The Cassiar Highway

For our return trip, we chose to take the Cassiar Highway which we picked up near Watson Lake, Yukon and took to the Yellowhead Highway in British Columbia. The highway is 450 miles long, packed with outstanding scenery and some occasional wildlife.

It is a long, lonesome narrow road with some steep grades but the road is generally in good condition and most of it has no shoulder or center line.

We stopped and camped at Boya Lake Provincial Campground one night and took a couple of hikes and saw a beaver dam and and a beaver swimming across the beautiful lake.

We spent two nights camping at Meziadin Lake Provincial Campground where we were eaten alive by gnats and one of us has large welts and a swollen eye from it. We will never go back.

From the Meziadin Junction we did a day trip to Stewart, B.C. and Hyder, Alaska. The Stewart-Hyder Access Road takes you to Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Area, run by the U.S. Forest Service, where you can watch bears fishing for salmon in the creek...if there is salmon...there wasn't....  But it was real pretty!

We continued down the road, which turned into a gravel road filled with potholes, to see Salmon Glacier. On that road we met a man who was on his third trip to Alaska in his 1950 Ford. (the car in the picture is not his car)

We crossed the border back into Canada and had lunch in Stewart at the Toastworks Toaster Museum and Cafe. If you go to Stewart, this is a great place for lunch. Especially if you are into looking at old toasters, and who isn't? Delicious Fish Tacos and Reuben Sandwiches. Make sure you get some cookies to go! (and eat them all in the car before you make it back to camp)

Along the way we saw black bears and a porcupine crossing the road. 

We are driving south through British Columbia now and should be back in the U.S.A. soon. 

Number of Moose Sightings: 17 (last moose seen was in Denali)
Number of Days since Leslie has needed gloves: 2
Number of miles Driven: 9,911.