Stewart-Cassia Highway

The Stewart-Cassia Highway is a turn off from the Alaska Highway to the rough-and-ready border town of Stewart, BC Canada population around 600 and Hyder Alaska , population around 100. This is going to be a round trip of 1500K aprox, if the guide book is right it is worth the effort! It is! I hope and pray that we will be able to see Bears fishing for salmon!! The scenery on the way is breathtaking we pass wonderful waterfalls, hanging Glaciers, the stunning Bear Glacier the largest ice tongue of the Cambria Ice fields.

We also had a great time wildlife watching were able to watch at length a family of foxes, Mum, Dad, 3 kids! Mum and Dad were so skinny, their den was on a rise at the side of the road giving a good viewing position for us. The babies were playing, when we pulled away Dad walked along the road in front of me, I drove very slowly behind him, then suddenly he pounced to his right coming back onto the road with a chipmunk which he appeared to be taking back to the kids! No wonder he is so skinny! We also had a very nice view of a porcupine, after watching his rear end for some time as he kind of wandered away, they do walk very slowly, he changed direction and came straight towards me giving me a first class view - I was so excited I failed to take his photo!

What else did we see ? A Cow Moose, Ptarmigan, Black Bear - the best view I have had,

I could not stop as traffic was very close behind, more foxes and Ptarmigan. It was a very beautiful and exciting ride. Oh yes at our night stop we were able to watch beavers playing in the water.

We also met a lady with a Mercedes truck, smaller than mine, 400 series I think. We had a long chat, she had purchased the truck from a guy from Belgium only a couple of weeks previously. I gave her all the information on the Mercedes garages in Canada we had been able to find.

Arriving in Stewart we were able to get fresh bread, a car wash, a visit to tourist information who gave the info on the Salmon Glacier which sounds amazing.

Then it’s a drive into the USA and the town of Hyder, there is no border going into the US. Hyder is so small, unchanged for number of years. These 2 towns were once 1 whole town then the Canadian and American Authorities checked the border line and cut the town in half, leaving the larger half in Canada and the small community in the US! This small community has kind of got left behind, where folk just get along with living with their own rules and regulation. It all seemed like a great place to live away from the bureaucracy we all live by! There was a restaurant called “The Bus” we are told it’s the best fish and chips in town, guess where I am going to eat!!!!

But right now we are going to the river where with any luck we may see some fishing bears!

A quick lunch, then friends we met with in Whitehorse, Bev and Laurn, stop by for a visit. They have been to the Salmon Glacier and tell me it is a must see. They also invite Les and I for an evening meal (BBQ Fish) they have been told that the local tip is also a good place to see the bears; they will take us in their jeep! They have a medium RV with a jeep in tow.

We hang out along the walk way at the side of the river there are a few Salmon looking for their very own spawning spot, they looked very tattered! We did not see any bears, so we decide to go to the Glacier and try to catch the bears later. We have been told first thing in the morning or late at night. I will drive and we will only take one truck.

I do not know how to describe what I saw. This is just magnificent the glacier is on my left therefore in my left hand drive truck I get such a good view; I want to stop every 5 minutes just to look. The first part of the trip is along the side of the river which is raging glacier melt surrounded by amazing mountains, once alongside and overlooking the glacier it is just awesome you can see right inside right down the crevices into the deep blue of the ice, there are smaller glaciers coming into the side of the large Salmon Glacier it is all breathtaking. The ride back down was just as lovely because you see everything at a different angle I was also at the side of the mountain on the way down which is beautiful in its own right, but very over shadowed by the beauty of the glacier. If nothing else this journey down to Hyder was worth it to see this amazing sight.

When we got back to the car park near the walkway for the salmon river we had left it very late to get back to Stewart and our meal with Bev and Laurn, we decided to go straight to their campsite, Les did not have his passport but we had not needed it to get into Hyder so we figure going back a few hours later should be the same. Wrong! Les needed his passport we smiled, explained, begged; we said how long it would take to open the safe ect! ect! The guy reluctantly agreed to let us through back into Canada.

We spent a lovely evening with our friends he took us to a pier to check on some crab pots they were all empty (he had been speaking to a guy earlier whose pot they were) we then went to the tip (this guy really knew how to show a girl a good time) hung around for a while but did not see any scavenging bears. So back into the US and the river this time we did see a couple of bears but none fishing. I also met up with the young nurse I had met in Inuvik ,she had a friend from England on holiday, they were on their way to Whitehorse where her next job will be. They were 2 very nice kids, I told them to go see the Salmon Glacier.

We were all back at the viewing walk at 6am! Still no bears. There were around 6/8 people we all had a really nice chat al from different areas of the US mostly. There was another nurse from Canada who had just started working in the area, she was with her mum who was visiting. Around 10am we were rewarded with a very handsome Grizzly Bear who walked the whole length of the river, he kept looking at us as much to say “are you taking my picture” it was quite a swagger, he did not fish.

There were, in the little river, around 8 fish - the ranger told us the numbers reach around 50,000 THEN there are lots of bears and Bald Eagles picking them from the river, but no one knows when they are coming but come they will. I guess we are just too early, I am very disappointed.

We go to The Bus for our fish n chip lunch; it really is a bus with a couple of tables out side. We have been told that the lady's husband is a fisher man and she cooks the fish he has caught, it has therefore come straight from the sea into her frying pan how fresh! Perfect! And yes it was beautiful, I really enjoyed it we shared a table with a couple of people from the US so had a very nice lunch time!

This day I am in Les’s truck we have to go back into Canada we both have our passports no problem there. The guy asks if we are going to Stewart as that is the only place to go Les ask “Why does he ask such stupid questions” the guy was not amused. I nearly got under the seat I was very embarrassed this is the border of a country, these guys have enormous power, he could have held us there for how ever long or maybe refused us entry! Anyway I am very pleased to say after some very curt remarks and an apology from Les he sent us on our way!!

We kinda left after this and headed back along that amazing road to Watson Lake. Apart from the beauty of the road you all know what happened my batteries boiled!!!!