Woody Woodpecker

Today saw the end of the Alaska Highway and Dawson Creek.  It rained most of the day and was a pretty muddy mess.  But we went through some beautiful mountains and a long corridor through a spruce and poplar forest.  Although there were many wildlife warnings, we only saw one black bear and another dead deer. 

We stopped at the visitors’ center in Dawson Creek but it is closed on Sunday (!) so we continued down the highway toward Edmonton after taking a photo of zero mile marker.    

We went through a cute town of Beaver Lodge  and a couple of small towns until Grand Prairie, probably the biggest city we’ve seen since leaving Anchorage.  We are just entering the prairie after crossing the border into Alberta.  Grand Prairie has Costco, Wal-Mart, McDonalds, and many familiar American retail institutions.  But we did not stop—we went on through to Williamson Provincial Park—a nice enough camping ground next to a lake only a couple of kilometers off the highway.  This is the first campground that is close to being full.  Even though it has been a holiday weekend, the campgrounds have been pretty deserted.    The weather may be a factor.  Although it is overcast, the rain stopped when we entered the prairie.  We saw some interesting birds in the park and were able to identify a pileated woodpecker, an impressively large bird with a red crest.

 

425.5 miles, Williamson Provincial Park (south of Grand Prairie), Alberta

N 55° 04.888’ W 117° 33.630’