Bear River RV Park, Stewart, BC, Canada Day 2
It rained most of the night and was still raining this morning. We packed a lunch and hoped for the best. Our ride today was on Salmon Glacier Road.
Our first stop was for espresso. After that, we passed from BC into Hyder, Alaska. This is where Hyder is on the map.
We had breakfast along the Salmon River. It was still misty and chilly but we remained optimistic. We saw this pair of bald eagles perched on stumps out on the gravel bar.
Fish Creek Wildlife Viewing Center has chum and pink salmon running from July through September.
The grizzly and black bears normally come there to feed on the salmon. They gain as much as 20% of their body weight during the salmon runs, before they hibernate for the winter. For some reason, even though the salmon are there, and have been running for weeks, the bear are not coming in to feed. There was a wolf here in the Blue Lagoon this morning before we arrived.
It was awesome though to see the salmon swimming upstream. The chums are the bigger ones and the pinks are smaller. As soon as the salmon reach fresh water they begin to undergo physical changes. Lots of fish pictures.
They spawn and then they die.
This is a temperate rain forest and the trees are bigger here.
Some mountains and creeks and rivers and waterfalls.
We continued on to Salmon Glacier. Salmon Glacier is the 5th biggest glacier in Canada. It is also the only road accessible glacier in the world. The part you can see from the road is 7 miles from the terminus or toe to the summit. The remainder of the glacier extends far back into the mountains.
It was so foggy and misty and cloudy and rainy that we could hardly see any mountaintops or glaciers.
The toe.
This was the view from the summit.
I might have turned around then and gone back to town, but Tim made a left and continued past the summit onto the unmaintained gravel road. The clouds began to lift and we began to catch glimpses of glaciers, and mountains, and cliffs, and canyons.
We went even further off road. The first road ended like this.
There was a steep 100 foot drop off on the right side of the road with a gully in the shoulder. The boulder in the road was from a slide…nope…not going there. We turned around. Shortly afterward, Tim found another side road. This road was rough and went through a stream where the road had completely washed out. We kept driving and I was wondering “Where is he taking me?” Sometimes he is so brave that is makes me a little scared and strangely exhilarated at the same time. I couldn’t wait to see where the path would take us.
The road became very rugged and the stones were sharp.
We decided to get out and look to see if we should continue. Tim climbed up onto a rise and told me to come on up, it was worth the climb. As he walked down and I walked up, the clouds lifted and there we stood pretty close to the edge of the glacier. It was as though someone had raised a curtain. It wasn’t there and then it was! These pictures were all taken within a couple of minutes as the glacier revealed itself to us.
Sometimes the road takes you to a dead end and sometimes it takes you right up close to a glacier that no one else gets to see!
There were lots of old mining sites along the road as well.
I know that this would have been an amazing drive on a sunny blue day, but part of the coolness of today’s adventure was watching the clouds part to see something that wasn’t there before.
Tim did decide that the road was too narrow and steep to continue and so we turned around again. Now we had to take Salmon Glacier Road to its end. We saw many glaciers. The sun shone and it was an awesome day!!!
On the return ride, we stopped at the summit again.
As we descended we were able to see a lot that had been obscured by clouds earlier in the day.
Our wildlife sightings today included lots of eagles, 2 marmots, and some ptarmigan.
We spoke to people who had followed the road to the end as we did and others who had decided to turn around because of the conditions. I am certainly glad that Tim was willing to drive in the pea soup!
We stopped at Fish Creek on our way back and there had been one black bear there about an hour before.
Dinner tonight was at the Silverado Pizza Parlor…yummy BBQ chicken pizza!
