Stewart/Hyder

We went to Stewart and Hyder with the Poutneys and stayed at the Rainey Creek Municipal Campground in Stewart.  Because we parked in the shade and wanted to keep our frozen fish at the correct temperature, we plugged into electricity and paid $24.15 per night for two nights.  Poutney's didn't plug in and paid $17 per night.  The purpose of our visit to this area was to see the bears at Fish Creek outside of Hyder.  This is a viewing area for salmon spawning and bears eating the salmon.  We went four different times.  One morning we did see some activity - 2 bears and 1 wolf.  But the other times we saw very little except lots of salmon (mainly chum) spawning and then dying.  Lots of people were at the viewing platforms, which have grown in size since we were here in 2003.  And the road to the viewing area is much improved.

We took a road trip to Salmon Glacier outside of Hyder.  This is a 20 mile gravel road to one of the largest glaciers we saw on the entire trip.  Salmon glacier is very large and very beautiful.  This trip was definitely the highlight of our stay in Stewart/Hyder.  

After leaving this area we drove to the Icefield Hwy.  This was again a disappointment - not because of the weather because the last time we were there it was very cloudy and cold - but because there were so many people in the park.  We had trouble with our transmission heating up so I drove separate through most of the park.  i stopped at a few viewing areas and took some pictures of the mountains.  After we parked in the overflow lot south of Lake Louise, I went back into Lake Louise to the beautiful hotel and lake.  This was very crowded but it is so beautiful that I didn't mind the crowds.