Now that I live in the North, it was obvious that I should get myself up to the Stewart/Hyder area and see this for myself. I gotta say, the drive from the Junction along the Glacier highway, is one of THE MOST beautiful roads. It truly is. Stewart is nice...usual stores, coffee places, etc. Then I drove down the road and crossed into the United States, to Hyder and...I'm sorry...but the place has no pride. No soul. I don't mind small and I don't mind dirt roads..but Hyder needs a sense of self-worth. There are buildings that are shameful, collapsing...collapsed really, down the main trail.
I'll tell you what...with a wee bit of community work Hyder could be a destination, and not for just the bear viewing...but as it is, I'm afraid it's just sad. Only an opinion, of course, but....geeeez.
You know Gary, that seems to be the same whenever you cross from Canada into the US. Compare White Rock & Blaine, Abbotsford and Sumas, Osoyoos and Orovile, Detroit & Windsor, etc. The only place that seems to buck the trend is Sault St Marie, but I've only been through there a few times.
The demographics for the town don't look promising, around a 100 people. It is essentially a poor satellite of Stewart.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyder%2C_Alaska
The wiki article has a link to a 2003 student paper that describes Hyder as:
"Often deemed the "friendliest ghost town in Alaska," this burg may soon become a phantom - a shadow of a happier, more forgiving yesteryear. As the rest of the nation's communities grow, Hyder has seen only a bitter collapse as its mineral deposits have slowly given way to nothingness. "
A few other interesting points in that paper:
some 80% of the employment in town is tourism based
much of the town was built on pilings, which burned down in the 1950s, so the current area is a shadow of its former self.
Back in the 1980s when Alaska Ferries ran a boat to Hyder,it actually docked at Stewart. Canadian immigration and customs cleared everyone aboard the boat before debarking. So even with the ferry run Hyder was still at the end of line. In 1988, out of curiosity, I drove into Hyder, saw the bars, and turned back. Mileposts for that year does not mention the current big attraction - the bear observation platform.
* This post was
edited 07/12/08 02:17pm by paulj *
Go on past the bear viewing area for 10-15 miles up the valley and view Salmon Glacier-It is something that words can't describe-and it's worth the drive .
We were there in the fall of 06. Saw several black bear and cubs. From the viewing station we saw a mother grizely and three cubs. They ate a bunch of grass and then mom tried to teach the cubs how to catch Salmon in the shallow creek. they were there for 2-3 hours. the worst thing about Hyder was the pot holes in the roads.
My first clue about Hyder was the absence of a U.S. Customs office when entering from Stewart. Hyder is such a non-descript place, even the U.S. government doesn’t care who enters our country at Hyder. There’s nothing of any consequence in Hyder, and you can’t drive from Hyder to anyplace else U.S. without going back through Canada.
The bears were kind of neat though.
Richard L. Miller
2001 Safari Zanzibar, 38'
2003 Jeep Liberty Toad
Amateur Radio KJ6W
There must be a lot of bad guys getting there some way. And trying to sneak into Canada. Canadian Customs at Stewart takes their job pretty seriously.
States I have spent the night in my current rig, bought three years ago.
Have RV'ed through 49 states and been in all 50, just short of my half-century.
But, Gary ... that's just IT ... there is nothing to get. And you didn't get it. Oh dear!
On July 9 we had fish & chips at the "bus" in Hyder, and it was good as always. And yes, the Canada Customs agent took it a bit serious when we crossed back to B.C. Asked us if we had any weapons, guns, knives, tasers. DH was somewhat surprised by the question but answered an honest no. We weren't sure of the relevancy of the question, since we were from B.C., had been in Hyder for about 45 minutes, it was nearly 8 p.m. and all the stores in Hyder were closed ... and if we had taken our gun from B.C., into Alaska and then wanted to bring it back into B.C., isn't that more Alaska's problem?
Oh well ... the provincial park at Meziadin Lake was a nice as ever and Diane at the "bus" was in usual good spirits and made us a great dinner!
BTW, we did learn that Hyder know has a grader for the road but hasn't used it yet. And the rumor mill is that the road will be paved from the B.C. border to where the road re-enters B.C. on the way to Salmon glacier, but locals aren't convinced of that yet.
jdgreen42 wrote: Go on past the bear viewing area for 10-15 miles up the valley and view Salmon Glacier-It is something that words can't describe-and it's worth the drive .
I was not impressed by the tourist trap called a bear viewing platform, but was very very impressed by the salmon glacier and the mines on past the glacier. The bus restaurant in town was more impressive than the bear viewing plus we had bears in the Stewart City CG, for our viewing pleasure. Hyder is a unique old town of the past era, but agree it needs updating.
Bob & Betsy - USN Ret'd '78 & FL LEO Ret'd '03 FMCA #F203528 '05 HR Endeavor, 40PRQ w/400 Cummins - With -'05 GMC Sierra LT, CC Z-71, the pusher '07 Arctic Cat 500A & Wilderness Kayak, riding in the pusher - Our Current Location
Gary,
Sounds like you missed the best reason to visit Hyder. In 2006 there was a small cafe on the left about a block before the only campground and it made the absolutely best Cinnamon buns we have ever eaten. The night before, we had dinner at Sealaska Inn and they were having a wedding party. The tiered wedding cake was made of stacked cinnamon buns from this cafe, looked delicious. We stopped to try a couple of these buns on the way out of town and when we started eating them down the road, we wished we had bought a box of them and frozen them for later. Every little hole in the wall in remote parts of Alaska seemed to sell stale sourdough bread and cinnamon buns but this place was the exception, their $5 cinnamon buns were awesome and the reason we're headed back to Hyder this year.
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