Southbound

As we climbed the steep road up White Pass from Skagway, we stopped for a view of the unique Captain William Moore bridge. It spans a fault line so it's only anchored on one end. Now it's being replaced by a solid concrete pour - apparently the fault won't bother the concrete???

We took the cutoff towards Jake's Corner, making a stop at a very unique cemetery along the way. Unlike so many modern cemeteries that require flat stones and straight lines, in this one, each grave site or family plot is unique.

Rancheria Falls was a nice chance to stretch the legs a bit. It has a fairly large parking lot and nearly a quarter mile of boardwalk out to a pair of waterfalls. When we were here six years ago, the parking lot sported a "No Camping" sign but there wasn't any sign of the type there now. We continued on to Yukon's Big Creek Campground for the night.

Baby Nugget was a fuel stop before we turned south on the Cassiar. It had a unique card reader system for the gas pump that only worked half the time, but the restaurant/store advertised cinnamon rolls so it wasn't a total loss. The rolls were OK, but nowhere near the best we've had on this trip.

After losing count how many times we crossed the BC / Yukon border on this trip, we knew that this time was the last, at least for this trip.

As we worked our way south on the Cassiar Highway, we stopped for a few minutes at Jade City. Didn't buy anything this trip, but did find the geocache and the coolest tundra buggy. I'm pretty sure this is what the Alaska contingent needs for their caribou hunting trips.

We understood why the Kinaskan Lake Provincial Park was so highly rated. Many of the sites (all first come, first served) backed onto the lake. We arrived mid afternoon to find a number of lake front choices. A couple hours later, every site in the campground was full!

The next day we headed for Hyder, making a stop for an earth cache at Bear Glacier along the way. Turns out, it was good we stopped on the way in - the next day it was shrouded in fog!

One of our "must-do list" items was a stop at the bus in Hyder. It's world famous, and was closed last time we visited. It was closed this time, too. Supposedly it's good, but we won't know. (As usual, you can click on any photo for a larger version if you want to read the sign.)

We stopped at the bear viewing area, and watched the fish. Seems that fewer and fewer bears are showing up here. With that a bust, we continued up the road

to get a view of the retreating Salmon Glacier. There was an active forest fire just over the pass which made picture taking a challenge.

We were going to spend a couple nights in Hyder, but we'd had three days of no connectivity so we opted for a night on the Canadian side of the border where we had connectivity and then continued our way south.

Our last Alaska stop was a bit of a bust, but still worth the side trip. As we continued south on 37, BJ managed to get a quick picture of our last bear (we assume) of the trip. It was crossing the road well ahead of us, but stopped to check us out as we slowed to check it out.

The bell tower in Kitwanga interested me. It was built in 1899 if I recall correctly. It's not clear if the Anglican church in the background is still used or not.

Home for the night was a free municipal campground in Burns Lake. Sites were a bit tight maneuvering, but the price was right!

The next night we wallydocked in Williams Lake and the night after that we enjoyed full hook ups at the Wild Rose Campground in Hope, BC. We'd rate this place at least a four if not a five. Very nice!

Although the signs said 10 minute wait, it took 50 minutes to get through the RV line at the border crossing in Sumas. Turns out, if you play (or are) dumb and drive through the commercial truck line, you get to force your way into the RV/car line near the front of the line. We watched five do it while we slowly got closer to the most surly border agent I've ever experienced. Oh well, don't have to deal with them again any time soon.