North to Alaska: Meziadin Lake and Stewart/Hyder

The Cassiar Highway continues from Kitwanga and Gitanyow to the Alaska (Alcan) Highway 718 miles north.  There is hardly a gas station or store anywhere along the route.  The road is in good condition and a joy to drive.  

We made it to Meziadin Lake fairly late, but early enough for a spot (though not much privacy) on the lake. This very nice Provincial Park was almost full when we got there which was shocking considering that we hardly saw anyone on the road on the way up here.  Most people seemed (like us) to be preparing for the Stewart/Hyder trip.

There are pink roses everywhere up.  You just can't beat this view, right at our back door.

The lake was calm enough for a kayak trip, but, being wimps in water
this cold, we decided to leave that for another time and place.

We all sat out until about 11 pm, soaking in the beauty.

This is about the darkest it got.

 Funny that it is so light so late up here.  We are going to bed at 11 or 12 and awake at 4, when the first light appears.  We wore our blindfolds, but are pretty tired as we were battling mosquitos all night.

Pretty cool view from our back window

We brought quite a swarm of mosquitoes with us from Fraser Lake and
picked up a few more here.  Jim spent the next morning killing hundreds
of them with his handy dandy bug zapper-an essential tool for camping in
Canada!

Loved the reflection in the water on this morning

We spent the next day on the most spectacular adventure of our trip thus far-37A to Steward, BC and Hyder, AK.  There were rivers, glaciers and waterfalls everywhere.  The drive down is well paved and there were hardly any other vehicles on the road. (We left Maxine back at the campground).  The building of this highway (like most up here) was quite a feat.

Some of the glaciers, like Bear Glacier, reach right down to the river’s edge while others lie on the mountaintops and appear to be peeking out of the peaks.  They are all a light blue color, like crystal.  Our car is covered in what they call Glacier Dust-this is why the rivers here appear so white, gray and light blue.  There are tunnels at the bottom of the glacier that tumble water into Strohn Lake below.

Bear Glacier

Stewart (40 miles down the road)- population 500) is a sleepy little town with a very nice Visitor Center, a few small hotels, a gas station and little else, including people.  It sits on the international boundary of the Portland Canal headwaters, apparently the world’s fourth longest fjord. 

The boardwalk through the beautiful estuary

The waters of the Portland Canal are excellent for fishing of salmon and halibut.

And look who is anxiously awaiting my return from
the Visitor's Center!

Hyder (population 90) is the other half of the international duo.  It is a completely funky little town with great fudge, a very weird hotel/bar where you can get “hyderized” by drinking a 180 proof grain alcohol, an Alaska Miner’s whiskey.  We passed!  

We had lunch at the cutest restaurant in town.  The Bus, which is quite literally a bus that has been transformed into a restaurant kitchen, with “bus tables” outside and indoor seating in a log cabin next door.  Diana, the owner restaurantauer whose husband and son are commercial fishermen who supply her with fresh caught seafood.) fried us up some of the best ever halibut fish and chips, which were just the perfect lunch for today.  

When we saw this sign, we knew this was the place for us!

Can you imagine not stopping when you see this!!?

Sweet Diana

Happy customers!

We decided to take a little walk down the road and, remember we seem to have one problem every day to deal with?  Today’s problem was that Boo was constipated and couldn’t get his poop to drop.  Without going into detail, we had to help him on the side of the road, where we got more than a few strange looks.  I held him while Jim operated.  Both of us were on clean up.  No pictures!

We followed the road through the end of the pavement, up and up through a steep, winding gravel road, past some mining and logging operations to see Salmon Glacier at the end of the road.  It was a little sad to see how much it has receded in recent years, compared to photographs we saw at The Bus. It is the 5th largest glacier in Canada.

The road-a little challenging.  Glad we didn't have Maxine

The Salmon Glacier

The river below in the distance

You could fall right off this cliff!

Boo loves a road that enables him to hang
out the window.

See the light blue in the back-that's another glacier!

Back at camp, we had a second problem of the day, having to do with the toilet, but too disgusting to discuss further.  It was partially resolved, but we did order a new toilet for our arrival in Anchorage.

It was soup and salad for dinner and sitting out by the lake until the sun went down.  Maxine still had about 50 or so mosquitoes when we got back in, so we got our exercise by swatting as many as we could, before turning in.