By mid-September it was clear we needed to start our return journey. Since we had come up via the Stewart-Cassiar highway, we chose to return via the part of the Alaska (Alcan) Highway we had yet to see, from Watson Lake on south.
In Watson Lake, we spent a little time browsing the tens of thousands of signs making up the Signpost Forest and Darlene bought something to add to the collection. We also enjoyed the very interesting presentation on auroras at the Northern Lights Centre in Watson Lake. This is where we learned that what we had experienced a few nights ago in Kluane National Park was a full on aurora outbreak.
Other stops along our Alaska Highway return trip were to visit Smith River Falls and have a soak in the Liard River Hot Springs. One favorite stop was the town of Chetwynd which hosts an international chainsaw carving championship and there are many dozens of these fantastic carvings spread all around town.
We stayed overnight again in Prince George and took the opportunity to do an oil change and tire rotation – it takes a lot of miles to travel up and down across Canada. Continuing south we eventually joined highway 99 (“The Sea to Sky Highway”), stopping off in Marble Canyon, Lillooet, Nairn Falls, Whistler and Brandywine Falls. We found and stayed at a couple of different overnight sites near Squamish as we checked out the town and the local sights like Shannon Falls and the Britannia Mine tour.
As we reached the end of the Sea to Sky Highway we hit really heavy traffic before we could even get across the harbor so we gave up and found a restaurant and hotel in West Vancouver for the night. And so after two wonderful months traveling around western Canada, we crossed back into the US from Vancouver.
