Highway 37- Land of No Cell Reception

We woke up to a beautiful morning in Smithers. Slightly reluctant to leave, but knowing we had another long day of driving ahead, we continued on the Yellowhead for approximately another 100km.

Not too far outside Smithers, we stumbled upon Moricetown Canyon- from the road it is obviously beautiful. We spotted a few men fishing with nets, so hiked down for a closer look.

Real wood totem poles

After that short stop, we made it to Highway 37- known as the Stewart-Cassiar Highway. If you have the time, the Yellowhead continues west to Prince Rupert on the coast of BC. Our goal was the Yukon, so we headed North up the 37.

I'm holding the most expensive bottle of OFF Bug Spray.

Again, I have to admit to limited research on our part... I had no idea what "Bear Glac." would turn out to be! This road would turn out to be one of the most remote, yet stunning drives of our trip. Heading north on Highway 37, you reach the Meziadin Junction and the option to detour down Highway 37A. As it turns out, this is the road where Stewart, Hyder, and Bear Glacier are found.
On a whim (again, so embarrassed to admit our lack of research), we decided that this detour was worth our time (thinking it would be cool to see the border with Alaska). Note to everyone: this is a must do!

I'll let the pictures do the talking for most of this. It is definitely a remote road with lots of curves and spectacular views. 

Bear Glacier... right there, on the side of the road! Stunning!!!

We continued on 37A and into Stewart. They happened to be repaving the main street that afternoon, so we decided to park and walk around. We popped into a little shop for ice cream, did some window shopping, and picked up a few small souvenirs (stickers and magnets, yay!). There are also gorgeous Fjords in Stewart, just before you get to the Alaskan border. 

We walked back to the car and decided to check out the border; turns out it's fairly uneventful and fairly easy to just walk right into Hyder, Alaska. In fact, when we turned around to go "back into" Canada, the border guard asked if we were sure we didn't want to actually go into Hyder (despite our lack of passports). We decided against it- apparently it boasts another glacier and potential bear sightings. 

So we made it to Alaska (totally unplanned, and truthfully it's Southernmost town). We headed back down 37A, stopped at Bear Glacier again (worth it!), and back out to Highway 37 and North again. This post is full of pictures and there's more to come from our next campsite, so I'll leave it here. Obviously, we loved this area of BC, even though we went days with no cell reception!

J & S