We heard a commotion with lots of splashing water!

It's an interesting situation here at the border of British Columbia and Alaska.

The town of Stewart, British Columbia (pop 500) is located right on the border with Alaska. And the town of Hyder, Alaska (pop 84) is located right at the same border. There is a Canadian border station here, but there is no U.S. border station. It's probably the only place in North America where you can legally cross in to the United States and not be interrogated by the border patrol people!

And so yesterday, we did exactly that...

No border station!

Here's an interesting New York Times article about Hyder and Stewart...

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/03/us/canada-alaska-hyder-stewart-british-columbia.html

There's not much to see in Hyder itself, but we were there to go to the Fish River observation platform north of town to watch the bears eat the salmon. Between mid July and the end of August, the salmon are running upstream, and there are hundreds of them! The bears regularly come to this same spot in the river to have a meal, and so a viewing platform was built for the people to safely watch this annual event.

We found a spot at the far end to park Sherman, and went to pay our $6 CAD ($5 USD) entrance fee to the National Forest Service here in Alaska. (Paying in Canadian funds is the better deal!) As we were standing in line, a voice from behind us says "Excuse me, but are you Kevin and Ruth?"

Well, yes... we are!

We were pleased to meet Gilles and Carole who have been reading this blog for a couple of years. They are also Mexico RV travelers, so we had a lot to talk about! They were also just entering the viewing area, so we went in together. And afterwards, they were heading up to the Salmon Glacier in their towed vehicle and they said that we could join them! This is a good thing, because it's about 14 kms (8 miles) on a dusty, rough mining road and Sherman would not have enjoyed the drive. He has had enough dusty, rough roads for a while!

Watching for bears.

Unfortunately, we learned that there haven't been many bears so far this year. There were none the day before, but they did have a wolf! Apparently the wolf has made an appearance two days in a row.

Still, it was interesting watching the salmon.

Lots of salmon.

But no bears!

However, they say that you have to be patient, and some people spend all day sitting here waiting for something to happen. The entrance fee is valid for the whole day and they're open 6:00am until 10:00pm. So we decided to head up to the glacier and then stop in at the viewing platform again on the way back.

14 kms (8 miles) later, we arrived at the toe of the Salmon Glacier...

The Salmon Glacier.

To get to the Salmon Glacier, the old mining road crosses the border back into Canada. The Salmon Glacier is located totally in British Columbia, but the only way to see it is via the road from Hyder, Alaska.

Looking in the opposite direction. The Salmon River is fed by the glacier.

This is called a "kettle".

A kettle is formed when a block of ice is separated from the main glacier. When the ice eventually melts, it leaves behind an impression filled with water. The same silt that causes the river to look murky sinks to the bottom of the impression and gives off the pretty turquoise color.

We kept going to the main viewing area of the glacier...

It looks like you're parked right at the base of the glacier, but it's actually quite far away! 

Some people enjoying the view.

I walked up on the opposite side of the road and there was this pretty little pond.

Ruth, and the mountains.

After the glacier, the mining road continues. We went another 20 kms (13 miles) or so just admiring the scenery. Eventually, the road comes to a mining camp located at another glacier. It did look like it continues on further, but that's where we turned around.

 Scenery along the way. 

The two arms of the Berendon Glacier meet.

An ice cave.

Mining camp.

Zoomed in, way high up on the mountain.

Nature is sure fascinating.

Also zoomed in, way high up.

The glacier almost looks like a lake.

We drove back to the bear viewing platform, but with no luck. We spoke to some people who looked like they had been there a long time and there had not been any bears at all.

There were some common merganser ducks though!

We said goodbye to Gilles and Carole... hopefully we will bump into them again some day, perhaps in Mexico! They would like to do our Mexico RV Caravan tour, but first they will have to trade in their 37 foot motorhome for something smaller!

Carole and Gilles.

Thanks for spending the day together and taking us up to the glacier!

We took Sherman over to a nearby gravel pit area where they allow campers to overnight. There were three other rigs and Sherman.

Sherman, parked for the night at GPS 55.972623, -130.061259

After supper, we walked the 1.3 kms (0.8 miles) back to the viewing platform to give the bears a third chance.

Back at the viewing platform, there was still nothing to see but salmon.

On the roadway, there are all kind of warning signs about the bears crossing the road at the entrance booth. We had our bear spray with us. There is a stream running beside the road, and there are a few salmon in that stream, but nowhere near as many as in the main river.

We heard a commotion with lots of splashing water! Didn't see anything, but we are positive it was a bear jumping into the stream to catch a fish. It would have only been about 30 feet away through the bushes! We didn't try to get a better view, and carried on back to Sherman!

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