Days 106/107 - Thursday and Friday 10/1-2/2026 - To Stewart BC/Hyder AK

Today we got up early (for us) and drove about 120 miles to Stewart BC, on to Hyder, AK, then to Salmon Glacier.  The temperatures were still in the low 40s, and it was mostly clear with some clouds and some drizzle of rain.

The drive was, again, spectacular.  Mountains rose straight up beside the road, and snow-tops were way above the clouds. 

The scenery was just stunning.  Just before we got to Stewart we were stopped for construction and came upon a glacier with a lake below and some otherworldly-looking mountains beside it.  

It was beautiful, and we sat and watched the sun and clouds move over the tops, changing how everything looked with every minute!  See the cat watching us from above (on the left, first picture), and how eerie things looked with wispy clouds passing over.  

We came up on a large grizzly in the road ahead of us!  We couldn't get a photo but the dash camera got a video for proof 😁. 

We stopped in the town of Stewart (Stewart is located at the head of the Portland Canal and is Canada’s most northernly ice-free port).

We finished filling our diesel tanks, then parked at the parking lot near the Stewart Visitor Centre and walked through the estuary boardwalk and down the main street. 

 

 

 

 

The views were incredible.

Not much was open since it is now October, so we bought some local apples and window shopped a couple of very unique and historic stores.  We were going to eat lunch in town, but the two restaurants we found didn't open until 4pm.  We decided to stop to eat on our way back through town after our visit to Hyder and Salmon Glacier.

We headed around the bend to Hyder, AK - there is no US border control office here, but there is one on the Canadian side (Eh!).  So we will need our passports to get back into Canada when we leave Hyder and return to Stewart.

 

We drove through Hyder (population 20 in 2026!), and then decided to visit the Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Site, where you can see both black bears and grizzlies together during the salmon runs. We saw 2 immature Bald eagles in the trees, and some Mergansers feeding in the river.

Since the runs are over for the season, we didn't see any bears this time. Parts (over 100 feet) of the boardwalk platform over the river were washed out from a freak flood they had here in July of this year (2026).  Glacial outburst flood destroys 100 feet of Fish Creek bear platform near Hyder.

There was still a lot of damage, and the park office was no longer being manned for the year.  

We bumped into a couple from Chattanooga, TN in the parking lot who were on their Alaska adventure as well.  They had been traveling since April and were soon on their way back home too. They were headed up to see Salmon glacier like we were.

On to Salmon glacier we went.  We drove up the dirt and gravel, washboard road for what seemed like an eternity, until we could see Salmon glacier at a distance.  The road kept going and we got closer and closer, and higher and higher.  The drop-offs were so steep we could barely see where they ended.  The glacier itself is huge, and the area is just beautiful.  We arrived at the glacier viewing summit area after about an hour and half drive (with a few stops to take pictures of waterfalls, mountains, and drop-offs).

 

 

 

We walked around on the large rocks to look down at the moving river of ice, and were just awestruck.  Mike got a little too close to the edge for my comfort!

 

 

The Salmon glacier is the 5th largest glacier in Canada, and the only glacier in the world that you can drive so close to.  It truly is magnificent.

We drove a little further to where we could see the "toe" of the glacier, and a cave underneath with water flowing out, and decided to park there for the night.  Mike said, and I agree, this is the most awesome camp spot ever (and free)!

 

 

Camp Spot:

 

 

We opened ER150's ceiling hatch above the bed and the windows over the seating so that we could watch the night sky and hope to see the auroras (again).  The skies were mostly clear so we were hopeful.  Unfortunately there were no auroras that we could see (although the forecast sure looked hopeful).

  

 

Instead we had a great night's sleep and decided to stay in this gorgeous place for another day (or more) at least since it is such an awesome spot.  We had soup and sandwiches for dinner.

 

We spent the day on Friday reviewing our pictures, updating the blog, planning for our next adventure stop, and enjoying the incredible views we had from all sides of ER150.

 

 

 

It was extremely peaceful and quiet and the kitties were glad for a break from the washboard roads and the serpentine driving around all the potholes.

We had a bacon and egg breakfast with toast and homemade jam and stayed inside ER150 in our house clothes just about all day - it was great!

Our journey:

 

Days 103-105 - Monday - Wednesday 9/28-30/2026 - Whitehorse toward Meziadin Junction, BC

Monday we woke up to temps in the high 30s and sunshine in Whitehorse.  We got packed up and left around noon, and drove about 225 miles south toward Rancheria.

The drive was again beautiful, it seems we are chasing the end of fall colors and they were dazzling. 

We passed by lakes, rivers, streams, and mountains of all sizes.

We saw a coyote walking along the top of the guard rail on the side of the road, and then it jumped off and crosssed the road in front of us!

That's about it for wildlife except for some bald eagles and other interesting smaller birds.  We stopped along a gorgeous river with cloudy skies above it and had some lunch and let the kitties relax for a bit,

then drove to Big Creek Campground, still in the Yukon just before going south into BC.

We were tired from over six hours on the road, so we settled in to campsite #1 and chilled until bedtime.  While emptying our garbage to the bear-proof bins Mike found someone's key chain with 4 keys on it laying on the gravel pathway.  The keychain was clean and didn't look like it had been there long but someone definitely lost it.  He put them on the campground check-in sign in hopes that they would be found by thier owner.

On Tuesday we left Big Creek Campground around noon.  It was chilly in the low 40s and mostly cloudy.  We crossed into BC.  We left a sticker on the Welcome sign just like everyone else did :), 

and drove toward the Cassier Highway, then headed south.  What a most incredible drive!  We had heard and read how beautiful this drive was but we were really unprepared for what we were about to see on it.  First we were in the woods,

then we were surrounded by all kinds of mountains on all sides,

then we were in the clouds,

then the sun came out, and .... WOW it was that kind of day!  Again, pictures can't do justice to the scenery.  We stopped at a long narrow rocky pullout that paralleled the road just south of Upper Gnat Lake 😁 for our night camp spot - we were well off the road and had very nice views out of both windows.  More free camping - it was a great spot.

We got settled in around 5pm, and then it started to snow!

 And then the sun came out! 

It was in the mid-30s and beautiful, and we were glad ER150's diesel heater worked so well!

Wednesday morning we awoke, and Mike was trying to prepare our morning hot tea and coffee but realized that our AC inverter would not work - our coffee pot is electric and plumbed to our water line so that was a problem.  And we had no WiFi yet Starlink seemed to be working... It seems "Electrical Gremlins" had struck us during the night for no reason and Mike had to do some engineering work.  He first had to reconfigure ER150's charger-inverter system, and also rebuild the WiFi router from scratch with an older release of firmware to get internet and WiFi working again.  That was just 2 things that happened and we know that these things come in waves of 3 so we kept wondering what would be next... That all took a couple of hours to fix.  Becky decided to use our JetBoil to prepare the hot tea and coffee and helped assist until we got things all squared away.

We finally left our beautiful camp spot around 4 pm - much later than we had planned due to the Gremlins...  It was still in the low 40s and changed from sunny to cloudy to light rain to sunny... We went up mountains and down mountains and through valleys all day.

 

We both agreed that the fall foliage of the last few days was some of the most spectacular we have ever seen!  Especially with snow on the mountains behind the vibrant yellows and oranges - the colors just popped.  As the mountains got closer and higher we were in awe of the beauty.  We drove about 135 miles, stopping at Bell 2 Lodge to get some diesel (the priciest we had paid yet @$3.25/litre CAD) and grab a couple of chai lattes, and some of their very own hot chicken and rice soup.  We then found a great little pull-off beside a small fast-moving creek (forgot the name of it), ate our soup, and called it a night.  We fell asleep (with the window slightly open) to the sound of rushing water - very soothing.  Another great free boon-docking camp site in BC.

We look forward to arriving in Stewart, BC tomorrow and then traveling on to visit Hyder, AK and also see Salmon glacier.

Favorite Creek Names:  Schidt Creek, Baking Powder Creek

Our Journey: