The last posting had us leaving Haines, AK and beginning our trip back through Yukon Territory and British Columbia. We drove to Stewart, BC and were rewarded with yet another glacier that came right down to the road.
In my most recent post, I said we had made our last stop in Alaska, but I was wrong. Stewart is only 2 miles from the US border town of Hyder, AK. Hyder is a nothing of a town (population 65) that doesn’t even have a US customs and immigration station at the border – you just drive on in! We had to work hard to keep a straight face when the Canadian Border agent in Stewart asked if we bought anything in Hyder that we needed to declare!
Hyder and Stewart have an interesting relationship. When the U.S.-Canada border closed to all but essential traffic in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, residents of Hyder were affected more than most. Hyder is isolated from the rest of Alaska and the only road out of town goes through the Canadian border to Stewart.
Though the two towns are technically in separate countries, they consider themselves one community. Hyder residents take Canadian currency, operate on the Pacific time zone, travel to Stewart for groceries and other services and students attend school in Stewart.
When the border closed, Hyder students were banned from going to school in Stewart and Hyder residents were only allowed across the border once a week for three hours to buy groceries, gas, and other necessities.
Canada eventually eased restrictions at the end of October 2020. Hyder students were allowed to go to school, and residents could cross the border anytime for necessities. .
So, back to our visit to Stewart/Hyder. Although there isn’t much going on in Hyder, there is a US Forest Services facility called Fish Creek that provides drive-up access to bear watching. We got to see Ping Pong, a young male grizzly bear, catch his dinner. I don’t think he was very good at fishing, but he was good and fat, so I guess he was good enough.
We then drove up a very bumpy road to Salmon Glacier, which was magnificent!
We didn’t have high hopes for this stop, but it turned out to be a really great visit.
We then continued our southward journey to Prince George, where we parted company with our travel mates and continued on our separate ways.