We’re just about finished with the Cassiar Highway and take a side trip through Stewart, BC to go bear watching in Hyder, Alaska and take a peek at Salmon Glacier.
Meziadin Junction
We left Kinaskan Lake and continued south on the Cassiar Highway.
There’s a parking lot at Meziadin Junction where we left our RVs and took a car to Stewart and Hyder. Yes, there’s a border crossing here so bring your passports!
A tiny border crossing
To get to Hyder, Alaska, you will drive into Stewart, BC.
There is no border agent when you cross from Canada into the U.S. but there is one when you cross back into Canada. And in our case, he grilled us a little more than made sense.
The only reason to go into Hyder is to see the bears and Salmon Glacier. There’s nothing else there. So getting 20 questions coming back over the border was a little silly.
Bear watching at Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Site
Even though we were late in the season, we got to see a bear go to town on salmon at the Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Site. We were surrounded by wildlife photographers and you can hear their shutters go off in the video.
The creek was full of salmon, dead and alive. The smell was pretty rank.
During the peak season, the bear watching is amazing. Grizzly bears and black bears will fish here side by side. We feel pretty lucky we got to see the one black bear and that he put on quite a show.
While in Hyder, we also drove part way to Salmon Glacier until we could get a decent look at it. We didn’t drive all the way up to it though because we had to get on down the road!
Gitwangak Battle Hill
After our side trip, we continued on to nearly the end of the Cassiar Highway. We camped overnight in the parking lot for Gitwangak Battle Hill.
And, we finally got cell service here. I’m not sure where we found this place, but we boondocked in their parking lot without a problem.
Bears!
In the morning we had some surprise visitors. There was a mama black bear with two babies. Kevin and I only saw the mama. Or it could have been another bear entirely. British Columbia is definitely where we saw the bulk of our bears on this trip.
Have you ever been bear watching? If so, what’s your favorite spot?