The Cassiar Highway

After having two parts flown in the Jeep was finally fixed. Between having colds, rainy days, and having no car as the dealer wouldn't let Joe drive it until it was fixed, we didn't do much in our week in Whitehorse. At least we had cable and internet though couldn't download pictures and so I am just now catching up on the blog. Friday, the 24th, we headed east on the Alaska Highway to the Stewart-Cassiar Highway and into British Columbia. This is a different way than we came into Alaska and we are glad we decided on this route on our way back to the lower 48. There are more beautiful views and a number of provincial parks that sit right on good sized lakes. Our first stop was Boya Lake. We managed to get a spot right on the water. The sites are well separated.

Sunrise on Boya Lake

We were there 2 nights. Although it was cloudy and still a little cool, we decided to take a little paddle. When we bought our sea eagle catamaran boat, we got a small 330 boat as well. We decided to try it out. You can sit two people and a small dog in it, which we did for our paddle, but will probably just use it as a single if we are so inclined to want to paddle separate boats. It was nice to finally get out on the water, though we hope for some sunshine and warmer weather for some future boating.

We drove on down to the next park, Kinaskan Lake Provincial Park, another beautiful lakeside campground. On the way, we saw that fall is on the way.

 

 

Above is our site which also has well separated sites. Below is our view from our sitting area.

 

We had some nice neighbors from Canada. The gentleman made his own wooden canoe. We would love to do that someday as the wood boats are so beautiful.

We only stayed there one night and then it was onto Stewart. The skies were blue as we left but as we made the turn onto the 40 mile road to Stewart, it became very cloudy. The drive is very scenic as we head down to the coast and the small 700 population of Stewart and the even smaller town of Hyder, Alaska with around 100 people. Yes, Alaska. This small little town that sits on the Portland Canal has its own access to the rest of Alaska by floatplanes. At one time, there was a ferry but no longer. It has a unpaved road out to Fish Creek, where bears are often seen and farther onto Salmon Glacier, where you can get right up to the glacier itself. We could only get one night at BearRiver RV Park, as some caravans were coming through and so we drove the day we got there to Fish Creek.

 

People are serious about getting pictures of the bears. We didn't stay long enough to see any this time. I think early morning or early evening are better times and we will try again another day.

 

 

Not sure what this was but looked interesting.

We didn't see any bears there but as we drove down the road, there was a mother and a few cubs on the side of the road. They were heading back into the bushes by the time we got the camera out but Joe got a few pictures.

 

 

The town of Stewart is cute and we stopped at one of the state liquor stores for kokonee, our favorite Canadian beer and got a few things at the small grocery store there.

 

 

Tuesday we are going to Meziadin Lake PP, which is just a mile after we get back on the Cassiar Highway. We may stay through the Labor Day weekend and so may make another trip back to Hyder. We didn't get to see the glacier yet and might try to see some more bears. We had more rain, by the way. We still haven't gone more than two days without rain or threat of rain with totally gray skies.

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