Tuesday, Aug 2, 2022 - It was overcast this morning so we thought it was a good day for the Hammer Museum. It was a great little museum, with quite an assortment of hammers. We were enjoying ourselves until the cruise ship people came to the museum...and the rest of the day was pretty much the same. They were everywhere. We had enjoyed the quietness of Haines, but when two cruise ships are in town, with 3000 + people, everything is crowded. We finally gave up and headed back to the campsite and enjoyed an afternoon of our view.
Wednesday, Aug 3, 2022 - It was an overcast day, and we did laundry, grocery shopping and hung out at the campsite. Some rain came through which gave us a beautiful rainbow.
Thursday, Aug 4, 2022 - I was really sad to leave Haines, but it was time to move on. We headed back up the Haines Highway to the Alaska Highway, and what a beautiful drive it was today! Mountains everywhere! For a mid morning break we stopped at Million Dollar Falls for a hike. We had camped there on our way to Haines and hadn't had time for the hike. It was a great spot to stretch our legs. For lunch we stopped at Kathleen Lake and after 5 hours of driving we stopped in Whitehorse for some groceries at a regular grocery store. Food prices in Haines were extremely high. I paid $13.99 for a 12-pack of diet coke! It was a long day, but we finally made it to Pioneer RV park outside of Whitehorse (which we had stayed at on our way to Alaska, back in June).
Friday, Aug 5, 2022 - Today we drove the Alaska Highway to the Cassier Highway. The Cassier is a highway that somewhat parallels the Alaska Highway, but will bring us through Banff instead of Dawson Creek. It is a much less traveled highway and has the feel of the Alaska Highway from years ago. There aren't many towns that it goes through, so we have to be careful about being sure we stop for gas when we see a station. It was a quiet drive, with very few cars. We stayed at French Creek Recreation Site, which was a very small campground that only had 4 sites and it was free. We shared a site that was right on the river, it was the perfect spot for the night.
Saturday, Aug 6, 2022 - This morning as we were leaving the campground, I realized I hadn't taken a photo of our campsite, but this was the drive out. There were huge potholes filled with water, which I'm glad didn't deter us from driving into the campground! We had another 4 hour drive day with pretty views and very few cars and a grizzly citing, along the road (I wasn't quick enough with my camera to get a pic). We camped at the provincial park, Kinaskan Lake. This campground had 50 sites, with half of the sites being on the lake with great views.
our campsite with a lake view from the picnic table
Sunday, Aug 7, 2022 - Today we took a 40 mile detour off the Cassier down Route 37A which goes to Stewart, BC and Hyder, AK. We decided to stay in Rainey Creek campground in Stewart (2 blocks from downtown) for two nights and tomorrow we'll cross the border back into the US to see the bears at Fish Creek. This bear viewing area is in the Tongass National Forest. There is a boardwalk/platform, that runs along Fish Creek where the salmon come to spawn and the bears come to eat them. We are hoping to spend some time there so we can hopefully see the bears in action. We spent the afternoon walking around Stewart, which has a population of 400. Hyder is just 2 miles from here and has a population of 100. We'll check it out tomorrow.
Monday, Aug 8, 2022 - We left early this morning to go to Fish Creek. We had heard that mornings and evenings are the best times for bear viewing. It was a quick drive there and we were surprised that there isn't a US border crossing. I guess since the road ends about 20 miles farther, they figure you can't go anywhere, so why have a customs office. We spent the morning watching the salmon spawn in the shallow creek. There were also mergansers and eagles to watch, but we were disappointed to not see any bears. For a break we went into the town of Hyder so we could walk Mirabelle and see what was in Hyder (there was one gift shop, one bar and Canadian customs, which we went through on the way back to Stewart). While we were eating lunch in the RV in the Fish Creek parking lot, Kev saw a black bear crossing the road. We were excited to see any bear, but we really wanted to see a grizzly, so we headed back to the boardwalk. Not long after we got there, the ranger whispered to us that there was a grizzly catching salmon at the end of the boardwalk. Everyone very quietly headed down there and we got a great show. The bear chased the salmon in the water, ate salmon on the grass, stood up on its hind legs to get a better look at things and just looked like he was having a great time. We were thrilled!
