August 18 - 21: Cassiar Highway

Attempting to avoid backtracking as we passed back through Canada, we decided to take the Cassiar Highway. The Cassiar is even more remote the Alaska Highway, with only a few outposts over it's 600 miles. We saw a handful of bears interspersed by rainbows; it was a beautiful drive.


Towards the end of the Cassiar we detoured west to the towns of Seward, Canada and Hyder, Alaska. Straddling the international border, these former mining towns were once prominent ports before World War II, with tens of thousands of inhabitants, but now they are closer to ghost towns with a population in the low hundreds. Like Seward, these towns are surrounded by mountains and glaciers, giving them a stunning location. We watched some massive salmon attempt to swim upstream through waters shallower than they are tall, perused the toaster museum, and had some beers with the estranged locals in Hyder, AK where they take Canadian currency, respect Canadian holidays, and are on BC's timezone (everywhere except the post office which is a federal building).

Then the rain began. We were planning a backcountry trip into Jasper National Park, but once it looked like the rain was here to stay we decided to just keep driving. We're now, somewhere across the US border in Idaho and should be back in the Bay Area in a couple days.

Oh and we finally have a good enough internet connection to upload this short digital camera video we took at the top of Mt. Rose in Denali. The sound is crackily due to the wind, but you should be able to get a sense of the land.