First off, a big thanks to Jim McDiarmid (a computer wiz in Victoria) for getting our blog ‘found’ by Google.
After travelling thru the slightly soggy NorthEastern BC and the Yukon in June, we headed south via the Cassiar Highway at the beginning of July.
Cassiar Highway
The Cassiar Highway is now paved the whole way, from the Alaska Highway to Highway 16 (the Highway of Tears) so the drive was very easy, after all the gravel roads we have recently driven. The northern section of this road runs thru miles of burnt-out forest from several wildfires in the last decade. The fires were allowed to burn naturally to help reduce the amount of fuel from the dead trees.
We made several stops along the way, including a stop at Jade City with it’s huge chunks of jade along the roadway and in front of their store – the mining operation there is showcased on a TV reality show by the same name. Along the way, we took some photos of a nesting Common Loon but the treasure was when we spotted 3 young fox kits outside their den. They were fun to watch and we did get some nice photos of them.
Dease Lake
Accommodations along this highway are few and far between so it’s best to book ahead. We opted to stay at a small motel in Dease Lake and were impressed with the great room that we got. Arctic Divide Lodge ( http://arcticdivide.ca/ ) is a B&B that is in the process of being reconditioned but the current owners are doing a great job on the renos. For dinner, we were referred to a food truck called “The Shack”. Clearly, the locals also know about The Shack as it took us over 30 minutes to even place an order as the one and only cook was busy doing pick up orders which had been phoned in. Fortunately, it was not raining as we stood outside waiting to order along with 4 other groups of non-residents. When we finally got our food (now over 45 minutes since we arrived), my chili was clearly from a can and had just been nuked. Sigh.
Telegraph Creek
Our hosts at Arctic Divide suggested that we visit Telegraph Creek, a place that got it’s name from the construction of the Russian-American Telegraph Line to the Yukon in 1866 after the gold rush in that area. The line was to run from San Francisco to Moscow ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian-American_Telegraph ) but was abandoned. A few buildings are left so the settlement is a bit of a tourist attraction even though it is 70 km off the main highway, on an all dirt road that has some grades of 20% (highway warnings of 8% are usually taken seriously). We did meet a tractor-trailer unit coming out of Telegraph Creek and had to back up a steep grade to give it room to pass on a very tight turn - scary. Of course, we wouldn’t have been in that situation but Jim needed to take some photos of the swallows nests in the cliff face next to the road. All part of the adventure when you are with photographers.
You can click on the photos for larger images and/or hover over the photo for text
The geography in this area is incredible: some lava flow areas, towering cliffs and canyons with rivers passing through them and a narrow road with no shoulder or guardrail, cut into the side of the river canyon, several hundred feet above the river. We were able to see the confluence of the Stikine and Tahltan Rivers and were able to photograph salmon trying to leap waterfalls on the Tahltan River.
We ate lunch in an old hotel that was staffed by women from the Tahltan Nation. The hotel still has the original rooms as there were built in the 1890’s. Apparently the European tourists love this as the rooms were fully booked up.
When we got back to Dease Lake, it was dinner time but "The Shack" already had a line up so we tried the only other food place in town. They had already closed the grill so we had to settle for some almost warm chicken and noodle stir fry in styrofoam containers. Double sigh.
Stewart
A few hours south of Dease Lake, we veered off the Cassiar Highway to the small town of Stewart which is right on the border of Alaska with the town of Hyder. Alaska being only a couple of kilometres away on the edge of the Portland Canal. As it had been a full days’ drive we did not do any exploring that evening but were interested in all the old mining and logging equipment that seemed to be parked everywhere and the interesting signs. We had, however, made a number of stops along the way to Stewart as the scenery was spectacular. We were able to get some nice photos of the lakes and mountains including Bear Glacier where Jeannie’s cousin. Ted, had been involved with building the highway in the 1960s. At that time, the glacier reached across the lake to where we were standing taking photos.
Next morning we drove 2 kilometres into Alaska and went to Fish Creek, a place that is known to be frequented by both Black and Grizzly Bears when the salmon are running. The US Park Service has built a beautiful wooden boardwalk above the creek so that the bears can go about their business without having to worry about gawking tourists. Unfortunately, the salmon had still not moved into the creek so there were no bears but we did have some of the best birding we had up to that point in our travels. Yellow Warblers, Hammond’s Flycatcher and a Northern Waterthrush were photographed along with a marmot.
The overcast and periodic rain had stopped by 1100 so we decided to go and have a look at the Salmon Glacier. We drove up another gravel road to an elevation of over 1,000 metres where we had an incredible view of the glacier as it moved from the ice field down the slope of the mountain and then made a left turn in front of us and continued down the valley towards Hyder. It truly was a most impressive sight.
We ate our picnic lunch with a young German couple and watched the colours of the glacier change as clouds and sunlight danced on the surface of the ice then headed back down the mountain taking pictures of waterfalls as we went. Although there were no U.S. Customs or Homeland Security as we passed into Hyder this morning, there was a Canadian Customs office where we had to stop and show our passports on the way back to Stewart, BC.
(Remember to click on the photos for a larger, complete view)
The Hazeltons
Left Stewart and headed south to New Hazelton where we spent the next three days visiting a number of Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en First Nations villages and museums - lots of photos of totem poles. In the village of Gitwangak, we had two American Kestrels land on the tops of two of the totem poles and were able to get some interesting photographs of them.
'Ksan
‘Ksan Historical Village stands where the village of Gitanmaax had existed for centuries. We took the guided tour through a reconstruction of three Gitxsan long houses. Photographs inside the houses were not permitted but we did get some shots of totems and house fronts.
More First Nations material can be found on the More Photos/Coastal First Nations page in our blog.
It was also about this time on our journey, that we started to receive all the news about the wildfires that were happening in the interior of BC, places that we had visited only a few weeks before. It was disturbing to hear about the thousands of people who were forced to evacuate their homes. The firefighters, including some from Australia and Mexico, did a terrific job in suppressing the fires.
One day, we drove south to Smithers and we were surprised to see how vibrant a town it is. We walked around main street and ate our lunch in a local park before doing a drive up Hudson Bay Mountain to a local ski hill. It was raining and the bugs were awful so we did not stay long but we did get some photos of Lincoln Sparrows.
We visited the local Fair Grounds where a Girl Guide event called SOAR was held a few weeks later. The town of Smithers has put up banners welcoming the girls and there have been articles in the local media about the event. Jeannie was sorry to miss the event this year.
Terrace
Continued west to Terrace and went birding on Ferry Island (named for the riverboat ferries in the early 1900s). We did not have much success with finding birds but we did spend a fair bit of time looking for the small faces that had been carved in the bark of Black Cottonwood trees by a local artist, Rick Goyette. They (50+) had very expressive faces overall and were quite well done.
From Terrace, we did a day trip south to Kitimat and the birding was poor along the way. We were fortunate to catch the first tour of the season at the Rio Tinto aluminum smelter (aka Alcan). It was a 90 minute tour that started with a video and then concluded in a bus ride around the complex. We were not allowed to take photos but were able to see most of the workings of the smelter right from the unloading of alumina (refined bauxite) from a freighter to the finished ingots of pure aluminum, some of which weighed 30 tons. A friend's son, Ryan, had been involved in the recent heavy-duty electrical upgrade of the plant.
Nisga'a
We spent the next day driving north up Highway 113 to the territory of the Nisga’a First Nation. The most impressive thing you see is a lava flow that happened about 1700 AD and flowed down a mountain side into a valley blocking off a river and then turned and flowed down the valley burying two native villages and killing an estimated 2,000 people. The lava, grey or black in colour, is now being covered with a sea green moss and some vegetation, 300 years after the eruption.
(Click on the photos for a large image)
The Nisga’a people are one of the few native peoples in Canada that have reached a treaty with both the Government of Canada and the Government of British Columbia that gives them self-government and title to their own lands, after 113 years, hence the name of the highway. Lots of rain that day so we spent several hours in the excellent Nisga’a Museum at Laxgalts'ap, a showcase of cultural treasures curated by local young interns and we did manage a short hike into Nass Valley Hot Springs. At the Museum, items used by Nisga'a shaman was fascinating.
Prince Rupert
The last leg of our mainland trip was to Prince Rupert where we caught the BC Ferry to Port Hardy on Vancouver Island. It was nice to get out of the rain and cool temperatures as this was supposed to be summer but we were seldom breaking 15°C/60F°.
While in Rupert we visited the Museum of Northern British Columbia, wandered around Cow Bay and the waterfront, ate some seafood but missed doing a grizzly bear watching trip as there was a cruise ship in town which used up all the spaces on the zodiac boats. Darn.
The boarding for the ferry trip was a bit of a nightmare in that we arrived at the ferry terminal at 0515 and it took over 90 minutes for us to finally creep our way up to the ticket booth. Much of that time, we were wondering if our reservation would be honoured because we were not checked in by 0530 as per instructions. It was honoured and we boarded but the ferry was almost 30 minutes late in departure.
Left Prince Rupert in low cloud and fog but the fog burned off and we had a gorgeous sunny day with very calm seas. Even Queen Charlotte Strait was glassy flat.
Some breathtaking scenery on the inside passage as we came down to Port Hardy. Humpback Whales, Orcas, Harbour Porpoise, Harbour Seals and Pacific White-sided Dolphins were all observed along with a variety of birds. We saw "MS The World" travelling north - we have seen this beautiful ship 3 times (Hawaii, Australia and BC).
Back on Vancouver Island
Got to our hotel in Port Hardy ( Kwa’lilas Hotel ) just after midnight. Up the next morning to have breakfast with Jeannie’s cousin Ted Stevens and then had lunch with Lionel Gunsen and his partner Carla. Lionel not only treated us to lunch but gave us some smoked salmon that he had prepared. We shared it with Jim & Renate Mendria a couple of days later and it was delicious.
Since we were in the area, we took a side trip to Alert Bay. The ferry from Port McNeil drops you right into the little town so you can walk on the ferry, if you choose. We spent some time in town and then over to the U'mista Cultural Centre, with it's extensive display of potlatch material, which we had heard about for many years. U'mista means "the return of something valuable to the rightful owner" and many of the artifacts have been repatriated from around the world.
While we were there, we learned about the dance entertainment at the Big House, up the hill. What a treat!!! The T'sasala Cultural Group of young people and their mentors put on a fantastic display for us with lots of explanation about the dances and what they mean to the 'Nagmis people of the Kwakwaka'wakw nation. So great to see the young folks learning these traditional dances along with the cultural significance of them.
(Click on the photos for a larger image)
The next day, we stopped in Campbell River and had lunch with Kevin Van Cleemput and Pauline Ptolemy. Day after that, we had lunch with Kevin & Gail Bates and were delighted to find that Dave & Kathy Pickles were there too. Dave and Kathy were taking their boat up to the Broughton Archepelago and were passing by Campbell River. Good to see everyone and catch up.
We also stopped and had lunch in Royston with Guiding friend, Stacy Newcombe and her partner Steve. Yup, we basically ate our way south from Port Hardy – lots of great pubs and restaurants along the way.
Jim and Renate had gone out to Barkley Sound to go diving for 5 days and had left their Nanoose house for us to use, again. What a wonderful place with a view of Georgia Strait and the mainland mountains, that is incredible. When they came back we were able to spend 4 days with them and it was lovely to catch up. It had been almost a year since we had last visited with them, even though we spent the month of May at their gorgeous home.
On August 1st, we drove down to Nanaimo and had breakfast with Jeannie’s cousin Sandi and her friend Ralph. These generous folks had stored our frozen food for us when we had to abandon the rig at the RV repair place for 2 months. Then we went down to Arbutus RV and picked up our rig.
A bit of a delay in leaving as one of the mechanics had gone home the night before with the keys to our rig in his pocket, and he was off work that day. They were able to contact him and have him bring the keys in. Nothing is ever easy!
Here is a copy of our route through BC and the Yukon during June and July 2017
Victoria
We spent August and September at the Oceanside RV Park near Victoria. We put just over 11,000 km on the Jeep and visited some incredible places. We have spent several months sorting through photos but have some wonderful memories of the places we visited and the people we met.