Today we drove from Toad River  in the Canadian Rockies to Haines Junction in the Yukon Territory.   It was a long day, leaving at 7:45 am and arriving at 8:50 pm.  We had such great weather that we pushed on significantly further than our original plan. Just a little over 600 miles left to Healy!

The most exciting part of the day was seeing our first Lynx!  We had a great look it at.  The large cat even stopped and looked at us.  But we didn’t get our phones in camera mode quickly enough and the Lynx went behind a tree.  While I could see it with binoculars, it isn’t visible in the photos.  After 5 minutes it got up and went behind a ridge and didn’t show up again, though we heard a squirrel chattering. 

No photos of the Lynx and no 2024 photos of Liard Hot Springs as we didn’t want to deal with our phones.  The air temperature was much warmer this year at about 32F (versus 0F last year).  There was no snow around the Hot Springs or on the boardwalk,  but plenty of snow in the woods.  The hot water was as lovely as ever.  There were only 5 other people in the springs,  probably because it was 9 am!

We also saw 50 Wood Bison and over a hundred migrating Trumpeter Swans.

The Swan Haven Interpretive Center is open in April each year.  Thousands of Swans stop over when heading north as most water is still frozen, but this area is reliably open water in April.  At the overlook they had a quality spotting scope set up so people can see the Swans from a distance without scaring them off.

We are staying at Glacier View Inn, which is nice, though it doesn’t include breakfast.  It is a bit expensive at $115 USD, but it’s probably fair for the area.  I would consider staying here again.