Sterwart BC & Hyder AK

Howdy Everyone,

We have been out of phone range for the past three days but we're finally able to get Internet in Prince George. We took the WPYR (White Pass Yukon Railroad) from Carcross Canada to Skagway Alaska. This train follows the Chilkoot Trail all the gold stampeders of 1898 followed to get to the gold fields of the Klondike and onto Dawson City via the Yukon River. The trip was indescribable. You will have to experience this trip yourself as words and photos can not do it justice.

We then drove to Stewart & Hyder which are right next to each other but in different countries. This area is one of the most spectacular for beautiful sights of full and hanging glaciers with shear mountains on either side of the highway. Again no words or photos...blah...blah..blah.

After driving through Hyder, we drove to the Salmon Glacier. This glacier is the fifth largest in North America. I will try to get the factual info later but I would guess that it is at last 3 miles across at the top, 10 miles wide at the base and about 25 miles long. I wish there was a person on the glacier in the photo above for reference but again, photos, words...blah...blah (I'm quoting Sue now :) ).

Anyway, we are actually starting to head south towards home. Currently in Prince George it's about 70 degrees and sunny considering two months ago when we came through here it was 32 and snowing. We will be off today to Calgary in Alberta then onto Montana. We will post again in a few days.

Hope everyone is well, talk to you soon,

Vern, Sue & Dug Here we are standing at the summit overlooking Salmon Glacier.

This is Mt. Gladstone and numerous glaciers descending from it, what a sight.

This is Mt. Disreali and it's glaciers.


This is a baby Ptarmigan chick that we saw feeding in the grass with it's mother and two siblings, very cute.

Here is mama Ptarmigan looking ever vigilant for her babies nearby.

Here is the view from our campsite at Lake Meziadin Provincial Park Campground, the nicest and most beautiful campsite so far.

Here is Kevin (our motorhome) at our campsite, what a view.

Here is a baby Black Bear - BooBoo Bear (we figured about 1 or 2 years old) peaking out of the bushes at us on our drive down the Cassiar Highway.

Here is the same bear eating flowers on the roadside, she didn't seem to care that we had stopped next to her with the motorhome and take photos.

Here she decided to leave and walked out onto the road and crossed right in front of us as if to say, I own this road, I dare you to leave your "home" and check out my claws.

Here is Emerald Lake which is on the way to Carcross from Whitehorse. Click on the photo for a better view.

This is the WPYR (White Pass Yukon Railroad) we took from Carcross BC to Skagway AK entering one of a few tunnels on the way. Our rail car was actually built in 1891.

Here is a view of Bennett lake from the train under way.

Here is a panorama shot of Bennett Lake. Click to make larger.

Here is an old church at Bennett Station near Bennett Lake. This area is the end of the Chilkoot Trail and where all the stampeders make their boats to navigate the treacherous Yukon River to Dawson City which is about 600 miles north. The Yukon River flows north to the Bering Sea.

Here is a view of the 43 mile Chilkoot Trail as it winds up through mountains from Skagway to Bennett Lake. The stampeders had to make 40 to 50 trips up and back to bring enough supplies before they were allowed to continue north from Bennett Lake. Hikers today take a slightly diffrent path and it's only 33 miles.

Here is a Panorama of the rail cars setting at Bennett Station. Click on image for better view.

I was reading one of our many books and the author mentioned that we should see at least one bear on the Cassiar Hwy. As soon as we turned onto the highway we saw a cinnamon colored brown bear. Of course we weren't ready photo wise so after that Sue had the camera in her lap. To help our bear viewing possibilities we went to Hyder Alaska to a bear viewing area. The bears come here for the salmon run. Unfortunately there were no salmon therefore no bears. We waited two different days for a total of 4 hours...no bears. Yet as soon as we left our camp site and headed south we saw the young black bear. So far on the Cassiar Hwy we've seen two!! Maybe there will be more.