On Saturday we left the boondock runway to head to Stewart and Hyder. We exited the Cassiar (Highway 37) and took dead end Highway 37A to Stewart. Lovely views even though it rained the entire time. One of the big sights is the Salmon Glacier, and it was fabulous.
People go to Stewart, YT in order to go to Hyder, AK to see bears feasting on salmon. We stayed at the Kitawanga River RV Park, a pretty nice place. I was still feeling poorly, so we laid around more than we normally would. We did cross in AK to see the salmon spawn, hoping to catch a view of bears at the Fish Creek Wildlife Viewing Station. It is a NPS official spot that requires a ticket to get to. Easy and inexpensive to get one online, and we got three days of viewings through our caravan. We went on Sunday, crossing an amazingly simple border crossing into the US. It was totally unstaffed without any notice required. A nice ranger checked out tickets at the viewing site, and we went in. It was a lovely place.
And since it was raining (still!) we just enjoyed the day for a couple of hours without seeing any more bears than the one we saw crossing the road on the way in. If anyone else wants to do this, I highly recommend getting a chair and a water proof poncho or something to cover the chair while you wait. I was still not feeling well (darned sinusitis again), and Kevin’s knee couldn’t take much more just standing g around, so that was our one attempt. Others in the group went back a few times and stayed longer. Their effort was rewarded with some good bear photos. Oh well, we have seen lots of bears in other places. I tried for an artsy-fartsy shot of some dangling Old Man’s Bear glistening with raindrops, but the focus on my iPhone just wasn’t up to the task. I am going to order a new camera as soon as I get home!
The only border control between Stewart and Hyder is a Canadian border patrol spot that actually serves both countries. We had filled out our ArriveCan app ahead of time, showed our passports to the nice agent, and she checked everything. The information is then transmitted to the US, or so a sign at the office said. One of the rangers in Hyder said the two communities actually act as one and did so through the entire pandemic.
On Monday we went to Smothers, BC for a simple overnight spot. We stayed at Fort Telkwa Riverfront RV Park, a very nice place. All the sites are directly above the river for some great views. And guess what? NO RAIN! In fact, there was so weird blue color to the sky! I was starting to feel a bit better since I started the steroids for my sinusitis, though I still cough an awful lot.
I actually forgot the pictures from Teslin I took on Wednesday on the way to Watson Lake. We first stopped by the Teslin Tlingit Cultural Center, but they were unexpectedly closed. They had some great totem poles and a fabulous boat though. I was disappointed they were closed.
We did stop by the George Johnson Museum, a fabulous curated museum that was not the standard small town historical spot. Mr. Jonnson was born in a completely isolated village, and had no schooling until he went to Juneau at 16 to stay with an uncle. He taught himself English and mathematics, and was a born visionary. He came back to the area, opened a store, brought the first car to an isolated area without roads except in the winter when he used the frozen lake, and was an absolute local legend. They had some fabulous Tlingit history and costumes that the docent, a longtime white resident, was excited to share with us.
Today we are in Prince George at the Sintich Campground. Sites are decent sized, but they have small trees too close. We had to do some maneuvering to get so our door would open without running into the tree. We have a dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow as a caravan, and then we are done. We have decided to go through the big Canadian National Parks again on the way home, but just a drive-by. The town of Jasper still doesn’t have electricity after a fire wok out the lines, so it will be interesting. I probably won’t post again until we are in the US. Buying enough cellular data to post in Canada has been expensive!