Friday, Sept 8
We start the day driving further down the Nabesna Road just to see Wrangell Park more fully. Back on the Glenn Highway 1, we gas and grocery up in Tok, then take the Alaska Highway south towards Haines Junction. We've had two nights of close to freezing and the foliage is brilliant in its yellow, oranges and the fireweed reds. We take a side route out to the large Mentasta Lake only to find it is all Indian land and they offer no access to even a view of the lake against the lovely bowl-like backdrop of mountains. I do get a photo of their very colorful cemetery.
Leaving Tok, we are 76 miles from leaving Alaska. The US border is again just a series of questions and we are onward. Our entire day is one of spectacular scenery as we have snow capped mountains in the distance with miles and miles of fall foliage, beautiful lakes and occasional moose sightings long the road.
We are in Yukon Territory once again. Their byline, among many, is 'Yukon - Larger Than Life'. We camp at Lake Creek Campground just as a new storm front comes in. I start a plein air painting of the creek but have to finish it inside as the rain begins and lasts most of the night.
Saturday, Sept 9
Eight kilometers from our campground is an authentic Bretagne (Brittany, France) Crêperie. Run by a couple from Lavandrie (sp?), France, The full crepe is filled with ham, eggs, two cheeses and sun dried tomatoes. It is too large for me to finish! They have made a delightful little bakery/Crêperie/eatery.
It's another day of full-on fall foliage. We're blessed with most of it in the sun. We stop at an Interpretive Trail on the spruce beetle infestation. It is well-done and I find myself additionally attracted to the mushrooms and polypores along the way. Pictures here are (I think) a hawk-wing mushroom, a polypore (shelflike tree fungus), a coral fungus and the inside of a squirrel midden hole filled with spruce pine cones for the winter.
We camp along the shore of Teslin Lake. I paint a small 4x9 of the awesome clouds that are moving thru and a patch finally of blue sky that grows as the day ends.
Sunday, Sept 10
Today is a banner day for wildlife spotting! We stop first at Whitehorse to buy supplies and gas, then head towards Watson Lake and the turn off before it for the Cassiar Hwy. This is the coastal route down British Columbia that will take us to Vancouver. BCs byline is British Columbia - the Best Place in Earth! I'd definitely agree it is one of them.
The Cassiar Highway is 450 miles in length. It is surprising to us for being a more narrow road than the Alaska Hwy and the almost complete lack of trucks on it. It is loaded with RVs however, as it is a main passage north. We take both its only turn offs- first to Telegraph Creek and later to Stewart BC/Hyder AK.
The road to Telegraph Creek is where we have our most wildlife sightings of the trip! It is a pretty deserted road that goes out to a First Nation Village. Along the way we spot a red fox, a lynx, two caribou, and several mountain goats. It's dirt road all the 69 miles out, much of it paralleling the Stikine (stick-keen’)River. One section is called the Grand Canyon of the Stikine. That is Collin - the speck in the middle of the photo!
On our return trip out, we camp at the Rest Area that overlooks it. I follow a male goat with the binoculars as he eats his fill on the nearly vertical canyon wall, lays down for a nap or cud chewing (?), then ambles down the wall when it's no longer in sun.
Monday, Sept 11 - Cassiar Hwy to Glacier Hwy (to Stewart on BC/Alaska border)
Just when I'm thinking the prettiest sights have been seen and we're on our way back to flatter areas, I learn that BC again surprises, delivering us a True Highlight of our trip! We turn off the Cassiar Hwy to head 40 miles west to Stewart BC and its sister hamlet of Hyder, Alaska. Hyder is the most southern Alaskan town reachable by road. Stewart has 700 some souls while Hyder only 100. There is a Canadian Border stop when returning from the further west Hyder. Driving down Bear Creek Canyon to get there, a sign informs us we are on The Glacier Highway. No kidding!! There's a glacier coming right towards us every few miles! Waterfalls cascade even more frequently!
Caroline tells us about the Fish Viewing Platform a few miles up, the the Salmon Glacier 20 miles further on dirt road. The road leads to several mining sites - the Premier Gold Mine, onward to the Salmon Glacier, and on to the Granduc Copper Mine. The glacier is breathtaking in its size and beauty. The road continues to a summit viewpoint where you are looking down at it!
Yes, that is a guy standing at the summit…flying a drone over the glacier! He's shooting for potential sales to movie companies. Three movies have been filmed in this area- no small wonder as its landscape is a bit otherworldly. I love the alpine nature of it!
Tuesday, Sept 12
We awaken to a clear morning in a magical center surrounded on all sides by mountains and glaciers. The wind was fierce last night but served to sweep all the fog away. We are 50 miles from Hyder Ak, well onto BC. The site is the Granduc Copper Mine tho we are not certain if it is still active. The camp below us consists of four barrack-like buildings and all sorts of concrete structures built into the hillside. Our limited maps show the road ending there but we find it continues on as far as our eyes can see. It's purpose? Very possibly it was constructed to install and service the huge electrical towers that is running electricity down to Hyder and Stewart.
Both towns were first built on pilings across the marsh. We find a photo of what it looked like all those years ago. Hyder/Stewart area is definitely a new ‘bolt-hole’ for me - a place I'd gladly run away to for a week or a month to live and paint to my hearts content {probably not in winter!}
We head south again along the Cassiar Hwy, then turn west towards Prince Rupert. At sunset tonight, I went out the campground to the boat launch at Prudhomme Lake Provincial Park. There a truck had pulled onto the small island just by the boat ramp a day or two ago. Yesterday it poured and the lake rose 4-5 feet leaving the truck stranded on the island. It was quite a scene to watch four men and a winch trying to pull the sunken truck out of the mire. I do not know that they will be successful without a tow truck to life it up but they certainly have small chance of it tonight. Brings to mind the Darwin awards.
We head for Prince Rupert which has a lovely harbor in Cow Bay. The black and white Holstein pattern is played up but not to a ridiculous point.
The Visitor Center and Port Interpretive Center is my savior as I've had no phone service since entering Canada. A call to Sprint on Collin’s AT&T has the technician resetting something from her end and giving me some helpful pointers. And voilà, I am again connected. Having rental properties, it is always scary to be too long away from being connected as any landlord well knows! Lucky me, all is copacetic and I find out I have gotten in a great show in Yosemite beginning September 30 with California Plein Air Painters, a great organization with which I've just gotten Signature Status! I'm delighted and also concerned as to when we will get home and I will have to hand deliver the paintings to Yosemite, some three hours away! Like Scarlet, ‘I'll just have to think about that another day!’
From Prince Rupert we are headed east along the Yellowhead Hwy once again. First we visit Port Edward just a few miles away where they have an Historical Cannery that they have preserved. We spend an enjoyable hour walking thru the cannery, the boardwalk with the staff houses and bunkhouses, general store, and machine shops. It was quite the international venture. At one end lived the Japanese who are the primary fishermen along with some of the First Nation people at the other end. They have net lofts where the yards of nets are stored. It only operated in the spring/ summer/ fall. In spring a boat load of Chinese would arrive with their rice and piglets. These families worked the cannery, unloading the fish off the boats, gutting the fish and sending the salmon through the ‘reduction’ machines. The end product is the canned salmon we know today. Europeans were the supervisors. In winter, the whole thing would close down and everyone disperse except for the watchman who was entitled to one of the few houses there. All is on piers and has painstakingly been restored. Worth the visit!
Thursday, Sept 14
We cover a lot of miles today traveling from Prince Rupert thru Prince George (448 miles) then turn south for 74 miles and east to Bowron Lake Provincial Park. This unique park is a canoe/kayak circuit of 72 miles which normally takes 5-10 days. There are campsites all along the route and a few portages. The parking lot is packed; it is interestingly we are the only overnight campers at the CG start-everyone else is out making the circuit.
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