Terrace, BC & Hyder Alaska Grizzlies

 Time for a road trip. Since we have the Roadtrek motorhome and we had the time, we decided we should head north to visit Robin’s sister Pat in Terrace BC. Unfortunately, due to the wildfire in Jasper National Park Highway 16 was closed so we had to go the long way, heading north to Grand Prairie from Edmonton. We left August 7/24 and our first stop was Grand Prairie to visit our daughter-in-law‘s mother Shona, where we had a lovely visit and a nice supper.

had to start with a bear photo!

Shona

 Since we’re fully self-contained we had no need of campgrounds so we spent our first night in the parking lot at the casino in Grand Prairie, one of the gems found on our favourite app - IOverlander. 

Along the way, we saw a lot of oil and gas drilling as well as a huge beaver in the town of Beaver lodge. 

We stopped in Dawson Creek to take a picture of the north to Alaska highway sign and continued on.

 

Next stop Chetwynd British Columbia to see the famous chainsaw carvings - quite impressive, scattered throughout the town. 

We stopped in Prince George to do a hike on Cottonwood Island to see the wood carvings done into the trees, and we had a nice swim in their pool. 

Another roadside attraction in Houston a huge fishing rod.

 

We were meeting many many huge logging trucks as well as vehicles pulling large fishing boats, coming back from ocean fishing. 

We found another lovely riverside free camping spot along the Skeena river near Terrace, watching people fishing in the river and enjoying the quiet. 

We spent two nights in Terrace visiting with Robin's sister Pat and her husband Barry. It was great to catch up and we enjoyed spending time together. I even stayed up well past bedtime to see a drone light show to end out Terrace's Riverboat Days.

drone light show

Terrace Farmer's market

Pat's lovely backyard

one of many painted building scenes

We decided that since we still had time as our son Shane was tending to our plants back home, that we would go further north to Stewart, BC and Hyder, Alaska. We think the last time we were to Hyder was 33 years ago when we did a memorable trip to the Queen Charlotte Islands, also with Pat.

We stopped in two small villages to admire the totem poles. 

The trip to Stewart, BC took 3 1/2 hours on a good road. We stopped for the night just before Stewart at a small off-road clearing where we could see two waterfalls and the Bear Glacier, amazing! 

our parking spot for the night

a close-up fo bear glacier from our spot

Stewart, BC is a town of 500 people on an inlet of the Pacific Ocean. We headed straight through on our way to hopefully to see some grizzly Bears. We crossed into the US at Hyder Alaska without needing to stop. There is no longer a US customs station in Hyder, only a Canadian one on the way out. 

Bear Glacier

Canada customs trailer

entering Hyder

The road basically ends at Hyder, they rely on the town of Stewart for schooling, groceries, etc. The town of Hyder Alaska only has 50 brave souls who live there year-round and there’s not much to the town. One souvenir shop, one bar, a  fish shack. Our destination was the Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Site a few kilometres past Hyder.

the wooden walkway for bear viewing

 We arrived just after 7 AM and realized we had missed the first bear of the day. They have an elevated wooden walkway that stretches a couple hundred metres in length just above Fish Creek where the chum salmon were actively spawning. The creek was shallow and was full of fish splashing about, and this is a prime spot where the Alaskan Brown Bears ( grizzlies) come to feed on salmon. We spent the entire day walking up and down the wooden walkway, watching for bears & being so excited when they wandered in!

Chum salmon, females with a black stripe, males with reddish pattern

 At times the Bears were within 15 to 20 feet of where we stood just above the creek - they were focused on eating and ignored the people. But people there were - with massive cameras, clicking away, waiting for the money shot. Once the first bear wandered off we decided we would head further north to see the Salmon Glacier. 

Salmon Glacier

The road was dusty, gravel, rough, almost 40 kms & a climb of 4300 ft. The road actually crosses back into Canada past the Premier Goldmine and on to the Salmon Glacier. We got to see it from above, which was an spectacular view!

looking across to the mine

close-up of the glacier, using our new 40x zoom small camera

We drove back to Fish Creek for more bear watching before heading into Hyder looking for lunch. No restaurants in town, only a small food ” shack” selling freshly caught halibut or shrimp with fries. We opted for a two piece halibut dinner to share at the cost of $34 Canadian & with permission enjoyed our food with a couple of Alaskan beer at the Glacier Inn. The bar has been in  operation since 1956 and the walls are totally plastered with money that people have signed over the years, some darkened by smoke and age. A quirky place with a lot of character.

the bears are fussy, they only go for the female salmon & then just the eggs!

wall of the Glacier Inn

fish shack

Glacier Inn

Back to Fish Creek for more bear watching till early evening, all told we were lucky enough to see six different grizzly bears, all enjoying salmon and one even swimming in the blue lagoon.

Another fine free overnight spot along the shore of the river going into the inlet of the Pacific Ocean in Hyder.

close-up of the next photo, eagle eating

We were required to stop at the Canadian customs trailer, where we were asked a few questions and had to show our passports, a very quick stop. 

waterfront in Hyder

Stewart, BC

From there, we were homeward bound. This time we were able to drive on Highway 16 through Jasper as it had opened a few days before. We were saddened to see the extent of the fire damage as we drove through the park. About a third of the town site of Jasper had been destroyed, and the residents had not yet been allowed back to see their homes.

fires still smoking in Jasper

elk

We arrived back home on August 16 being gone 10 days and we’re happy to see that our son had taken great care of our vegetables and flowers and things were looking fine. But it was nice to get back into our big motorhome to have a bit more space. And getting to visit with our kids & grandkids! We are now down to 65 days until we head on our Southeast Asia adventure this fall. 

our yard

Definitely Still Living the Dream!