Jade City to Stewart, BC (and Hyder, AK)

After getting started on the road this morning, we drove in rain (again) for most of the day.  About 30 miles into the drive, we crossed the Dease River and saw this boat cross under the bridge and down the river.

Later in the morning we crossed the Stikine River Bridge (with metal decking).

We continued south on the Cassiar.  It is one of the most scenic drives we have taken.  However, it was disappointing that we didn’t see any wildlife along the way.

We continued straight at the junction of the Cassiar and Highway 37A to Stewart, BC and Hyder, AK.  Along that route we got a good view of a hanging glacier with several waterfalls on the mountainside.

Getting closer to our destination, Ken saw some black bears at the side of the road.  It looks like 3 cubs…two are obvious and you can just make out the third head in the bushes to the right.  We didn’t see any sign of the sow, but she was most likely close by.

We arrived at Bear River RV Park and got set up and decided to drive to Hyder to see if there were any bears at the Fish Creek Wildlife Viewing Area.  In this photo, we’re just crossing into Hyder.

We talked to the ranger at the viewing station who told us that due to the heavy rain and muddy runoff we would most likely not see any fish in the river and due to that fact it would be unlikely we would see any bear looking for the unseen fish in the river.  We braved the downpour anyway and looked and saw nothing at first.  As we headed back to the truck I noticed some people on the other walkway looking down at the river so we went there to look.  There we saw fish in a clear flowing river.

While we’re here, we’ll be taking a day drive to see Salmon Glacier and will also be going back to the viewing area to try to see the bears.  The weather prediction is for lots of rain, so we’ll see how that goes.