Day 6 Sambaa Deh Falls to Tetsa Town River Park BC July 14, 2016

Three hikes to start the day on the Trout River, all three are flat but two have steep climb or drop at the end.  First to Coral Falls; not very high but the river is wide, located behind the camp ground, again the river runs north here.

http://spectacularnwt.com/attraction/sambaa-deh-falls-territorial-park

Next to Sambaa Deh Falls, Here the river narrows into a gorge and so the water is fast and very loud.  At the end there is high small water fall, well worth it to do all three hikes.

Looking back south towards bridge

Forest just away from the edge.

Trail to rivers edge and the local fishing spot, somehow I think the water is running too fast for fish.

Trout River looking south

looking west from rivers edge

small falls on east side of river at rivers edge, the fishing landing.

On the road again, 160km later a shocking thing happens, pavement and nice pavement.  I turn off to Fort Simpson also a paved road.  Leads to a ferry over the Laird River, which is very wide fast moving and so the ferry works hard. A short wait too, basically if they see you from the other side they come and get you right away.  However Fort Simpson is nothing to see here fort stands along the Mackenzie River.  The main site is a tool shed like historical building that is an original house. No Pic because it was not much more than an outhouse.  This main activity here is to buy access passes into Nahanni National Park and take a helicopter into the park.  I did top up at $1.46 ltr so filling up earlier at Fort Providence would have saved 2 hrs and 130km distance and $10 bucks oops.

Back in Mackenzie Highway #1 and turning south to Port Laird and BC. This part of the highway is called Laird Trail #7, again 220km of hard gravel and later hard packed sand.  The forest changes on the drive south from Boreal to beech and Aspen trees and then to white pines.  I did see a black bear; this one ran across the road.

Had Lunch at Blackstone Territorial park paying $5.25 for the pass, it was the only place in NWT where getting out of the car did not result in a bug attack. I had a great lunch in the shade looking over the Laird River without any bug stray.  The mountains in the distance is the range for Nahanni National Park, this park has the highest falls in North America. Its a national park for the rich or poor to visit.  The poor has a lot of time to hike into the park and maybe canoe into the park from the north west.  Such a trip takes 3-4 weeks and can be done without paying for access, rivers a calm here or so says the ranger at Blackstone visitor office.  The rich can go to Fort Simpson buy access, fly in, have a guided paddle to a lodge, a few choice guided hikes, fly around the falls, land at the bottom and then fly out.

Very nice sign when leaving NW Territories this way, no BC sign to welcome you,  highway #7 becomes #77 in BC.  The road has been flat for a long time and now in BC I descend into the province, pavement begins again, right away there was farming, logging activity and the forest looks like Aspen and beech trees.

 I waited ½ for bridge construction at Laird River, the river is in a deep gorge now. The Laird  and headed into Fort Nelson for fuel.

Twos later I arrived at Tetsa River Park, taking a site beside the river $20 includes unlimited firewood that is delivered to you. I drove 765Km’s today.