Road Trip

A Loop of British Columbia, End of the Cassiar Highway

After our day of bear viewing in Hyder we headed back to the Cassiar Highway and continued north toward the Yukon. Once you make it to the northern part of the Cassiar Highway you are really starting to get away from it all. Eventually even the paint on the road is left behind. There are just enough gas stations to keep you going, and the road is paved for the entire length, as far as highways go, the Cassiar is our speed. There are a few provincial parks along the way, but we passed those by preferring the less developed, less crowded and free BC Recreation Sites instead. We were the only ones at Morchuea Lake when we pulled in, and had the camp and the lake all to ourselves.

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A Loop of British Columbia, Salmon Glacier and Bears

We pulled out of Smithers after picking up the last of our supplies intended to last us the length of the Stewart-Cassiar Highway. At about 545 miles we planned on spending about a week on this portion of our Grand Loop road trip tour of British Columbia. Mountains, forests and lakes were a given, throw in a couple scenic glaciers and maybe a few bears, and you have all the ingredients of a good adventure. The Stewart-Cassiar did not disappoint.

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A Loop of British Columbia, The Fishing Highway

Days in Idaho were trending hot and smoky as we approached the end of July, August was looking hotter and smokier yet. It was time for an extended trip, and we set our sights north to British Columbia. British Columbia is huge. At twice the size of California, well, yes, it is that huge. Thinking of going to tour it for three to four weeks, it is hard to come up with a plan that will really give you a perspective on the province. We weren’t going to “see it all” but we had a few thoughts: try to see some bears in Stewart (BC) and Hyder (Alaska); drive the Cassiar and Alaska Highways (the BC portion of the ALCAN, at least), and generally try to stay out of crowds and away from wildfires. Then I ran across the British Columbia Recreation Sites. Numbering about a thousand, BC Rec Sites are minimally developed sites scattered across the province, with a lot of them being small campgrounds at lakes, and most of those being free to stay at. Our trip planning was done. I downloaded a copy of the waypoints, saved them to GAIA GPS and we had all the info we needed to head north on an extended road trip.

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