Stewart

Wake up to a clearing morning.  The sun is breaking through with a lot of individual low clouds floating under the mountain tops, which we could not see yesterday.

Morning in downtown Stewart

Hanging glacier over the town

Boardwalk over the tidal marsh

Portland Canal, fjord

After breakfast we walk out on the boardwalk over the marsh leading to the bay. One of our goals is to drive to the Salmon Glacier from Hyder which is in Alaska, adjacent to Stewart in Canada, Stewart and Hyder are on the head of the Portland Canal a 90 mile long fjord that forms the southern boundary between Canada and Alaska. Stewart is the northernmost ice free port in Canada. The main port activity seems to be shipping out logs. There are floating log rafts on the bay in Stewart.

A two mile drive takes us to Hyder, a once gateway to gold and silver mining during the boom times around World War 1. Today Hyder is a near ghost town.  There are no US Customs to enter Hyder, because no roads lead outside the area except back through Stewart. There is a Canadian customs, but I don’t think that is much needed either, since there is not much to purchase in Hyder.

Entering Hyder, Alaska

Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Area 

Lots of Salmon, no Bears

We stop at the one store/gift shop, that Cinnamon buns advertised on a sign out front which I missed, but did turn around after Linda pointed it out. They are excellent and we also buy some fudge. 

We stop next at the Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Area a few miles further. The US Forest Service maintains a gated board walk to safely observe bears feasting on spawning salmon in Fish Creek. Early morning and evening are the best times to observe bears, so all we see are lots of salmon and seagulls snacking on a couple of the dead ones.

The drive to Salmon glacier is about 16 miles and a 4,000 foot rise on mining roads that are fairly well maintained by the couple of active mining companies in the area. The road to the glacier actually takes us back into Canada. Its a dusty and cliff hugging road in places. The views are spectacular. When we get back down in the late afternoon, we head to the local RV self washing station and clean off all the dirt and dust, before we head to the RV park for dinner.

Lower Salmon Glacier

Salmon Glacier

Mining road to glacier

After dinner we head back to Hyder to the Observation area and get to watch one bear eating his way up the creek while ignoring all the tourists watching him from the elevated boardwalk. He heads up the creek out of sight to probably sleep off his feast for the night.

Salmon Sushi