This young Black Bear eating shrubs right on the edge of town
We drove the side road to Stewart/Hyder hoping to see some bears that the area is known for. The road is about 35 to 40 miles long. The scenery along the road was amazing, with mountains all along the way. We also saw a few nice glaciers as well. The road takes you to the town of Stewart BC first. You then cross the border from Canada back into the USA at Hyder, AK. There are no US customs there due to the road dead ending a few miles out of Hyder. When you return to Stewart though you must clear Canadian customs.
On one of our trips through customs we spent at least 15 minutes getting questioned...not really. The agent, station supervisor, actually spent time giving us advise on other places we might see bears on down the road as we head south. She had recently transferred to Stewart from Toronto. What a change of pace for sure. There wasn't anyone behind us in line so we had lots of time for an enjoyable chat.
The area is known for the bears that are quite commonly seen in the area. About 4 miles west of Hyder the US forest service has a huge fenced in boardwalk for viewing a stream that the salmon spawn up. We found a nice campsite at the city campground in Stewart. After setting up and eating lunch we headed for Fish Creek Rec site in the Tongass NF hoping to see bears.
The boardwalk at Fish Creek
Salmon swimming in Fish Creek
This pretty pond was on the opposite side of the boardwalk
The harbor at Stewart
We spent 3 hours at Fish Creek and saw thousands of Salmon trying to swim upstream. Many were dead already having completed their journey. No bears sighted so we headed back to camp for supper. We returned again that evening and still no luck seeing a bear until we spotted a black bear on the side of the road about 50 feet up a cliff.
The next morning we got up early and took showers, ate a quick breakfast and headed back out to Fish Creek. We got there just as it was getting light and found out we had missed Brown bear (Grizzly) that had been there 15 minutes earlier.
The rangers said to keep a watch as she might return. Sure enough in about 5 minutes we saw her coming down the stream looking for fish. I got 3 quick photos of her before she went out of view. A few minutes later we heard a crashing sound on the other side of the boardwalk and eventually she came out of the trees and wandered along the side of a small pond. We were able to view her and take pics for a couple of minutes...what a special treat.
Our Grizzly at Fish Creek - taken about 7am
We were very excited to saw the least. We were so happy we didn't get skunked. After waiting until 9 or so with no more sightings we decided to leave the area and head on towards Jasper and Banff NP. On the road out of Steward we saw 3 Black bears browsing along the roadside along with enjoying the beautiful views.
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