Side trip to Stewart, British Columbia and Hyder, AK

8/21/13

Wednesday dawns with abundant sunshine aw we head westward briefly today by car to visit Steward, B. C. and Hyder, AK.  We stop for a great view of Bear Glacier about 20 west before continuing to Stewart – the most northern ice-free seaport in Canada.  Logging and mining support this gold rush town along with tourism in the brief summer season.  Hyder officially lists itself as a ghost town with about 100 residents.

We then travel north about 23 miles on a gravel road up into the mountains to see Salmon Glacier - oh my, what a sight!  The pictures will speak for themselves.  We head back into Hyder to a late lunch before returning to Fish Creek hoping to see some bears dining on salmon now making the run up to the spawning grounds.  Plenty of salmon but no bear sightings today.  We head back to camp in a foggy and rainy evening.  Tomorrow we will travel another 100 miles south before joining the Yellowhead Highway eastbound to Prince George.

Bear Glacier on Route 37-A

Looking up onto the ice field

Downtown Stewart, British Columbia

Our lunch destination in Hyder, AK

Views of Salmon Glacier

Salmon glacier is only accessible by road from British Columbia

Wrangell, AK is about 80 miles distant

Pictures cannot describe the beauty we have seen

My friend Bob walks to the edge for pictures

Blue glacial ice is formed when all oxygen is compressed out of frozen water under pressure

Our next stop to hopefully see bears feeding on salmon

An elevated walkway keeps humans in and bears out

Salmon are here in the quiet waters to spawn

Here we are spending our last hours in Alaska enjoying yet another glacier

Never too far away are these mighty birds also looking for a salmon or two

Sharon and Joy pose for another picture in front of Salmon

Waiting for the bears to arrive

A cold rain sets in this evening, no bears appear tonight