The next day we headed southeast on the Stewart-Cassiar Highway. Once again there was lots of road construction with frequent delays – quite slow. The road that was not under construction was generally OK. We got gas in Dease Lake. WOW – regular gas was $6.08/gallon – OUCH!! That is definitely our HIGH for the trip.
That night we stayed at another ‘nowhere’ RV park called Mountain View south of Dease Lake. It was a lovely spot with expanses of grass and a large pond. There had been moose in the pond earlier in the day, but we didn’t see any. The backdrop for the park was the Cassiar Mountains – something else.! And it had the fastest WiFi of the trip!!!
The next day we continued down the Cassiar and encountered more construction and more slowdowns. But before the day was done, we had seen 7 black bears along the road – that was a high for the trip. We drove the 40 miles off the Cassiar into the Stewart and Hyder area. On that road we were greeted with Hanging glaciers; and Bear Glacier that was calving into Bear Lake. We stayed at Bear River Campground in Stewart– really nice with lots of trees and all the amenities. The weather had cleared and was very nice while we were there – Yea!!!
The next day we took the drive through Stewart BC, into Hyder AK. These are both VERY SMALL communities with only a few businesses each. Many of the businesses have long ago closed. There is shipping of logs, so the port had quite a lot of floating logs waiting for the barges to come into the 90-mile long Portland Canal.
Hyder, AK is even smaller and dare I say ‘dumpier’ than Stewart. It has gravel streets and only a couple of operating businesses. The port is a pretty setting. Actually Hyder and Stewart are on the Portland Canal.
From Hyder we drove up to Fish Creek and on up the road 22 miles to Salmon Glacier. It was a wonderful trip with lots of steep cliffs, waterfalls, the Salmon River and the amazing Salmon Glacier. Some of the scenery just can’t be adequately explained – you have to be there. We enjoyed the one stop on the road where the actual boundary is between the US and Canada. On a 10-year cycle a crew cuts down a swath of trees and brush along the border. And at that point on the road is a permanent cone that shows Canada on one side and United States on the other.
We went to Fish Creek twice – this is where the Brown and Black bear come to eat salmon that are returning to Spawn. But this year the fish have been very slow to start their journey – we might have seen 20 fish total. And the bears just weren’t around. The rangers said that they have only had 5 bear sightings so far this year (as of July 24). And they questioned whether they would even have many returning salmon. Apparently every 4-5 years there is a very slow year. There were LOTS of disappointed people. Many come in caravans from the east coast and all across the country to see this sight. They were very disappointed. At our park the manager said they had reservations for the next 30 nights for caravans at the park.
There is no US port of entry at Hyder, AK, but there is a port of entry station when you return to Stewart BC. Basically they ask about firearms, where you are from, how long you will be in Canada – that’s about it.
And on July 25 we left Alaska for the last time this trip. We continued down the remaining 97 miles of the Cassiar Hiway and headed east on the Yellowhead Highway in British Columbia. We passed through the Hazelton area where there are several towns with authentic totem pole displays. We were finally back on good roads and we made much better time than we had the previous several days. And now it is on to Jasper, Lake Louise, Banff, Yellowstone, and Tetons.
This is definitely THE LIFE !!!! Ellen & Gordon
