Summer Adventure 2018 Day 63

The road improved as we continued to Stewart. We saw three bears on the way and we stopped at Bear Glacier for pictures. The lady who checked us in at Bear River RV Park was very friendly and assigned us to the perfect sites. She gave us maps of Stewart & Hyder and marked places of interest.  There was a photo of the The Bus in Hyder, where the flag girl said we should eat.

After getting setup we took off to explore a bit and find something to eat. We saw the sights of Stewart then crossed the border to Hyder where we found The Bus and had fish & chips for dinner. The proprietor's husband and sons are commercial fishermen and catch the fish she prepares in The Bus! There are a couple of tables and bus seats arranged like booths out front under an awning. They were taken so we went inside the building beside the bus where more picnic tables were arranged. We told owner the flag girl sent us and she told us the day before was the flag girls birthday..

After our meal we visited the  Wildlife Viewing Area at Tongass National Forest. It is a very nice boardwalk out to where we had a great view of the stream where the salmon come to spawn and the bears come to catch them. We had just one slight problem, the salmon were still a few miles downstream so the bears weren't there either. After chatting with the rangers for a few minutes, Bill was ready to explore some more. We were off in search of the places of interest in the self-guided auto tour and ultimately Salmon Glacier.

The paved road gave way to gravel when we left the viewing area and the further we traveled up the mountain the more an more potholes we encountered. The drive was very much like Mr.Toad's Wild Ride, swerving to avoid the potholes, but not missing all of them on the very narrow road at the edge of the incredibly steep mountain. Pam was a bit unnerved by it all and with every turn asked Bill to turn around. He continued the trek and we reached the spot where we could view the toe of Salmon Glacier. The final stop on the tour was at the summit of the mountain to overlook the glacier, so off we went. Pam still protested and the ride was still like being at an amusement park. We reached the summit and got some great pictures of Salmon Glacier.

I traded seats with Pam for the drive down the hill, so she wouldn't be close to the edge of the road. The ride down was a bit better, Pam was delighted that we arrived at the base of the mountain in 45 minutes. Now to get back across the border into British Columbia.