September 16-18, 2023
Photos at bottom
We woke up to 34 degrees and frost in Watson Lake, so we hit the road and headed south on the Cassiar Highway. We’d been hearing that the Cassiar was closed due to fires, and had wondered if it was *really* closed or if they were just saying that to keep traffic off while they fought the fires. As we drove through the completely barren landscape where the fires had been, where there weren’t even burned trees standing because everything had been burned to the ground and incinerated so there was literally nothing left but scorched black earth, we realized that the road closure had been entirely legitimate. It would have been deadly to try to drive through there, and we felt sort of stupid about thinking it was to keep traffic down since even when it was opened, there wasn’t any traffic. In the 60 or so miles before we stopped for lunch and a hike at Boya Lake recreation area, we may have passed a dozen cars coming from the south.
We had a nice hike to the beaver dam at Boya Lake, and then walked out one of the forest service roads. We didn’t see more than six or eight people, and with the cool fall temperatures it was a great hike. We then headed south to Jade City, which had been on all the “things to see on the Cassiar” lists, but which we weren’t certain would be worth the time. Jade City deserves to be on the lists, and for us, coming from Mesoamérica where jade was gold to the Maya, seeing huge boulders of jade just lying around was amazing. They also have a store where they have jade everything from little bitty pieces of jewelry to gigantic sculptures. We spent about equal time wandering through the store and outside among the jade boulders, wondering what both our archeologist friends in Belize, and the ancient Maya, would think to see tons of jade just sitting on the side of the road. We left Jade City and drove another 30 miles or so south to Sawmill Creek recreation area where there is a free campground right on the lake.
The next day was basically just a travel day and didn’t end like we planned, but it was a really good day. We left the campground and headed south on the Cassiar, with plans to head to the Iskut River Hot Springs Provincial Park with stops for some short hikes on the way. We couldn’t find the hikes we had planned, so we kept driving south, and saw a porcupine and a moose. We pulled into the Kinaskan Lake Provincial Park and realized that the hikes we had looked at on All Trails were based in that park. We were a little handicapped because we didn’t have any internet after we left Watson Lake the previous morning, but I’d screen capped enough to figure out what we wanted to do. We took an unplanned hike near the campground along the very beautiful lakeshore, and then drove south and took the two hikes we’d looked at on All Trails. Both were out and backs, with one a portage trail to a small lake south of Kinaskan Lake, and the other a hike to an amazing double waterfall. We got back in the truck and headed for the turnoff to the Iskut River Hot Springs PP, only to find that it is a private road to a mine, with a locked gate. So, we abandoned our plan to head to the hot springs, and started looking for a place to park for the night, and we saw two black bears by the side of the road! We ended up at the Bob Quinn rest area which gets great reviews on iOverlander, with plans to head for Hyder the next morning.
We left Bob Quinn the next morning and drove directly to Hyder, AK. Hyder is a town in Alaska accessible only by water or through Stewart, BC. On the way, we saw two black bears, but only got a photo of one. We pulled into Hyder and got tickets to go see bears at Fish Creek, but there were no bears to be seen. At the recommendation of the rangers, we got in the truck and took a very uphill drive to the Salmon Glacier. The Salmon Glacier was beautiful, and worth 20 miles of bad road. We drive back down the 20 miles of bad road, which seemed shorter and in better condition on the way down, and tried to see bears at Fish Creek for a second time, but still no luck. However, we did see a sow and one cub on the road back to Hyder, where we parked at the first pullout out of town and did our walk in the dark. It wasn’t until morning that we realized we were probably parked in one of the nicest camping spots we’ve had, even though it was on the side of the road. The road goes nowhere but to the wildlife observation point and the glacier, so no cars passed during the night. The pullout was right on the river, and in the morning I was watching bald eagles fish in the river while I made breakfast. It was truly spectacular.
We had to laugh as we exited Hyder, because although we didn’t have to go through immigration/customs to get from Stewart, BC (CAN), into Hyder, AK (USA), we had to go through Canadian immigration/customs to get back into BC. Although the interrogation wasn’t as detailed as when we left Skagway to enter the Yukon, it was pretty thorough, and for the first time on this whole trip, with the exception of entering Mexico from Belize, we had to show documentation for the animals. We were asked if we were transporting any firearms, firewood, cannabis, or tobacco, which was funny because we’d somehow gotten into Canada from Alaska before, and we’re not quite sure how we would have found any of those things in Hyder since we didn’t see an open store, and didn’t actually see any people besides the park rangers and the town librarian. He asked where we had purchased our perishables and wine, and made a sort of “why did I ask?” face when Tom said, erm, Whitehorse, of course. He asked how long we would be in Canada, and the answer was a sort of a shrug since we have no idea how much ground we’ll cover day to day, but then told us that we had six months in Canada, and the rules were a little squishy as to whether that six months started today, after leaving Hyder, AK, or if they started back in July when we entered Canada in Alberta…which is on our record since he knew that we had had our pepper spray confiscated at that border crossing. Tom assured him that we intend to be out of Canada by Oct. 1, because we have been passing signs all over the place that say that snow tires and/or chains are required after Oct. 1, and we have neither. Sometimes international travel is complicated.
We spent the rest of the day driving south on the remainder of the Cassiar Highway. It was neither as spectacular nor as exciting as the northern portion of the road, but the scenery was still worth staying awake to look out the truck windows.
Photos at bottom
We woke up to 34 degrees and frost in Watson Lake, so we hit the road and headed south on the Cassiar Highway. We’d been hearing that the Cassiar was closed due to fires, and had wondered if it was *really* closed or if they were just saying that to keep traffic off while they fought the fires. As we drove through the completely barren landscape where the fires had been, where there weren’t even burned trees standing because everything had been burned to the ground and incinerated so there was literally nothing left but scorched black earth, we realized that the road closure had been entirely legitimate. It would have been deadly to try to drive through there, and we felt sort of stupid about thinking it was to keep traffic down since even when it was opened, there wasn’t any traffic. In the 60 or so miles before we stopped for lunch and a hike at Boya Lake recreation area, we may have passed a dozen cars coming from the south.
We had a nice hike to the beaver dam at Boya Lake, and then walked out one of the forest service roads. We didn’t see more than six or eight people, and with the cool fall temperatures it was a great hike. We then headed south to Jade City, which had been on all the “things to see on the Cassiar” lists, but which we weren’t certain would be worth the time. Jade City deserves to be on the lists, and for us, coming from Mesoamérica where jade was gold to the Maya, seeing huge boulders of jade just lying around was amazing. They also have a store where they have jade everything from little bitty pieces of jewelry to gigantic sculptures. We spent about equal time wandering through the store and outside among the jade boulders, wondering what both our archeologist friends in Belize, and the ancient Maya, would think to see tons of jade just sitting on the side of the road. We left Jade City and drove another 30 miles or so south to Sawmill Creek recreation area where there is a free campground right on the lake.
The next day was basically just a travel day and didn’t end like we planned, but it was a really good day. We left the campground and headed south on the Cassiar, with plans to head to the Iskut River Hot Springs Provincial Park with stops for some short hikes on the way. We couldn’t find the hikes we had planned, so we kept driving south, and saw a porcupine and a moose. We pulled into the Kinaskan Lake Provincial Park and realized that the hikes we had looked at on All Trails were based in that park. We were a little handicapped because we didn’t have any internet after we left Watson Lake the previous morning, but I’d screen capped enough to figure out what we wanted to do. We took an unplanned hike near the campground along the very beautiful lakeshore, and then drove south and took the two hikes we’d looked at on All Trails. Both were out and backs, with one a portage trail to a small lake south of Kinaskan Lake, and the other a hike to an amazing double waterfall. We got back in the truck and headed for the turnoff to the Iskut River Hot Springs PP, only to find that it is a private road to a mine, with a locked gate. So, we abandoned our plan to head to the hot springs, and started looking for a place to park for the night, and we saw two black bears by the side of the road! We ended up at the Bob Quinn rest area which gets great reviews on iOverlander, with plans to head for Hyder the next morning.
We left Bob Quinn the next morning and drove directly to Hyder, AK. Hyder is a town in Alaska accessible only by water or through Stewart, BC. On the way, we saw two black bears, but only got a photo of one. We pulled into Hyder and got tickets to go see bears at Fish Creek, but there were no bears to be seen. At the recommendation of the rangers, we got in the truck and took a very uphill drive to the Salmon Glacier. The Salmon Glacier was beautiful, and worth 20 miles of bad road. We drive back down the 20 miles of bad road, which seemed shorter and in better condition on the way down, and tried to see bears at Fish Creek for a second time, but still no luck. However, we did see a sow and one cub on the road back to Hyder, where we parked at the first pullout out of town and did our walk in the dark. It wasn’t until morning that we realized we were probably parked in one of the nicest camping spots we’ve had, even though it was on the side of the road. The road goes nowhere but to the wildlife observation point and the glacier, so no cars passed during the night. The pullout was right on the river, and in the morning I was watching bald eagles fish in the river while I made breakfast. It was truly spectacular.
We had to laugh as we exited Hyder, because although we didn’t have to go through immigration/customs to get from Stewart, BC (CAN), into Hyder, AK (USA), we had to go through Canadian immigration/customs to get back into BC. Although the interrogation wasn’t as detailed as when we left Skagway to enter the Yukon, it was pretty thorough, and for the first time on this whole trip, with the exception of entering Mexico from Belize, we had to show documentation for the animals. We were asked if we were transporting any firearms, firewood, cannabis, or tobacco, which was funny because we’d somehow gotten into Canada from Alaska before, and we’re not quite sure how we would have found any of those things in Hyder since we didn’t see an open store, and didn’t actually see any people besides the park rangers and the town librarian. He asked where we had purchased our perishables and wine, and made a sort of “why did I ask?” face when Tom said, erm, Whitehorse, of course. He asked how long we would be in Canada, and the answer was a sort of a shrug since we have no idea how much ground we’ll cover day to day, but then told us that we had six months in Canada, and the rules were a little squishy as to whether that six months started today, after leaving Hyder, AK, or if they started back in July when we entered Canada in Alberta…which is on our record since he knew that we had had our pepper spray confiscated at that border crossing. Tom assured him that we intend to be out of Canada by Oct. 1, because we have been passing signs all over the place that say that snow tires and/or chains are required after Oct. 1, and we have neither. Sometimes international travel is complicated.
We spent the rest of the day driving south on the remainder of the Cassiar Highway. It was neither as spectacular nor as exciting as the northern portion of the road, but the scenery was still worth staying awake to look out the truck windows.
We saw lots of bare scorched earth along the northern part of the Cassier.
We took a nice hike to a beaver dam at Boya Lake.
At Jade City, we saw large chunks of jade, just scattered around the parking lot.
We also saw buckets full of smaller pieces of jade.
British Columbia is full of beautiful free campground, like this one at Sawmill Creek where we parked right next to the lake.
We took a hike in a provincial park along a portage trail from one lake shore to another.
We then went to see the reason for the portage trail, which is a large double waterfall.
We didn’t see any bears in Hyder, but they were just hanging out on the roadside as we drove down the Cassier.
We also got to see one last spectacular glacier.
And lots of bald eagles, just hanging out like crows.