Sometimes when bad things happen you can turn them into experiences of a lifetime. I was relatively young when the plant I was working at as Quality Supervisor shut its doors after over 100 years of operation. I took my severance package and seeing that I was not tied down to returning at a given time I packed up the van and headed to Alaska from my home in New England. I took my elderly parents with me since they had both recently retired paying them back for all of the family trips they took us kids on when we were young. We headed north up through Vermont passing over the border to Montreal. You can click the links for more in depth posts on each attraction. In Quebec we picked up the Trans Canada Highway and headed west averaging 600 miles per day.
Into Alaska and the end of the Alaska Highway at Delta Junction and then on our way to Tok where a meal of caribou sausage and salmon chowder in a bread bowl was our welcome to the state.
Instead of repeating the route south along the Alaska Highway we took the Cassiar Highway south. We passed by Bear Glacier and made our way to the charming communities of Stewart, British Columbia and Hyder Alaska.
Badlands National Park was next on the agenda. This again was one of my mother’s favorite parks as it was a setting of many of her historical fiction novels she liked to read.
A visit to my aunt and uncle in Cohoes, New York and then home. It was good to see New England and home after many months on the road but the memories of the trip will last a life time. My parents would both pass in a few years and I was glad I could give them this trip in their final years.
I have always felt that the journey is as important as the destination, with this in mind I decided that I would drive to Alaska from my home in New England via the Trans Canada and Alaska Highway. The Alaska Highway begins with mile 0 in Dawson Creek, British Columbia.
The first night’s stay was in a British Columbia mosquito infested campground.
Summit Lake (Stone Mountain) Provincial Campground was a pleasant change from the mosquitos at lower elevation. It was very cold I made good use of the caribou skin I purchased at the Trappers Den. I had the campground all to myself.
The Cassiar Highway is an alternate route roughly paralleling the lower portion of the Alaska Highway. When driving the Alaska Highway it is a good way to catch some different scenery on the trip back from Alaska.
The highway is remote and offers ample opportunity for viewing wildlife along the way especially bears. A junction with Route 37A (The Glacier Highway) brings you to Bear Glacier which can be seen right from a lookout on the road. Bear Glacier is now a provincial park.
Bear Glacier is a destination for travelers on the Cassiar Highway in British Columbia. Just a short side trip on Highway 37A towards Stewart, the Bear Glacier descends towards Strohn Lake, down Bear River Pass.
Ice once filled all of the pass, but in the 1940’s, the glacier began to retreat and Strohn Lake formed in the exposed basin. In 1967, Bear Glacier melted away from the valley wall and Strohn Lake was no longer dammed. Since then the glacier has continued its retreat.