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I was awake and out of bed by 0530. I don't know if it was the early bedtime, the lack of darkness, or my subconscious desire to get the hell out of the dump of a campground we'd had the misfortune to choose, but I wasn't getting any more sleep in Fort Nelson. The bathroom facilities at our campground were utterly disgusting, so after breakfast, I treated myself to a sponge bath in the trailer. We drove through a mudhole, past the charred remains of what had once, years ago, been some kind of building, past the long-sealed secondary bathrooms, and out of the campground. If I ever come through Fort Nelson again, I'll be blowing straight past that place and looking for a site at one of the many campgrounds north of town. It's a shame too, since that wretched dive is right next to the Fort Nelson Museum, which is really the only tourist attraction in the entire community.

At this point the Alaska Highway began to demonstrate that it could be not just a journey, but a destination as well. As we climbed over the mountains, we stopped several times for some absolutely spectactular views of the valley below. We also saw some wildlife for the first time since leaving Hudson's Hope: caribou, black bear, and wild bison (also known as the Alaska Highway Speed Bump.)

Watson Lake is a small community near the junction where the Stewart-Cassiar highway meets the Alaska Highway. As you enter from the south, you come across the Campground Services RV Park, next to the weigh scales. This campground has everything we missed in Fort Nelson: quiet, shade, working bathrooms, and helpful staff. If you're going to spend the night in Watson Lake, here's a good place to do it.

After we got settled in, we headed over to the Northern Lights Space and Science Centre, which is at the other end of town. The main attraction there is a theatre where you can see a double-feature about astronaut training, and the phenomenon of the Aurora Borealis. Worth checking out if you're into that sort of thing.