Cassiar Highway

Driving 415 km/260 miles from Whitehorse to Junction 37 (start Cassiar Hwy)

Pink Fireweed

Day 1 of Cassiar Hwy

Marie & Eric in Front - low clouds obscure mountain peaks

Clumps of fireweed beside Marie & Eric's trailer

Other wildflowers

Cassiar Mountain Jade Store

Marie with $1 million jade bear carving

Setting of Mountain Shadows RV Park

A stroll through the woods to the lake - yes there were mosquitoes!

This mother black bear had 2 cubs - another behind

A lone black bear crosses in front of us (note more fireweed)

Moose crosses in front of us

Mother & baby moose

Alaska travel books mention the spectacular scenery along the Cassiar Hwy. It spans 645 km/400 miles from the Yellowhead Hwy in British Columbia to the Alaska Hwy in Yukon (Junction 37). Despite the poor weather conditions that we experienced, we concur with the books. The low lying cloud obscured many of the high mountain peaks but it really is a beautiful drive - we were consistently surrounded by high peaks. There was a small section of road that caused a roadworks delay, but the state of the road was superior to many we had driven during this trip.

We started the Cassiar Hwy from Junction 37 at the Alaska Hwy where we stayed at a very basic but conveniently located campground which showed signs of a more financial past. There was a huge round fireplace surrounded by differently coloured wooden chairs. The chairs were now all faded and dilapidated, and weeds were growing everywhere. Marie took a photo of just the pink chair, as it matched the adjacent fireweed plant so well. The fireweed is a common inclusion in most summer photos taken in Alaska. We have seen it here & there along nearly every road we have travelled in Alaska & Canada this trip. There were lots of other wildflowers along the road which made for scenic viewing.

En route we called in at the Cassiar Mountain Jade Store - apparently the Cassiar Mountains supplies 92% of the world Jade markets. The store had the familiar green jade plus the pink jade (rhodonite) carvings for sale. Very expensive stuff. Later in our trip we saw a jade carving of a bear that was valued at $1 million. I couldn't resist taking a photo of Marie next to it.

Our next campground was in a beautiful valley. Such a tranquil setting. After we had dinner we took a walk down to the lake where we planned to stay for a while hoping some moose would appear for a drink. The short walk through the woods to get to the lake was pleasant, and our head nets kept the mosquitoes away, but the moose were elusive as usual! That is not to say we didn't get to see our share of wildlife on the road. They say if you don't see a black bear on the Cassiar Hwy then something is wrong, and they were right. We saw lots of bear, and a few female moose each with a calf. The wildlife sightings were the highlight of our travels. Our two-way radios would come to life from the leading RV, calling out 'black bear on the left', or 'moose in pond on the right'. Murray had the sharpest eyes of the group and could pick out a black bear as a black dot far away in the distance. Same with the moose. We usually pulled off to the side of the road to enjoy watching the animals for as long as they stayed around, but they slink into the bushes pretty quickly and do a vanishing trick.

We took a 2 day detour off the Cassiar to call into the twin towns of Stewart/Hyder. Stewart is in Canada, and Hyder is in Alaska. See separate blog.