Day 53and 54 Traveling down the Cassiar Hwy, BC

Saturday and Sunday - August 21^st and 22<sup>nd

Note: We have been without internet access for 6-days so I am behind!!!</sup>

The Cassiar Hwy (completed in 1972) connects the Alaskan Hwy at the BC-YK border to the Yellowhead Hwy in East-Central BC.

Our entrance from the North had been closed due to a “dry-lightening” forest fire that started July 27^th. The day we arrived they were allowing single-lane traffic one-way by following a “pilot vehicle”. With our 1-hour delay, Wm and I played cribbage and Peter walked and chatted with the other folks in queue.

The smoke was thick and there were still a few hot fires.

This is a sparsely populated road so no homes or people appeared to be directly affected.

It was a beautiful drive despite the smoke and the area’s “welcomed” rainy weather.

We must have brought the rain as we have been in it since August 17^th.

If you like Green, Jade City (pop. 50) would be the stop for you.

It is not so much a city as it is a community of Jade businesses.

We passed it by but in hindsight, it would have been very interesting.

The “Jade Mines” in the Cassiar Mountain Range produce 90% of the world’s supply!

“Bear Glacier”

We took a spur (side-road) off the Cassiar Hwy to Stewart, BC, (pop. 700) and Hyder, AK, (pop. 100).

The short drive has great views of the mountains and glaciers.

“Bear Glacier” close-up!

Hyder is the most Easterly town in Alaska and is separated from Stewart, BC, by a narrow fjord, the Portland Canal.

This is an ice-free port BUT they get 30-feet of snow in the winter. One can only get to Hyder by driving through BC as there is no ferry service to either community. Hyder citizens live on the BC time-zone except for the Post-Office, which is a Federal operation.

Both communities had their hey-days in 1917-1918 when silver was discovered in the area and the population was 10,000!

Today, tourists come to see bears (black and grizzly) at the Fish Creek Wildlife Viewing Area from mid-July through early September during the Salmon run – located in the Tongass National Forest.

The fish were there - Unfortunately, the “bears” missed their “viewing appointment”!

We weren’t the only ones disappointed as there were “thousands-of-dollars” in camera gear waiting on the viewing-boardwalk to snap “bear” photos.

Everyone had their cameras covered with plastic as, of course, it was raining again!

We did “Gull Viewing” instead!

Tongass National Forest is the largest of America’s national forests.

It encompasses nearly 17 million acres of land, 11,000 miles of shoreline and is the largest protected temperate rain forest in the world.

Each year more than 16 feet of rain falls in some areas of the Tongass.

This Raven was “berry picking.”

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Since the bears didn’t show, we drove up the mountain to view the spectacular

Salmon Glacier.

Scenic View on the road to Salmon Glacier

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Wildflower

This small plant was growing on the hillside near the top of Salmon Glacier.

"Saxifrage"