First thing this morning we visited another First Nation community Gitanyow, to see their amazing totem poles. Again, their community center was closed (because the chief needed it for his office) but we could enjoy the totem grounds. A great photo op and aa wonderful experience for us. Next stop on our agenda was Stewart, BC and then across the border to Hyder, ALASKA... Just before entering Stewart we caught ourselves dazzled by the sights of Bear Glacier. Of particular interest and amazement was the "wave"like areas of the glacier.
Crossing into ALASKA at Hyder was no more than driving through a "border-less" (American side) border, it's just when you cross back into Canada that you go through the border questions (although I doubt she has no more than 10-15 crossings a day). We really wanted to see Hyder even though we knew we were much too early for the bears to be in the area feeding in the river (it's almost a holiday atmosphere when the bears arrive to gorge on the salmon in July). Our destination was the Salmon Glacier some 23 miles out on a gravel road... Thank God this road bed is maintained by the mining companies so it wasn't a bad drive until we left the mines behind. Then we got into the high mountain areas with rock slides dropping onto the road, dead trees, and snow... about half way up we had to slip into low 4 wheel drive and push ourselves through the csnow and mud. Finally we got to a point were we could see the glacier down in the valley but we could go no further because of a larger rock slide that totally closed our route. Ok, time for lunch and head back to find a place fogr the night...Meziadin Lake Provincia