Stewart, BC

Today we set out with blue skies and bright sunshine. It has rained only one day so far. Our campground host from last night gave us some advice about native sights we should visit on our way up the Cassiar Highway. His advice was spot on. We found a couple places with totem poles dating back many, many years. The drive up the Cassiar was very scenic. Snow topped mountains in the windshield most of the way made the trip fly by. We covered another 200 miles today and arrived in the Bear River Campground in Stewart in a cloud of dust and a hoard of mosquitoes. This looked like a bad choice for an overnight stay. Stewart is a small Canadian town located on the Portland Canal. It is so small they have no bank or even an ATM. For major shopping or banking they need to drive 180 miles each way south to Terrace. They have a hospital but we are told it is nothing more than a first aid station! 

We picked our spot and then decided to drive across the border to Hyder, Alaska. This small section of Alaska can only be reached by boat, airplane or a drive in through Canada. The US government does not even waste the money on a border custom and inspection area. The drive was a bit of a waste of our time but at least we didn’t miss it. We did find a viewing area for bears fishing in a small river but viewing is best Mid-July to September. We forgot to inform the bears we were arriving earlier. The Fish and Wild life area was closed and empty. Good news: we had no problem find parking for the RV. We returned through Canadian Customs and arrived back at the campground, expecting to hide inside the RV from the bugs. To our surprise we found almost no mosquitoes or other bugs.  We enjoyed a great BBQ and evening in Stewart.

    Update: It’s 7:45 and I just took Charlie for his evening walk. It’s dinner time for the mosquitoes. Charlie has a love/hate relationship with them. They love Charlie and he hates them. Now we are locked inside killing off the last of the bugs that snuck in when the door was opened.

    News Break:  We had our first run-in with black bears today. While making the 38-mile drive from the Cassiar Highway to Stewart we spotted a bear on the roadside staring at us as we passed. They are a bit shy and he didn’t stick around to let me slide to a stop and get a picture. The second bear was in some low bushes next to the road with only his head showing. He also disappeared in a hurry. We are still hoping to get pictures to include in this blog.

St. Paul Anglican Church

Gitanyow Totem Poles

Bear Glacier

Salmon River

View from Bear River RV Resort

Hazelton, BC

Today is a planned rest and laundry day but our last overnight stop in Smithers didn’t have laundry facilities. We checked the map and Karen found a First Nation campground in Hazelton that had everything we needed. We did a drive by of downtown Smithers, stopped at a RV car wash and then headed up the road for the short one hour’s drive. We stopped along the way for some amazing river views and arrived at the ‘Ksan Campground mid-morning. We found the campground on the far side of a one lane suspension bridge built in 1923. The bridge spans the Bulkley river at a height of 260 ft. It is still one of the highest suspension bridges in Canada. The campground is nice and comes with a nice laundry facility. From our host we received a thorough education on the area’s attractions and the history of the Gitanmaax people who have been in this area for centuries. The after contact history began here in 1866 and this site has been a popular trade and cultural crossroads for many years. They have a reconstructed native village with longhouses to show the building traditions of the area. The Skeena River and the Bulkley River meet here so this was a traditional fishing village for a long time. The Skeena is a world renowned steelhead river and holds the record for the largest one ever caught. 

 Charlie and I took a long walk into Old Town Hazelton and found the town filled with old buildings from the late eighteen hundreds. Karen stayed with the motorhome and did all of the laundry. She claims she pounded the clothing clean on the rocks in the river but I supplied her with plenty of Loonies so I’m thinking she used the machines.

Tomorrow we plan to move on to Stewart to see if the bears are out. So far on the trip the wildlife has been sparse. Three deer (two alive and one roadkill), one moose (roadkill) and one owl (alive) sitting on a power line.  We have seen a number of Canadian geese (up here called just geese). The next 450 miles on the Cassiar Highway promises more live scenery. We will see.

The view from our campsite. 

Confluence of the Skeena and Bulkley Rivers.

Entry at 'Ksan Campground and Historic Village

Two of the several Longhouses and totem poles.

Charlie had to be dragged away growling and snarling at this carving ,

Charlie was intrigued with this totem pole.

Smithers, BC

Today was another day of mostly travel. We did a five-hour drive and covered about 270 miles. We are now 1/3 of the way to Anchorage. These are not Charlie or Karen’s favorite days, mostly driving with no exploring or interesting stops. Charlie seems a bit spooked by the smells in this area. Maybe the bears, moose, elk or deer. We left around 8:00 this morning and passed thru Prince George, the 4^th biggest city in BC. Too much traffic for our enjoyment. After only one U-turn, we were soon on the open road and driving became easier. The roads are only two lanes but they provide passing lanes ever few miles so we didn’t hold up traffic too much. Canadian drivers are courteous and wait for the passing lanes in most cases.

The last 40 miles into Smithers were very scenic - to the southwest are the Hudson Bay Mountains, to the northeast are the Babine Mountains, and toward the coast are the Skeena Mountain range. All of these are still snowcapped and beautiful. Hudson Bay Mountain is known as one of the best ski areas in British Columbia.

We arrived in Smithers in the early afternoon and found three campgrounds in town. The first one is a city owned park and opens in mid-May. We are too early. The second was five miles west of town, near the main highway and to dirty. The third was on a Par 3 Golf Course/RV Park and was just right. We felt like the Three Bears. We had planned on staying here for a couple of days for rest and laundry but decided to move down the road a few miles tomorrow and try another park. Tomorrow we will get to the beginning of the Cassiar Highway, which we will follow to Alaska.

The beautiful views from our campsite: