Stewart, BC/Hyder, Ak
We took the Stewart-Hyder loop.
Our next stop along the way is to Hyder, Alaska but we camped across the border for a few nights, in Stewart, BC. We visited the museum here and it is fantastic. It tells about the history of this mining town, its ups and downs with mining and and economy. Many people got rich here and ended up broke.
It is very rainy here but we are still hoping to see bears fishing for salmon in Hyder. It rained pretty hard all night and half the day but by noon, it had let up to a drizzle so we were still able to do the things we wanted to do.
We headed to Hyder Alaska. This would be our last time in Alaska, for this trip. Hyder is the southern most city in Alaska that can be reached by road. Stewart is the northern most ice free port in Canada.
We wanted to get a close up view of one more glacier, the Salmon Glacier. Also, there is a bear fishing area with a safe viewing platform. At this time of year, both black and brown bears (grizzlys) are known to fish here for the salmon that are trying to get upstream. We stopped at the viewing center before starting up the glacier road. We did not have any luck seeing bear but were able to see the salmon. These are mostly chum salmon and we learned they are mostly white with blue ridges when they are in the ocean but turn green and pink when spawning.
The salmon glacier road goes through Hyder, AK and follows the salmon river crossing back into British Columbia.
We drove over 11 miles and got just past the toe of the glacier. We could have driven 5 more miles to the summit but decided not to do that.
The road was dirt after the first few feet. It widened and narrowed several times along the way. Here is the narrowest spot!
The road started in Stewart, British Columbia and ran through Hyder, Alaska. Before we got to the end, it wandered back into BC, then into Alaska again so we actually crossed the border a few times. This is probably the only Canadian border crossing without a crossing station.
We stopped back at the viewing platform again to see if we could see any bear fishing this time. We were out of luck again. The park ranger said they are not very active when it has rained and the river is running so fast. Those things make the water muddy and harder for the bear to see the salmon. However, just a few feet from the parking lot (.2 kilometers away), a black bear crossed the road in front of us. He was returning after his fishing trip. He had not been near the viewing platform so the rangers were not even aware he had been out there.
