Bear Paw RV Park
Stewart, BC and Hyder, AK
4-5 September
I put 5 gallons of fuel in the BFT, headed south and filled up at Dease Lake. Only the second time in all these miles we need fuel and could not get it. In the first 150 miles of Cassier Hwy south of the Alcan until Hwy 37A to Stewart beat us to death. It was a slow drive due to rib rattlers of all shapes and sizes. The scenery is beautiful though, so it is a trade off.
Enroute we stopped at Jade City. Not a city at all, just a Jade Store with a mining operation. In fact, they have their own reality TV show on Canadian Discovery Channel. Lots of Jade and now we have some too!
Once we turned to Hwy 37A to Stewart, the road was better and the scenery was even more awesome as we wound our way to sea level through canyons and we were greeted by “Bear Glacier” to our left. We stopped for a photo op and once again marveled at the size, shape, and waterfalls emitting from it’s base. Glaciers are awesome!
It was about 6pm, and we were going to boondock for a couple of nights, but decided to stay at an rv park, which allows us to get our laundry done much easier. The draw to Stewart (which is in BC) is really Hyder,AK, which is a few miles away.
Hyder is known for its bear watching along raised boards walks overlooking a stream where salmon come to spawn. Those ever hardy, always fighting up stream, salmon are doing their genetic duty to spawn and die are really the center of the universe up here.
After we set up, we decided to go Hyder to see if we could get lucky and see some bears. The “word” is, the bears have a morning and evening feeding but it is a crap shoot if the bears are hungry, especially in September, as the salmon have been in this stream since late July the first spawn. So the bears have had a well stocked buffet table up until now.
Hyder is only 4 miles from Stewart. There is no U.S. Customs checkpoint going into Hyder. But returning back to Stewart, Canada has a small customs post.
Americans in Hyder (all 190) have a great sense of humor. For all of us that have been to East Berlin back in the Cold War days, you know about “Check Point Charlie”. Although it was not heavily armed, it took me back there.
After spending about an hour and half, looking, waiting, and whispering to fellow bear watchers, we decided to go home. It was a long day of riding the bumps and we will try again in the morning.
The next morning, we got out to Hyder at 0700. Very early for my wifey, but we hoped the early bird could watch some bears eat breakfast. On the board walk, we were overlooking a little island in the rear of small shallow lagoon when all of a sudden a bald eagle swoops down and grabs a salmon with its talons and just sits on the fish. The fish was too heavy for the eagle to fly, so the eagle “hopped” the fish to the shore, where it began to feast on its catch.
As we are snapping pictures of this event, when from around the back of the island emerges a black bear. Slowly walking the perimeter of the island, sniffing the air and the ground, occasionally eating some grass.
The eagle saw the bear, and left it’s catch on the bank and flew (jumped) to a nearby stump about 10 feet from the island. The bear strolled up to the eagle’s breakfast, sniffed it, and kept walking, until it disappeared to the back side of the island. The eagle resumed it’s feast and we were amazed of what we were watching. Too cool…..
We stayed until 0900 and departed on our next adventure, Salmon Glacier, Canada’s 4th largest glacier. There is an un-maintained dirt road that leave Hyder and enters B.C. that winds around the mountains for about 30 miles. We were told the drive is worth it.
Let me tell you, it WAS worth it. The drive was very slow and tortuous over a very narrow dirt road with steep, steep cliffs. The potholes and avalanche slide areas kept us on our toes. About a third of the way up, it looked like there had been a very recent avalanche. The dirt was freshly graded and I sure am glad we were not around when it happened.
When we first saw one the end of the glacier it was beautiful. The pictures do not do justice to the beauty. This was a different vantage point of seeing a glacier, we were above it! We continued on until we were at the main part of the glacier and it teed in two directions. To the left was one leg, the main part of the glacier was in front of us and to the right was the other leg of the glacier. What a view. No matter how many glaciers we see we are humbled by their beauty. Most folks stop at this point and go back but not us. We continued to see the end of the right leg of the glacier. Interestingly enough the brochure we had showed the right leg ended in a lake. When we go to the lake we found the lake had drained and all that was left was a small stream with the glacier water flowing. This was the first time we have been able to see three parts of the glacier.
So as we traveled on this part of our adventure we were hugging the road next to the mountains. On the way back we were hugging the cliff side. Let me stress, we were hugging the cliff side, my side….. since George was driving. There have been times in the past that my door handle has been gripped very tightly due to road conditions but this road outdid any other road we have traveled before. In one particular area it was very potholed and even though George was going very slow the wheels jerked very very close to the edge of the cliff and I saw my life flash before me. Instant panic attack. Once I regained my senses I let George know in no uncertain terms that I did not want to do that again!
Once off the mountain we again stopped to see the bears (hopefully) at the boardwalk. We hangout for a little while, when all of sudden the whispering got louder, and everyone walked to the end of the boardwalk. Imagine our surprise when we were able to see a black bear eating a salmon on the bank in the grasses and brush. What a beautiful creature. Again pictures do not show the beauty of it. We felt very lucky to be able to see two bears in one day. Hyder did not disappoint! This was (and is) the only reason to go there, to see bears, and we did!
Tomorrow we hit the road again for the last part of the Cassier Highway trek on to Hwy 16.
