Okay, fine...being an open minded individual..and because I live close enough to do it...I'll give Hyder another look-see. Maybe it's the cinny buns that tempt me, I dunno. I want to go up to the glacier so I guess I'l drag along the Suzuki too. and if I get scared by the bears, it's ALL your fault.
My wife and I spent 3 months in Canada and Alaska and our bear viewing at Hyder was "The Best". I got a great video of a bear catching salon about 35 feet in front of me. One doesn't hear much about the Salmon Glacier, but it was the only glacier that we saw that you could drive for miles along the side of the glacier. That was worth the trip. I do agree that the town wasn't worth much but we could have seen towns at home.
Frank.
I really liked the bear viewing platform. Once when we were there a mother and cub came to fish. It was so funny watching the cub screw up every attempt by the mother to catch fish. And she was so patient with the cub.
The drive up to Salmon glacier was a lot of fun and the abandoned mining buildings were neat. It was great standing just inside the door of the mine and feeling the ice cold air blowing out on a hot day.
We had met some nice people from Victoria at the Bus the night before and ran into them again at the mine. They had a book about the mining activity there with pictures of what everything looked like before. Very impressive.
And the main street was bad. I popped a hold-down chain on my trailer because the Jeep started bouncing. And I was going very slow. But a town anywhere is what ever the locals want it to be and I just look around and don't make judgements.
I did tell the lady who was pumping gas into our truck in Stewart that I didn't know of another gas station anywhere where you look up at a glagier as you fill up. I didn't find the Canadian border guards pompous at all. In fact when we left I put my transmission in 1st gear (granny low) and let the truck idle all the way up main street. It must have taken a full 5 minutes to get to the guard station and the gurad was standing watching us the whole time. When I stopped he just looked back at Hyder and said, "I see they fixed that street!"
Hi Gary:- Hyder is well, Hyder. It is more about the scenery and the area than the town. Too bad you missed July 4th. It is actually a fun time there. The bus is great for fish and chips. Bear viewing is the best from the end of July until early Sept , depending on when the salmon are running.
I've seen the border have no one checking on either side and now they have the Canadian guards. The rumour at one time was that Sears sold two microwaves to every resident of Hyder one year. Oh ya and the cigarettes are cheaper in Hyder so now our government has to stop this rampant smuggling going on.
We were in Hyder for four days two years ago. We stayed in the campground on the Stewart side and went to the bear viewing or glacier every day. We must have crossed the border 6 times during our stay. Same two guards everytime. Each time I pulled up I regognized and greeted them like we had been going through regularily. Not once did either of them act like they regognized us. They were overly officius. HAD to identify all four of us each time we came back. On the fourth of fifth time I asked if she remembered me from the morning. All she said was "NO" I would never work for customs. I think they train them to be like that.
Gary H, I would have to agree with you on your view of Hyder. Stewart is a well laid out, clean town with health care available, nice streets, stores, homes, etc and Hyder is a Dump, IMHO. My view is based upon having lived in Alaska villages for over 25 years.
We camped at the Bear Run CG in Stewart and enjoyed our time there. Made a couple of day trips over to Hyder, hoping we had missed the real "essence" of Hyder but we didn't. It is a dump.
I certainly recognize that I am in a small minority of forum members but I don't see "bear viewing" as a good use of my time. Suspect it has to do with living in the same area with bears too long, hunting too many of them, eating too many of them, etc. (current score joe b. 5 - Bears 0) and I hope to keep it like that.
Stewart in June, prior to the bears and tourists, is a favorite stop of ours. The people that live there year around are great to talk to and very friendly. Stewart is in a beautiful setting, the drive in rivals the one between Glennallen and Valdez, Whitehorse and Skagway and the Haines Cutoff, IMHO.
In my typical non-biased opinion, bears are smelly, foul tempered beasts, and they will bite if opportunity allows. LOL I know I am in the one per cent category on this subject and I am pleased others enjoy watching them kill live salmon.
* This post was
edited 07/14/08 02:08pm by joe b. *
When we were in Hyder a couple of years ago, the restaurant that had the great cinnamon buns, had really great brick over pizza at night. The pizza was some of the best we have ever eaten and it was good enough to go back for that alone. But we liked the bears and found Hyder quaint!! Nice, friendly people live there. Anyone know if the pizza is still being made there? I think it was called the Wild Flour Restaurant.
Offline
