Stewart/Hyder Detour

Location of Stewart/Hyder courtesy trails-reisen.de

Bear Glacier appeared on our left

Marie zoomed in at the base of the glacier

Crossing the border

Hyder, Alaska

Not much going on here...

A tranquil scene while waiting for bears

Lewis & Clarkes' at the bear viewing platform - looking at a very tall, centuries old spruce tree

The lure of perhaps seeing more bears fishing for salmon convinced us to take the Stewart/Hyder Access Rd off the Cassiar Hwy at the Meziadin Junction. Despite the low hanging clouds that hung in the canyon, as we turned around a corner the amazing Bear Glacier came into view. It was like wow, wow, wow time again. We have had several of those moments during this trip. We had seen many glaciers by this time, but each one is very impressive.

We arrived at the tiny town of Stewart, British Columbia (Canada's most northern ice-free port) with a population of around 700 people. Setting up our RV's took no time and before long, we were off in Eric & Marie's 4WD to do some sightseeing. Within 2.3 miles/3.7 km we passed through the border crossing into Alaska - no passports checked going into Alaska, just coming back into Canada. Right at the border crossing is the ghost town of Hyder, the most eastern town in Alaska. Population just under 100, but we only saw a handful of folk. There are only a few businesses operating, and we called into 2 of them. One was an old lady, crippled with arthritis, but a real sweetie who ran a photographic come bric-a-brac store in her home (shed). We ended up buying a bear DVD from her which may have been her only sale for the day. The next stop was to a gift store, once again the 'shop' was part of the owner's home - the owner told us a bear had set off his door alarm a few hours before we did. He then led the 4 of us out into his yard and beside a stream and showed us the berries the bears come daily to feed on. We were on our way to see the bears further upstream, so we bid him farewell and drove alongside the river for a few miles.

Apparently the salmon run is very late this year, or else they have all been caught by the commercial fishermen. Anyway, I think we saw a total of 5 salmon swimming upstream. The bears didn't think it is worth getting out of bed for such paltry morsels, so they didn't show up - although the ranger said a mother with cubs was out earlier. We had to satisfy ourselves with watching some bald eagles, as well as being intrigued by the spawning antics of the salmon. Our position in the stream was the end of the road for these adult salmon and they had returned to where they were spawned a few years earlier. We saw a female closely guarded by 2 males - the males continuously nipped each other and the female hung back waiting for the victor I guess. He would get to be the lucky one to fertilise her eggs. Then within 10-14 days of spawning, these adult salmon would be dead - their job done.

As for us, it was back to the border crossing, show our passports and re-enter Canada. We did this 2 days in a row, hoping to see at least one bear, but no luck. We also tried to drive and see the famous Salmon Glacier further up the river, but our outing was stymied by the weather and by some blasting they were doing on the road. We would get our fill of glaciers as we headed back through the canyon and re-join the Cassiar Hwy.