We really liked staying on the Cassiar highway our last trip and so ended up staying at a few spots we stayed before. We had a long day driving and we were going to stop at Boya Lake, which is one of the first provincial parks on the Caassiar. However, there was a lot of construction there and it didn't look like we could even turn there so we continued on to Kinaskan Lake Provincial Park,
It is a very nice place but was pretty cold the two days we were there so didn't get out on the water. We continued on the scenic highway including another bear sighting. You want to make sure you gas up before going on this highway as there are almost no towns or gas stations. Just beautiful scenery.
Our next stop was another of our favorite spots to stay, Meziadin Lake. It is a very popular campground and all the sites on the water were taken. We pulled into a spot on an upper level with some nice views of the lake. Though we hoped for a water site after the weekend.
It was a nice day with weather on the warm side, at least for warm as far as Canada gets. So we decided to take advantage and get right out on the water. I didn't bring my camera and so Joe took some pictures on his go pro camera. What a beautiful day and we had such a nice paddle that we did it again the next day.
I mentioned there are not many stores on the Highway. In fact the closest store is in the Hyder/Stewart area. It is about an hours drive from Meziadin. We decided that instead of just driving there in the Jeep we would go ahead and stay overnight in Stewart. It is another beautiful drive with glaciers and waterfalls.
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| Bear Glacier |
We stayed at one of the commercial parks in Stewart, BC which is a small town of around 700 people. What is interesting is right next to Stewart is Hyder, which is an even smaller town of around 70 people and is actually in Alaska. So while there we went into Hyder for some shopping. We also went to the Fish Creek Wildlife Conservation Site. This is a great place to watch the salmon run and if you are lucky see bears going after the fish. Last time we stayed in Stewart, we went here a few times and only saw one bear crossing the road but none at the csreek. Again luck was not with us but it is a lovely spot anyway. We ran across some people we met before in Seward or Homer I think. They didn't have any luck either. they had come one day around 6 in the morning and found out they just missed some bears.
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| ???? |
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| Fish Creek |
Well we didn't see bears there but we did see one on the way back to Meziadin Lake.
We got back to Meziadin and were lucky to get a front row site right on the water. YEAH!!
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| Road into the Park |
All the pictures below were taken right from our site. Pretty awesome spot, don't you think.. We didn't do anymore paddling but Joe added the sail to the kayak and took it out but the wind wasn't cooperating and so he wasn't out for long. We enjoyed sitting out and reading and just relaxing and even got some good weather.
We stayed 4 more days but still have a long way to go to get to the lower 48 and so we left our lovely site hoping to make a return visit sometime and stay for a few weeks. We did a number of one night stays, first stop at Treasure Casino, in Prince George. It was free camping. We did spend money there though by eating at the Pub, which is part of the Casino. We didn't do any gambling. We had another long day drive and stayed at a pretty campground, Willow Springs RV Park, in the South Caribou Region off of Hwy 97. We were going to stay a little farther north at a lake we read about but it was Saturday, the 22nd, and the campground we drove through was full and we figured the other two were as well. On Sunday, we continued on 97 to Cache Creek where we headed towards Vancouver on the 1. We drove through the Thompson and Fraser River area where we went through 7 tunnels.
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| There are teepees for rent in the trees |
The closer we got to Washington State, the smokier it got due to the many fires in the Northwest. I read that Spokane has had their worst air quality since Mt Helen erupted in 1980. I also saw something about Calgary and their terrible air conditions due to the wildfires. Pretty sad. The droughts and climate change in the Northwest are really taking a toll.
We spent one night in Washington in Olympia and are now in Oregon. We really had a great time in Alaska and Canada. Almost as soon as we crossed the border(easy border crossing) we ran right into traffic jams. Welcome to the US and too many people. Well, we are back to having satellite tv, cell service and good internet. That is nice. We just need to get off the 5 and find some less crowded areas as we know there are beautiful spots in Washington, Oregon and California.
