JULY 1, 2014

A DAY OF GLACIERS!

The day of our drive to Stewart, BC and Hyder, AK started out very grey, rainy and very low clouds, which is disappointing when the whole point of the drive down Hwy #37A is to see all the glaciers that are along that stretch of road! But we did see a lot and it was beautiful in it’s own way in the low cloud!

Highway 37A to Stewart, BC & Hyder, AK

The Bear Glacier

The #37A Hwy is only about 60km long so we got to Stewart before their Canada Day ‘festivities’ started – and never did see any … but they were getting geared up for their parade and we saw posters about their ‘bar-b-que/karaoke/beer garden’ for later that night. We opted to not join in, unfortunately.

STEWART is a very cool, very small town. Basically one main street but with a lot of character buildings and of course the mountains all around. We had a coffee and donut, took a bunch of pix, walked around a bit … then decided to drive into Hyder, Alaska which is basically about a kilometer down the road.

Stewart BC

Stewart, BC

Exploring Stewart

Hyder, Alaska bills itself as the ‘friendliest ghost town’ in Alaska and it certainly is that. With a year-round population of only 12 … it’s REALLY small. But again, very cool and had a nice gift shop with an interesting woman to talk to. Bought some earrings and then decided to drive back out … you can’t really go any further as the end of the town is the Portland Canal!

Hyder, Alaska

‘Downtown’ Hyder, AK

By then the weather had cleared up a bit so we got some very nice viewings of all the glaciers along the road back again … I think there’s something like 10 glaciers along the way! The best one (and most photographed!) is Bear Glacier. Stunning! I’m glad that we got to see them as they’re retreating quite rapidly and I don’t know how much longer till they cease to exist!