So back to Hyder Alaska. Hyder is nestled at the head of Portland Canal, a 70 mile-long fjord which forms a portion of the US / Canadian border. It is the only community in southern Alaska accessible by road.
In the picture of downtown Hyder you'll see a stone building on the left, that building is in British Columbia!

Hyder is so small (50 people summertime/35 winter) it doesn’t even have its own police. If there’s a serious problem the Mounties (who are two miles away) step in until US police can be flown in from Ketchikan Alaska. Once there was a death in a bar in Hyder and they just roped off the body (that was lying on the floor) and everyone kept on drinking! Five movies have been filmed in Hyder - INSOMNIA, LEAVING NORMAL, ICEMAN, THE THING and BEAR ISLAND. In addition to getting Hyderized, you can see loads of brown bears fishing and the most amazing glacier viewing we saw in 12,000 miles of travel!

To see all those bears all you have to do is drive a few miles to Fish Creek and walk the observation platform. We got to watch a sow and her cub (this year’s cub) fish and play in the creek for a couple of hours.

The cub was SO CUTE attacking dead salmon, pawing his mother and running and splashing.

The cub had a white color around his neck which gave him even more personality.

While the cub played mom was busy catching salmon.

Then a HUGE male grizzly walked out of the trees and right past me (about 3 feet away) and waded into the stream. I wish everyone could have heard the cub’s cry. It was the sound of sheer terror. Because males will kill cubs, the sow and cub beat a hasty retreat.

The male had a chunk missing from one ear and a big bite mark on his back. Eventually the male had his fill of salmon and wandered off. 

The 5th largest glacier in North America is Salmon Glacier. It can be reached by driving 25 miles on a  REALLY NARROW dirt road with sheer drop offs and incredible views of the Salmon River Valley and numerous small glaciers.

The road starts in Hyder, at sea level and follows the Salmon River to its birthplace - the Salmon Glacier, at 4,300 ft. The road also goes by several defunct gold mines.

Finally, you reach the summit and have an amazing view of Salmon Glacier below you.

Stewart, British Columbia is just 2 miles from Hyder Alaska. Originally a booming mine town of 10,000, now all the mines are closed and the town is down to 500 people. A lot of companies are doing exploration in the mountains around Hyder and Stewart and there is hope that someday things will get better.

Stewart has a long boardwalk that extends out into the tidal flats of the Portland Canal. Maggie and I took a walk out to the end of it to look for birds and just enjoy the sunshine. The flats are gorgeous.

The floating docks and boats just off Stewart provide a really pretty picture.

Now we're off to Prince Rupert, won't be long and we'll be home.