We drove from Fort Nelson to Chetwynd, B.C. via the Hudson Hope Highway today. Wildlife sightings totaled one fox and one black bear. The Alaska Highway between Fort Nelson and Fort St. John was the best piece of highway (in terms of quality of the surface) we’ve traveled on the whole trip, and it was fun looking off to the north side of the road and seeing several stretches of the “old highway” winding back and forth through the woods. The Hudson Hope Highway travels through the Peace River Valley which was absolutely gorgeous! Signs along the highway suggest there’s a new dam being proposed, which is far from universally popular (there are already two on this stretch of the river). We don’t know the details, but ceding any portion of the Peace River Valley would be quite a loss.
Now on to the topic which produced the headline for today’s post. Since we don’t have much to report on today’s journey, and because we know several people are following our blog as they prepare for their trip north, let us report on what we think was the biggest rip-off we experienced on the entire trip.
![gas_prices[1]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfO05Ef9s2e3dveuJWV-I1ou6HFgMDTDiq1NzcK2L5ngXpNgv6BwSTWemHM1Rwq8LnwZtjAINZEWifFLEvsz8O-FXviH7LDhLkraRpXtv6Ck1X0o4V1qDgZO8fOkEt62ChfM3YH5Dl_xo/s1600-h/gas_prices%5B1%5D%5B7%5D.jpg "gas_prices[1]")
Yesterday after we left Liard Hot Springs and drove south, we passed a couple of gas stations, but because we still had more than half a tank, we kept on driving, thinking we’d fill up somewhere further down the road. By the time we got to Muncho Lake Provincial Park we needed fuel to make it to Fort Nelson. So we pulled into the Northern Rockies Lodge which advertises itself as the “only full service resort between Watson Lake and Fort Nelson”. We pulled up at the pump and did a double take: could the pump really say $1.72 per liter ($6.47/gallon U.S.) for regular gasoline? We had only paid $1.42 a liter ($5.34/gallon U. S.) in Inuvick, 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle. Yep, that was the price. We bought the absolute minimum it took to get to Fort Nelson.
![rockies-lodge-muncho[1]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKMvO1z9TyerXA1ICKfU0YqbpvPjHyKdf9I9DglL3spz7i1mqta_zsA3RTUj-FYFdmWFrYnn39YP29KCZxtksDbylYFPC1xq_a4tJ8XSrf18cGX5siuT00qmCI9tfAyDSjYCPTrNWjzvM/s1600-h/rockies-lodge-muncho%5B1%5D%5B3%5D.jpg "rockies-lodge-muncho[1]")
We know it costs more to get fuel into these remote areas, but we saw prices $0.50/liter less within 50 miles on each side of this resort. So there is no excuse for this price; it is nothing more than greed. If you’re passing this way, we encourage you to plan ahead and make sure you drive right by this rip-off. OK, we got that off our chests.
2 comments:
Cathryn,
Thanks for all your wonderful suggestions on our blog. We do have lots of extra high quality tires, we will HEED the animal warnings, we are planning the Dempster instead of Dalton, and we will be using eye/sleep blindfolds to deal with the light. There are 5 of us going and I get very ill on small planes, so maybe just DH & the boys will go on a glacier flight.
Thanks for the warning about this gas rip-off. We will make sure we DO NOT patronize this place at all. Loved the LOL, OMG, WTF sign! LOL!
Diana
I have been enjoying your trip. We finally drove it last year and had a ball with the trip up driving and then using the marine highway for trip home and all of Alaska only available by plane or see. We had visited as part of work in past years but it was fly into Anchorage go to hotel or lodge and do some speeches and then take a couple of days to see some sights and fly home. We took seven weeks last year and that was a good amount. We may return in a year or so and drive to Prince Rupert and spend a bit more time on some of the stops along the way to Haines. We would also like to do Kodiak. I certainly agree with your approach of getting a feel and taste of Alaska and you sound like you have had a great time. Thanks for sharing.
Post a Comment