Stewart, British Columbia, Canada
July 11, 2019
The day after our brief dip into the Yukon we covered a lot of ground in Buddy. Over 500 Km South down Highway 37. The rest of the highway was the same as the first section. Very remote with hardly another soul to be seen, it was a nice days drive. I like these days when we hardly see anybody else, it’s nice to have that solitude at times and to feel detached from the rest of the world. Some good driving music, each other for company and beautiful nature is all we needed.
There were hardly any small towns or villages on this section of road. The biggest and only one we stopped at was a place called Jade City…..population 30. This area of Canada, close to the Cassiar mountains is known for being rich in Jade. Jade City unsurprisingly is all about the jade. The Jade store here serves as a great break from driving and being the only place for miles around is a welcome stop. The store provides free coffee and toilets for visitors which is nice and as well as selling local jade wares it kind of serves as a small tourist centre. There were signs up outside the store advising they are currently filming a documentary here about the history of the town and jade mining. You had to make it known in the store if you objected to being filmed but alas there were no cameras or TV crew there when we visited.
After Jade City it was only another few hours drive before we decided it was time to start finding somewhere to park up for the night. With there being hardly anything around in these parts, including forest roads we turned off at one of the few dirt tracks that we came across and found a patch of grass to pull the van on to. The past week or so has seen the ferocity of mosquitoes and bugs go through the roof. We have been to Asia many times and the mosquitoes there are nothing compared to Canada. They are brutal on a whole different level. We have spent nights in the van with our head torch on culling them by the dozen. The place we stayed at this night was the cream of Canada’s finest blood sucking specimens. They were relentless. We quickly heated our tins of pasta, scrambled back in the van and then spent the next 2 hours killing the ones that had got in before drifting off to sleep.
The next morning we were up bright and early and had the van packed up and ready to drive within about 30 seconds. The mossies were still running riot around us and we had had enough. No coffee, no breakfast, nothing. Just throw everything in the back of the van and get going as quickly as possible. After an hour or so we arrived at Meziadin junction. It really is just that, a junction. Not really a village, just a gas station with a shop. We grabbed a coffee, filled the tank right up and swung West at the junction on to the 37A towards Stewart and the land of glaciers.
The road to Stewart is very cool. As soon as we turned off at the junction the landscape changed. What was gently rolling tree covered hills and the occasional mountain turned into an impressive valley lined with glaciers on each side. The stand out one being Bear glacier not far from the junction. It’s fairly impressive but we knew there was more to come once we reached Stewart and went in search of the mighty Salmon glacier. An hour later and we reached Stewart and the Alaskan border.
We liked Stewart. It’s small little port town right on the Alaskan border and it oozes character. Old frontier style shops with their brightly coloured fascias line the main street in the town. Quaint little cafe’s and pubs mix with traditional general stores to give the place a great old world feel. There are even a couple of pristine old Chevy’s that are permanently parked outside the Ripley Creek Inn just to finish the effect off nicely. The people of Stewart have done a great job of retaining their heritage buildings and growing their tourist trade around them. That combined with the fact it is the gateway to the panhandle of Alaska and the immense Salmon glacier.
We popped into the tourist centre and had a chat with the lady there about how the border crossing works to get to the glacier. When we first read about this glacier we knew it was in Canada so didn’t think anything of it. “That looks cool, shall we go?”….”Yeah of course” and off we drove over hundreds of kilometres. It wasn’t until we arrived at Stewart that we discovered that despite the glacier being in Canada the road to it crosses over into Alaska USA and then back out again into Canada further North. We were concerned as we hadn’t made any Visa arrangements for the US via their online ETA system and we feared we wouldn’t be able to get there. But fear not. There is a border crossing but it’s only manned on the Canadian side when coming back from the glacier. On the way over there is no US border control at all. The road to the glacier, quickly crosses into the US, back across into Canada and then ends in the mountains about 75 Km away. I guess they must be confident that if anyone is trying to access the USA via this border then they would have to be a mountain goat or cougar to survive it as there is nothing but brutally high steep mountains for hundreds of miles.
So off we drove. Over the border into Alaska through the tiny US town of Hyder and then North back into British Columbia and on towards the glacier. The road up was a little nerve racking to say the least. It’s a loose gravel mountain road, that is narrow single lane for most of it and it has an impossibly high near vertical drop off on one side. Slow and steady was the way forward but eventually, maybe an hour or so later the Salmon glacier came into view and what a sight it was.
We have seen some really cool things in Canada so far. Lake Peyto, the Rockies and the Icefields parkway. The beauty of the Okanagon and just recently the herd of Bison on the Alaskan highway. The Salmon glacier is right up there with them and it has to be one of the greatest natural sights we have seen anywhere in the world. It is absolutely vast. The pictures wont do it justice. Edith Cavell and the Icefields Parkway don’t have anything on this icy beast, it is on a whole new level of it’s own.
The summit viewpoint provides an amazing vista of the Boundary mountain range with the glacier slowly pouring it’s massive rugged weight down between the peaks and into the valley. Like a fat snake of blue ice it fills your field of view, what an unbelievable place. We stayed up there for ages. You can park up and camp at the occasional wider section of road up here and wake up to a glorious view of the glacier at sunrise. We decided to do this but everywhere we parked up the damn mossies were relentless. We though at this altitude and temperature we would be fine but they were as brutal as last night and the wee devils were even bigger than those on the low lands. We tried our best but we couldn’t stand it any longer, they were hunting in packs and it doesn’t make for a comfortable night when they are feasting on you as a swarm. Reluctantly we headed back down the mountain road and across into Alaska once more until we crossed back at the border crossing and into Stewart again.
I so wish that we could have spent the night up there, it is one of those things that will live with me always. The sheer power and impressiveness of nature at times is mind blowing. We live in a beautiful world and it’s up to us as humans to be caretakers of our amazing environment and to preserve and protect it as much as is possible. These awe inspiring sights and locations wont be around forever if we continue on the path that we are currently on. But we posses the knowledge and expertise among us to make a change for the better. To preserve and encourage nature to thrive so that such things aren’t lost forever.
It felt like a long and rewarding day and it was getting close to night once we got back to Stewart from the mountains. We pulled into yet another free BC recreation site just outside of town at the edge of a lovely little peaceful lake. It’s been one of the best days of this trip so far and we sat and reflected on it round our camp fire that night. The more this adventure goes on the more I know we will miss Canada and van life immensely.
