Tripping with MikenJudy 2012: Stewart, BC & Hyder, AK

We’ve spent the last three days in Stewart, BC (population 496) and Hyder, AK (population 87) which are only two miles apart. Hyder is recognized as the easternmost town in Alaska and is 1,241 miles from Fairbanks. It boomed with the discovery of gold and silver in 1917 and 1918. It became an access and supply point for the mines, while Stewart served as the port for Canadian mining activity. Gold mining continues today on the Canadian side of the area.

On the way to Stewart we passed Bear Glacier. The toe of the glacier is right by the road and there are many viewing areas. It was part of a scene in the film "Insomnia" with Al Pacino, Hilary Swank, and Robin Williams.

A favorite area to visit is the Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Site, an excellent place to view bears in their natural setting. It was opened up by the Wildlife and National Parks Service for people to be able to see bears in their natural daily living. You have to enter a boardwalk viewing area that provides safety for the people, as well as for the bears that come down to gather fresh fish from the creeks. We took off shortly before 6:00 without eating dinner. It was still drizzling, as it had most of the day. We stood around and took pictures of the many salmon spawning in the creek, and talking with people who were also waiting around. There were many professional photographers from outdoor life and sporting magazines hoping for great shots they could sell. At 7:45 we decided to call it quits and so did two other families we were talking with. Just then a pregnant female grizzly showed up and all the cameras started to click. Her preference was the freshly-dead fish. This way she wouldn’t have to work so hard, and there were many to choose from. She first skinned the one she decided on and then ate very little of the flesh. We could hear the crunch of the bones. Then she went on to the next. She stopped once and ate some berries (for dessert), and then crossed under the boardwalk to the other side.

Our jaunt the next day, in the rain again, took us to Salmon Glacier, which is the fifth largest glacier in North America. The eighteen mile road winds its way through some of the most spectacular and rugged scenery we have ever seen, with construction taking place in several areas. We passed through quite a few avalanche passes. The temperature was in the high fifties in Stewart when we left and by the time we reached the top of the mountain it was still raining, full of low clouds and in the forties. We were dressed for it, but it was still bone-chilling! Salmon Glacier is beautiful and we stopped at most of the pull-offs to take pictures and enjoy the beauty. The gravel road is very narrow in parts, but there wasn’t a whole lot of traffic, so we could just stop and take pictures. There were also many waterfalls to enjoy, most being fairly narrow but very long.

On the way we passed an active gold mine with old equipment left to rust by the roadside. Several companies have staked claims in the area, hoping to mine copper. In 1964 one company began its development and it was decided an 11 mile tunnel had to be driven under the mountain ridges and glaciers to get the ore from the camp to the concentrator site. The tunnel was completed in 1968 and was operated until 1978 when production costs and copper prices saw the closure of the mine.

Our next stop was the Hyder City dump! After driving around a while Judy spotted a mother bear with two cubs and while Mike drove closer they went in to the woods where it was too dark for us to get pictures of them. Mike decided to turn the truck around and this made the mother chase her babies up a tree where she joined them after she saw we weren’t leaving. We could see them all in the tree but it was too dark to get good pictures. Mike then noticed a bear by our car so we followed it back to where there were piles of garbage that had been burned. We got some great movies and pictures of him/her scavenging!

We’ll be spending eight days in the Canadian Rockies (Jasper, Lake Louise, & Banff) at Canadian National Park Campgrounds with no wi-fi so there will be a short hiatus.