching the bear family’s behavior.
As we continued down the road, we saw more and more animals, including herds of buffalo and some grizzlies. I love the picture with the buffalo sticking its tongue out at me. We also saw a caribou in the wild. While we had seen reindeer, we had not seen a caribou in the wild until this point.
As the day turned longer, we ate lunch in the car because there was literally nowhere to stop along the way. Luckily, we had some delicious chicken salad with us. We were anxious to get to our next destination, which was Fort Nelson, Alberta. Then we noticed a line of cars that had stopped. We were surprised because it was a Friday night and we figured any road work would have ceased by that time. Doug queued up and in the distance, we noticed a plume of smoke that was thicker and more identifiable than the smoky haze we had been driving in for several hours. We were able to catch some shots of an active forest fire.
Finally, a pilot car arrived to lead us down the road, which we thought was for a construction zone, but instead, it was for a fire zone. The traffic was reduced to one lane and authorities were regulating speed and flow by using the pilot car.
We drove steadily through a 20-mile area where the fire was its most active. The fire was on the ridge, but we were able to watch four helicopters dumping water on what we later learned was the Summit Lake fire. There’s always one shot that gets away when I’m on a trip, and there may have been several on this one, but for sure, the shot I would have loved to take was one of a helicopter drafting water from a lake right along the road and dumping it on the fire. We just didn’t have the angle or the ability to stop. One after one, the choppers were dipping their buckets and flying back to the fire. We were very near our destination when we were finally released from the pilot car. Thankful, we hurried off with the rest of the traffic.
We reached Fort Nelson, which was a much bigger city than I thought it would be, with a fairly modern environment. We went to a hotel, which was surprisingly comfortable and affordable, and settled in before trying to decide what to do for dinner. Examining options in Google, we found two restaurants that looked appealing, and we picked one. We returned back the way we came to the edge of town, where we ate at the Three Sisters. It was just before five o’clock. Entree service did not begin until five, but they were nice enough to let us start dinner early.
We each ordered something from a relatively empty restaurant, but before our food arrived, the place was packed. We had gotten there just in time. It turns out that the other restaurant we had considered was on the opposite side of town, and had suffered a power outage, likely caused by the wind that was snapping trees and enhancing the fire issues. So anyone who wanted to go out on this Friday night arrived at the Three Sisters.
This restaurant also included a small inn, and because of the fire, the road we had just traveled was closed. So anyone heading in the opposite direction from us could no longer get to Watson Lake. They were forced to spend the night in Fort Nelson, as there were no other possible detours.
We had an excellent meal and walked away feeling this had been our very lucky day. We had seen the wildlife we wanted to see. We had gotten through the fire danger without any harm. We were the last set of cars that had come through in our direction, or the next to last. We got to the restaurant before the crowd did, and we got to order what we wanted. All in all, a good day.
