Dease Lake

After hearing dire warnings about the condition of the Cassiar Highway just south of Watson Lake Mary and I decided to get an early start to miss the construction traffic.  We left Watson Lake at 5:15 AM on Thursday morning, July 24, and were rewarded with no traffic, construction or otherwise, no water trucks, no gravel trucks and a nice peaceful ride.  A second reward of leaving early was  a very large bull moose crossing the highway right in front of us.

Bull Moose on Cassiar Highway

As we continued south the scenery just kept getting more and more spectacular.  By now just an average snow capped mountain doesn't excite us, but, the scenery along the Cassiar Highway kept our attention.

View from the Winnebago on the Cassiar Highway

As the result of our early departure we arrived at the Dease Lake RV Park at 9:30 AM leaving us plenty of time to do our day trip to Telegraph Creek, a town from the mining days located on a dirt road 70 miles west of Dease Lake.  Telegraph Creek is located at the farthest navigable point on the Stikine River which enters the Pacific Ocean near Wrangell Alaska which made it suitable place to use as a staging point for gold rushers and goods heading into the mining country of the Yukon.  It was also a key station for the telegraph line running from Ashcroft, BC to Dawson City, YT.

The road to Telegraph Creek, while in pretty good condition, did have its ups and downs in the form of grades up to 20%.  Definitely not where we want to take the Winnebago.  

Telegraph Creek Road Climbing out of River Valley

The only wildlife we saw on this adventure was a female Ptarmigan on the side of the road.  She obviously like this spot because she was still there on our return.

Ptarmigan

We did manage to find a suitable picnic spot on the banks of the Tuya River.  This was just one more addition to the fine picnic sites Mary and I have enjoyed around the world over the years.

Mary at Tuya River

The Telegraph Creek Road runs through the Grand Canyon of the Stikine River offering some great views.

Grand Canyon of the Stikine River

At the end of the road you are at Telegraph Creek where there is not much activity.  A lot of the houses are unoccupied and becoming derelict.  The one interesting building is the local church from the old mining days.

Church in Telegraph Creek

We were back in Dease Lake at 5:00 PM and ready for a nice relaxing evening.