Stewart, British Columbia

We actually got on the road to Stewart at 9:30 in the morning!  We knew it was going to be a nice drive with LOTS of stops for pictures.  We only saw one black bear but it heard the truck and high tailed it into the bushes.  LOL.  The scenery was absolutely gorgeous though.

Bear Glacier

We arrived in Stewart and had thought about spending three days here.  When we checked in the owner told us the power will be out in the entire city on Sunday from 8 am until 4 pm.  8 o’clock in the morning???  That changed our plans.  We’re leaving tomorrow morning for Terrace about 200 miles south.

Stewart borders the Alaska town of Hyder so we ventured back into Alaska again.  There is no customs as you cross the border into Hyder but there is Canadian customs coming back.  Go figure.

Hyder is a very small town with dirt roads

Today we had lunch at the old bus.  This place has the best halibut I’ve ever had.  Amazing!  This lady (Diana) bought this bus from a couple of kids in 1998.  Her husband (Jim) goes out and catches the seafood and she cooks it and sells it.  It really is just an old bus that she cooks out of.  There are tables out front or you can eat in the dining room.  We ended up eating in the dining room because there was a cold breeze outside.

Diana inside the bus cooking.  She is such a nice lady!

The BEST halibut EVER!!

Then it was off to Fish Creek to see the bears feasting on salmon.  Well, there were no bears there so we went to see Salmon Glacier.  Up a bumpy gravel road with lots of potholes again!  I think it was well worth it though as the glaciers were unbelievable.  Gorgeous!

Salmon Glacier

All along the road we saw so many beautiful glaciers

Close up of the glacier

This is the back side of Salmon Glacier

There were also a lot of amazing waterfalls

An abandoned mine

So then it was back to Fish Creek to see if any bears had shown up.  There is a viewing platform that was built above the river so people can safely view the bears below.  There are also Forest Service Rangers there with bear spray, just in case.

The viewing platform

There was a mama grizzly and her baby there.  They weren’t eating much but I guess it’s because they were already full as there was LOTS of salmon everywhere.  Some were already dead and others were trying desperately to make it upstream.

This is the biggest grizzly bear I’ve ever seen!  She was HUGE!!

The cub  was pretty darn cute!

Tomorrow we have to be up at o’dark thirty and be out of here by 8:00.  Off to Terrace, BC.

Dease Lake, British Columbia

We got the rock chip fixed on the windshield.

We then headed to the Klondike Rib & Salmon place.  When we got there they seated us and gave us the lunch menu since it was about 2:30 in the afternoon.  Well, it wasn’t lunch we were after but an early dinner.  The dinner menu didn’t come out until 4:oo.  The reason we wanted the dinner menu was because Rod wanted to try some wild game.  Yuck, not for me.  We told the girl we’d be back at 4:oo.  I guess it was worth it to Rod to wait because he ended up having musk ox stroganoff.  Yuck again.  Since we’ve been on this trip this summer he’s eaten caribou, reindeer, musk ox, and buffalo.

We strolled around downtown Whitehorse like the tourists we are

Then back to eat at 4:00.

This sign greeted us at the door but we were prepared

He doesn’t look happy about his musk ox but he was

I had the ribs which were YUMMY!  (Those onions had to go though)

The next morning we headed out and it was raining!!  Seems like we’re always traveling in the rain up here.  We were planning on going to Watson Lake but that is about 10 miles past where we wanted to turn off.  We ended up in Nugget City where there were four other rigs in the entire RV Park.  The Cassiar Highway where we were headed has been on fire recently and people haven’t been able to go down it.  It’s been really hard on people’s businesses along the way.  They have been shuttling people down the highway in groups with a pilot car until they finally got rain.

We only stayed overnight in Nugget City and then headed out in the morning for Dease Lake on the Cassiar Highway.

The road was really smokey in some parts

It’s sad to see all the burned trees but that’s nature.

We got all settled in at the RV Park in Dease Lake and had pretty much decided to only stay one night.  There is no TV or cell phone service here and the wifi is terrible.  I posted something on Facebook about staying only one night but my Canadian friends, JB & Brenda, said we HAD to take this drive out to Telegraph Creek.  They both claimed it had the best apple pie on the planet and views that were spectacular.  Okay, okay.  We ended up staying another night and drove out there today.  The lady in the office said it was worth the drive and to allow 6 hours round trip.  It’s only 112 kilometers (69 miles) out there but it still took us almost 3 hours with all the picture stops.  The rain did a number on the road and it was a muddy mess but it did eventually stop and the sun came out!  It was a beautiful drive.

The road started out pretty good.

The only wildlife we saw was this stupid grouse (not my words, but Rod’s).  Even the waitress in the restaurant said they are stupid.  LOL.  She said they don’t even get out of the road when a car is coming.  Rod said you can practically walk right up to them if you want them for a meal.

The scenery was really amazing

We finally made it to the restaurant in Telegraph Creek.

We were also told the sandwiches were pretty good

I guess they were, we had to get our pie to go

Back up out of the canyon

We had to cross a few one lane bridges.

Not much of an edge to the road.   YIKES!

That’s not blue sky but a storm we drove into coming back.

The truck was a muddy mess!

Thanks JB & Brenda for the tip.  We would have never went out there if you hadn’t told us about it.

Tomorrow we’re heading down to Stewart, BC for a few days.  We should be able to have wifi, TV and cell phone service there.  We also want to visit Hyder to see the bears and also visit Salmon glacier.