We learned a lesson from our first drive up to Alaska...if you want to see the Grizzly fishing the rivers for salmon, you have to go up much later than May, so this time we planned our drive for the last part of August. Louise and I asked Doug and Bonnie to join us for this "adventure" which would take us out for 10-12 days and approximately 2,500 miles. We met up together for our first night at one of our favorite campgrounds (Walmart) in Lake Williams, BC. In the morning we drove both rigs north to our next campsite at Kitwanga, BC. We arrived early enough to walk down to the river to watch the salmon make their way through the gates that were spread across the river. They were being counted by a First Nations father and son who make a small living by doing this each season.
Alaska was calling so we were off for Hyder. The beauty of British Columbia was always showing it's self as we made our way north...The mountains, valleys, farmlands, and villages of the First Nations kept the cameras clicking. UNFORTUNATELY, I left the battery charger for my camera back home so it wasn't long before I had to ask "my buddy" Doug, to handle all my camera needs as well as his which, you will see in most of what you see in this posting of our trip...Thanks Doug !!!
We pushed on pretty quickly to Hyder, the lure of the Griz was strong and we just didn't want to miss them. Hyder, Alaska is a unique little community of approximately 80 to 150 permanent inhabitants', a bar/restaurant (and I use the word restaurant very loosely), a very good restaurant (The Bus, were you eat the BEST Halibut and Salmon dishes on picnic tables outside ALL season (when they are open and offer dining).
After crossing from Canada to the USA (Alaska) we opted to enter the Glacier Inn for "refreshments" and a drive through "town" to the Forest Service boardwalk were we were looking for the GRIZZILY fishing for their salmon... WHAT, NO GRIZ ???? What the HELL...Too early, too late, WHAT ??? We'll be back tomorrow and they had better BE THERE or ELSE !!! Well first thing in the morning it was still NOTHING so we opted to visit another glacier 15+ miles further up the mountain on a dirt road. Salmon Glacier is quite large (one of the largest in Alaska) and flows into the valley just north of Hyder and out to the Pacific Ocean area just south of Ketchikan.
I want to bring your attention to a picture of Bon and Doug above...their faces are NOT distorted, they are just covered with mosquito nets (we NEVER saw one mosquito in the whole trip)...waste, waste, waste... In another picture above we are sitting high above the Salmon Glacier having some HOT COFFEE...(We are living a tough life). Leaving Salmon Glacier we headed back to see if any Griz had shown up....WHAT, is there ONE...WHERE ???
Disappointed, no but it would have been nice if we could have seen more than ONE Griz, after all we traveled over 1200 miles to see just the one and that is NOT what I was wishing for...
There was another glacier that we enjoyed, and that was Bear Glacier at the shores of Bear Lake. Smaller but closer and much easier to photograph.
There was another glacier that we enjoyed, and that was Bear Glacier at the shores of Bear Lake. Smaller but closer and much easier to photograph.
Our Hyder visit wasn't so disappointing because we did see soooo many AMAZING sites AND now, we have so many more that we will see as we head back south. We didn't take the time to see them on the way north so we'll take our time heading south to enjoy as much as we can. One of our overnight stays was at Meziadin Lake about 40 miles east of Hyder. A very popular lake for the Canadians that want a little distance for themselves from the cities that they live and the remote experience they get at Meziadin. Our next stop was Prince Rupert, BC. The Alaska ferry comes in here and brings with it a lot of tourists and commercial traffic. It is a great city of medium size and a great museum (which we really enjoyed).
From Prince Rupert we headed east to New Hazelton and the First Nation Ksan Village.
Continuing our drive east towards Prince George we came across a beautiful river location were the First Nation people were fishing with their pole nets...NOT an easy thing to do... Then we found ourselves back at Lake Williams and heading east about 12 miles to enjoy the most amazing area we could imagine. We again watched the Pole Fishermen dipping AND catching, enjoyed the Chilcotin River SNAKING it's way through the sandy hills, AND finding an AMAZING "Homestead"... As soon as we pulled into the old homestead it was decided that we were going to set up camp right there. Walking the site, Louise noticed another "camper" located down by the river. Interested, we walked over and met "Sheila". Her site consisted of a small trailer and a blue tarp spread over a smoking fire in which she was smoking salmon....this was one of the most AMAZING sites I have ever witnessed. She was smoking the salmon that her brothers were catching under the bridge on the Chilcotin River over which we had already stopped and admired. They were all from the First Nations and living off the land and water of Canada.
I can't tell you how much fun we had that night alongside the Chilcotin River... It was capped off with a great campfire along the shore of the river AND the most wonderful CHUNK of smoked salmon you could ever imagine from our next door neighbor Sheila.... AMAZING...