7-30-09 Moricetown, Nass River, Bear Glacier, Fish Creek

7-30-09: Just past Smithers was a place called Moricetown where there is a world-renowned canyon where the Bulkey River narrows to only a few meters as it roars with white fury between solid rock walls. We watched the Wet’suwet’en people use traditional fishing methods to gather their winter’s supply of salmon. From the canyon rocks above the river, First Nations fishers use gaff poles and dip nets to harvest migrating salmon.

We branched off on highway 37N instead of continuing on 16W. This is an alternate scenic route to Alaska instead of the much more traveled Alaska-Canada highway. We drove across a single lane bridge over the Nass River which demonstrated powerful wicked waves, strong eddies, boils, and whirlpools. At the pullout by the river, Dad and Luke found tufts of cut fur that likely belonged to a grizzly bear whose hide was skinned by a hunter earlier.

The description of Bear Glacier Park on a local map caused us to take the side road (37a) toward Stewart, B.C. Bear Glacier did not disappoint us; it is a large, beautiful glacier that descends to Strohn Lake (easily seen from the road). Then we ended up in the neighboring communities of Stewart, B.C.-Hyder, AK. The 90 mile long Portland Canal forms a natural boundary between Canada and Alaska. There were steeply sloped coastal mountains all around with snow and glaciers on them.

We crossed over into Hyder to visit Fish Creek Observation Station. Chum salmon were spawning and moving upstream which made it an ideal time to look for bears from the wooden walkway above the creek. We saw 2 grizzlies and 1 black bear. The size of some of the salmon was amazing and their behavior (splashing and jostling around in the creek) during the spawn was interesting. We then returned to Stewart to camp for the night.