Decisions, Decisions!

After finally arriving High Level late afternoon we were informed that High Level was holding its annual Rodeo. We continued on to the Grounds to check it out, being late in the day most of the parking was filled other than driving into a muddy field. After assessing the situation, we decided to head back into town and come back for the final day’s events.

While we spent 3 days here over the weekend, Monday arrived and it was time to contact the Northwest Territories (NWT) government to see if they had or would be shortly opening up for tourists.

We were told that only essential personnel would be allowed over the Alberta/NWT border as they were still trying to minimize CV-19 in the Territory.

After hearing this news, we considered our options and decided to travel back south towards Grimshaw. As it turned out we didn’t find any place we would consider staying between High Level and Grimshaw.

When we arrived in Grimshaw we needed diesel and had to decided where to go from here. It was mid-afternoon we filled-up with diesel checked our options within this area and settled on a location called Strong Creek to spend a couple of nights. Before leaving town, it was time to stock up on groceries for the next few days for the meals, we thought we may make.

Grimshaw is also Mile ‘0’ of the Mackenzie Highway and its claim to fame.

This is a municipal campground where you can stay for up to two weeks at a time, not only that it is  free, albeit there are no services at the sites but there are firepits. Fresh water is available at an out building, there are also pit toilets which meant we could dump our black-tank when needed. This campground is located on the banks of the Peace River, in fact it is also only 15km/9.5 miles from the town of Peace River.

If you look carefully, you can just see the top of our unit parked at our campsite.

Just west along the river there is a memorial for Alexander Mackenzie.

Sir Alexander Mackenzie (c 1764 – 12 March 1820) was a Scottish explorer known for accomplishing the first east to west crossing of America north of Mexico in 1793, which preceded the more famous Lewis and Clark Expedition by 12 years. The Mackenzie River is named after him. (Wikipedia)

After our time here we will be heading in a westerly direction towards Dawson Creek, but true to form on this trip we will travel south before heading west. The route includes another river crossing by ferry which is 8km/5miles west for Strong Creek.

We finally made our way to Dawson Creek and checked out possible locations where we could stay for the night then found a place for dinner. As we like East Indian food, we found a restaurant called Spicy Fusion. Well, we were quite surprised to find they served the best Chicken Palak we have ever tasted. After dinner we ended up at Walmart for the night.

Next morning it was decision time again, we need to determine where to go from here. We had been speaking with friends that had lived in the area made some recommendations. We finally settled on Tumbler Ridge would be our destination.

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