We opted to take the “road less travelled”, the Cassiar Highway, to make our way back south. The Cassiar Highway offered outstanding scenery and had the best wildlife viewing of our whole trip. We saw three black bears along the highway which was very exciting. The bears were eating little berries that grew along the road in the sunshine. The beginning of the highway was under construction and it was a very rough ride. We began wondering if we had made the right move. But the road soon smoothed out and we sat back enjoying the amazing views. On our way, we made a one night stop at Kinaskan Provincial Park which was right on Kinaskan Lake. Canada does an exceptional job with its provincial parks and this one was no exception.
The next morning, we branched off the Cassiar Highway and took the Steward-Hyder Access Road. We stopped to see the “Bear Glacier” which was stunning in the morning light. We then drove through Bear River Canyon which was very narrow with scenic steep walls. We finally reached the town of Stewart BC and set up camp. We were warned by the campground owner that a bear was in the area. Not just any bear, but an aggressive bear looking for food. He had smashed the window of the campground owner’s window that morning. The “bear catching patrol” came and set up some bear traps around the campground and we hung cans from the RV as an early warning system. Much to our relief, we never saw the dude (I am assuming it was a male bear). The next day, however, we did see a black bear eating a salmon down at Fish Creek Wildlife Viewing Area. just like in the Alaskan tourism ads! Fish Creek is located in the town of Hyder just about 5 miles down the road and is actually in Alaska. Hyder is a funky town with some cool old buildings and some great old residents. About an hour up the road from the town is Salmon Glacier. This glacier is visited by people from around the world and is spectacular. We took a picnic lunch of homemade rice balls and enjoyed sitting in the sun just looking at this amazing site. Stopping in Steward and Hyder was a great call and we are glad we added this to our itinerary.
