2015 Summer Journey, Canadian Crossing part 3

 June 21, 2015…Sunday

We had a restful, dim lighted night next to the Safeway here in Smithers, Canada. During our sleeping time, a fellow RVer pulled in and parked a couple of spaces beyond us. I was able to talk with them, they’re Canadians doing some traveling in their rig that was custom built by the couple.

Hudson Bay Mountain peaks (Bulkey Ranges) are covered in snow with a fluffy cap of clouds making it look like a lazy day.

After a light breakfast, we secured the camper and motored on out of town taking in some of the roadside sights.

Continuing on the Yellowhead Hwy 16 towards Steward, Canada, we made a stop at Glacier View rest area for the view of the glacier. This places us just south of Evelyn, Canada, a better view of the snow-capped mountains of the Bulkey Ranges.

Our bucket list stop that we needed to get to was Steward, Canada; all other stops were simply because we wanted to. Yellowhead Highway 16 snaked its way through several small township with plenty of stop off areas to behold Mother Nature snow cap mountains.

In New Hazelton, we pulled over into a somewhat empty lot to take some photos of Red Rose Mt, part of the Roche De Boule Range (Bulkey Ranges).

As we pass through this quiet town, some activity was at a local swap meet.

Soon the quiet town of New Hazelton was a number of miles behind us as we motor on one of the few stretches of road that sport a 100 km/h speed limit (62mph). We traveled on into the Kitsegukla Indian Reserve 1 crossing the Kitsegukla River that joins the Skeena River at this point.

Reaching Cassiar Hwy 37 (aka Dease Lake Hwy), the road taking us in a more north direction. About 140km from Steward we stopped at a small bridge crossing to stretch our legs and some more photographic shutter bugging.

There was some evidence a bear had been across the road near the bridge, he left his calling card on the road. Back on the road through a corridor of asphalt hugging trees we are motoring to Meziadin Junction. Making a pit stop at Brown Bear rest area, lots of room for any size vehicle.

Like the pervious roads, we had just traveled so far on the Cassiar 37 the nature beauty abounds everywhere.

After using the rest stop facilities and some more photo shots it’s on the road again, we haven’t seen another vehicle in awhile and no sooner said a TC comes towards us. A few more miles down the road, some of the Boundary Mountain Range comes into view.

Along the way we saw several logging area, after that I began to noticed that that road hugging trees was just a façade to hide the clear cutting method that was being done.

Before reaching Meziadin Junction in the early afternoon a bear had walked across the road in front of us, it was quite the sight. We headed west on Highway 37a to Steward, Canada and Hyder, Alaska. At Meziadin Junction., there is a store for buying fuel, food and other items.

Highway 37a funnels down a ever narrowing valley (Cambria Mountain Range) with small ponds and creeks that can be seen from the highway. Mountains towering above up, snow packed pecks reflecting the afternoon sunlight as we motored on to Bear Glacier.

Soon we are at Strohn Lake being fed by Bear Glacier; we did stop here to look at this close wonderful sight, taking in Mother Nature’s creation with many other sightseers.

Daylight was moving on and it was time to think about a spot to spend overnight at. Highway 37a narrowed even more with the glacier fed Bear River running alongside the highway. Once in Steward, it was decided to settle down at Bear River RV Park, it was time for a shower and to do laundry, this was the only place during our journey we had to exchange U.S currency for Canadian currency, which the owner of the Bear River RV Park was glad to do.

Longer daylight was becoming more appearance to us and we had already begun to use the window sunlight blockers, with them in place our TC became a little mobile cave. Hyder, Alaska and main part of Steward was our agenda for the next day.

Thanks for following along

Alex Blasingame

aka, c.travelingman21000

Alex and Julie's Travels

 Click here for Part 4