Stewart and Hyder...just Amazing

Our trip from Teslin to Stewart, BC included some pretty lakes and mountains including Dease Lake and an overnight stop at the Dease Lake Campground where we met a very grumpy old owner whose campground was as yucky as he was! Our rig was supposed to fit on the site with our tow vehicle hooked up and even the coach alone was too tight for any spot.  With no TV or internet and a lot of mosquitos outside it was a “24” night!  We left as soon as morning broke!

Some roads weren’t great…

And then there were unusual stops like this Jade Outlet.

From Dease Lake to Stewart the drive was quite beautiful.  As we got closer to Stewart we knew we were in for some spectacular sights! 

It was interesting to watch power lines going up, such remote areas we have been to see!

 

Pretty soon we started seeing my favorite wildlife friends!  In all we saw 3 black bears, but only captured pics of one…

 

Stewart is an odd little town.  They have the Pacific Ocean right there, but don't take advantage of it.  The scenery is beautiful but there are no cute little shops.  This grocery store and the trading post are a couple of examples, there is not much there.

Our first night we had a great dinner at all things, a gourmet food truck.  As we mentioned, there is not much in Stewart, and this didn’t look like much but everything from the rolls to the drinks were homemade with farm raised meats, fruits, herbs, eggs, a real farm to table gourmet restaurant and just remarkable!  A young couple is trying to make a go of it, we hope they succeed but Stewart is a hard place to do it as there isn’t much in the town.

After dinner we headed over to Hyder, AK. We hadn't planned to go back to AK, but Hyder is right on the border.  Once again, they don't take advantage of what they have from the Pacific Ocean to beautiful Glaciers.  The town has died and Hyder has even less going for it, a self proclaimed ghost town!  Although we crossed the border there is only a border patrol on the Canadian side. 

What Hyder does have is extraordinary.  Before we did our research on Stewart, a place we planned to visit, our friend Cody mentioned the Hyder Bears and Salmon Glacier.  So glad she told us about this extraordinary place.  The Tongass National Forest is in Hyder and the Forest Service has built a boardwalk because so many people come to view the wildlife.

Some of these folks are very serious wildlife photographers.  We talked to one man that had come every year for the last 19 years.  I'm afraid our cameras were a bit puny in comparison...

While bears and even rarer, wolves, are the big draw there are plenty of birds for the serious birders!

Our first night we waited about an hour and a half…bear watching can be boring for long periods with bursts of excitement! Suddenly a huge grizzly, we learned was named Dogbear by the rangers, came trundling down the river.  He very carefully picked between numerous salmon and scarfed up a medium size one to take over to the wetlands.  Wayne and I were very lucky because although it is a very long boardwalk we just happened to be right at the spot he picked to fish and eat.  We were less than 20 ft from him.  You could hear him crunch the bones and watch him strip the salmon clean.  No flashes are allowed so the pics are a bit fuzzier given the time of night than we’d like.  

The next morning we returned at 7 a.m.  Unfortunately several bears had already come at 6:00 a.m.  We waited until almost 11:00a.m. but no bears so off we went to see salmon Glacier.  it is a little hard to get to given 18 mi of rough gravel, but nothing like the road to Chicken or other roads we had covered.

The day was crisp, clear and the glacier was just awesome.

We decided to continue down the road another 5 miles, the road became considerably rougher but led to an old mine!

It was a great day seeing the glacier, that night we went back for another 3 hours...no bears butstill a good day!

The next morning we decided we wouldn't miss the bears again, so up we got at 5;00 a.m....why does this seem so early when we did it for 33 and 40 years!!  We were rewarded.  Right off the bat we saw Maya, a pretty grizzly girl followed by a boy whose name we didn't catch...

 In a few minutes we saw a little black bear too...

Next we left to view some of the scenery we saw coming into town, particularly Bear Glacier...

That night we went back again..oh boy, what a night. We say Maya again plus Jaws, the bear whose jaw is either broken or deformed, don't worry, it doesn't stop him, we watched him catch and eat 4 salmon in short order!  We have video that is better but it didn't post well...

While Jaws was entertaining us, a wolf showed up and was absolutely stalking Jaws.  Jaws would move a few feet and the wolf would follow but the wolf would not come near the crowd.  Finally he went fishing too...

This was definitely a highlight of our trip.  Now we are off to several short stops before we reach Vancouver and head back to the lower 48!  Tonight we are in Telkwa, a small town near Smithers, BC but we feel like we are in the big city, 50amps, full hook ups, great wifi and a ton of crystal clear cable channels, woohoo!!!