Day 9.......Smithers to Stewart

This is the last longish day drive for a while. 4 to 5 hours but through quite magical scenery. As we left Smithers on the left hand side is a large group of mountains with numerous hanging glaciers. What a lovely backdrop for a town. The farms in the head of the Bulkley Valley are very neatly looked after and the fields lush. This group of mountains extending up to New Hazelton are the Northern part of the Hazelton range before the start of the Stikine Range.

We drove through some spectacular valleys and steep sided cliffs and came to Moricetown where there were people down in the churning river gully scooping up salmon with nets. Coming into town there was a roadside billboard warning about a killer on the loose. The road between Prince George and Prince Rupert has been dubbed the Highway of Tears since between 1974 and 2002 probably 8 young girls have been murdered and their bodies either dumped off or never found on the side of this highway.

We got to Kitwanga, the turnoff to Stewart and got some pics under the sign North to Alaska. This road is very nice as it goes through totally uninhabited country with huge forests and boggy marshes and the Nass River here and there. We saw a bear wandering off into the thickets which reminded us to be more vigilant on our frequent photo stops.Through Kitwancool, cranberry Junction and towards a large snow capped group of mountains (Mnt Pattullo). This part almost felt as if we were trying to find the lost valley of Shangri-La. At Meziadin Junction we turned left on the Stewart and Hyder road. As we wound our way down this deep valley all around us were lakes, rivers and glaciers. It was like being in a Geography class again. About 15 minutes in we came across the Bear Glacier on the left and this is quite spectacular.

The road meanders through deep, dark ravines interspersed with beaver-dammed rivers until Stewart which is built on the estuary at the head of thePortland Canal.

Stewart has a population about 500 today but prior to WW1 was about 10000 mainly due to gold and silver mining. Precipitation is about 1800mm a year, most of it in snow and about 200mm falling in September alone. So we are lucky to have our whole visit in clear skies with 20C temperatures.

We are staying at the Kate Ryan which is part of the Ripley Creek Inn comprising about 4 renovated downtown buildings right on the estuary. The setup is what one would call very funky.

Tomorrow we will be off to the Salmon Glacier and the bear viewing spot near Hyder Alaska. Mumdoesn't have a visa for the USA so lets hope there is no problem since to get to Salmon Glacier the only road goes into the US at Hyder and then back into Canada.