The Road from Jasper to Haines Alaska

We wanted to make it to Prince George but the traveling was good and it was a beautiful day so we traveled just under 500 miles to Ft Telkwa Campground in Telkwa, BC Canada.  We saw 2 black bear, a moose and a coyote on the road to Prince George.  This part of the trip went through the mountains similar to Banff & Jasper.  After Prince George the landscape changed to farmlands and fields until we got closer to Telkwa.  The campground wasn't much more than a gravel parking lot however they did have full hookups including cable TV, nice facilities, a free power wash and a great view at 10:30pm:

The next morning we packed up and headed for Stewart BC Canada/Hyder Alaska.  We saw 8 black bear and a moose on the roadside (most were on Cassiar Hwy 37).  We tried to stop and catch a pic of many of these guys but most were spooked and ducked in the woods by the time the camera crew was ready.  This guy wasn't too bothered by us:

Stewart and Hyder are a good 40 miles off Hwy 37.  We decided to head in there to stay.  Long downhill drive - not too bad of a climb back out.   On the way we passed Bear Glacier:

Neither town was anything like we expected (we were thinking Seward Alaska'ish).  The only reason we'd ever suggest detouring off Hwy 37 and driving down here is if the salmon were running so you could catch the bears feasting.  We're about 2-3 weeks early for that unfortunately.  Check out main street Hyder (serious, this is it!):

We stayed at Camp Run-A-Muck in Hyder (just around the corner from this busy downtown):

Full hookups and only a few miles from fish creek where visitors go to watch the bear feast on the salmon (reasonable at this time when the salmon weren't running).  We ended up staying here a couple days because we were waiting out a major forest fire north of us which had Hwy 37 closed.  We decided to check out salmon glacier (25 mile drive up a rough dirt road).  On the way we saw several marmots (only this guy posed for us):

Many beautiful waterfalls and rivers along the way too:

Unfortunately the fog at mile 16 made it very difficult to go further so we turned around.  We were able to see salmon glacier at mile 15 so not a wasted trip (but pic not worth showing here)!  Later we drove around Hyder (10 mins) and saw this huge hawk by the bay:

We hit the local bar and hung with the owner (who also owned the campground we stayed at), got "Hyderized" while watching the Bruins take a tough loss in OT (along with a bar full of Canuck fans). 
We decided to head north and deal with getting through the fire.  On the way up we saw 4 black bear (including 2 cubs), a porcupine, caribou, 2 moose, rabbit and some fowl.  Beautiful ride along the Cassiar!   We stopped to watch these two cubs trying to keep up with Mom climbing to the top of this aspen tree:

Eventually they caught up to her or she ran out of tree . . .

These were the smallest cubs we've seen so far.  Mom started getting nervous about me taking pics so we took off.   We had to wait an hour for a pilot car but got through the 25 miles of charred landscape with no problem - still some burning and smoldering along the way.  We took the Alaskan Hwy up to Teslin in the Yukon Territory.  Not much to see on this part of the trip - drive was pretty good with a couple loose gravel sections and some 8 degree hills.  We camped at the Yukon Motel (Good Sam discounts) - full hookups and wifi.  Watched the Bruins stomp on the Canucks in hotel bar full of Canuck fans - good sports!  From here we headed west toward Whitehorse & Haines Junction.   The road to Whitehorse had a lot of loose gravel sections too but nothing terrible.  Beautiful scenery as we got closer to Whitehorse:

As we made our way southwest into Haines from Haines Junction (make sure you fill up here 1st), the scenery got more incredible.  There were beautiful blue lakes:

and more and more snow covered the landscape:

The road was newly paved and easy driving up until the final 10 mile decent into Haines Alaska:

Hanging in Haines Alaska for a while.  More to come . . .