Monday July 26

Today we tried to make some miles. We drove 315 miles. Remember most of this is at 50 mph on the Cassair Highway in the mountains most of the time. We ended up in Stewart, even wimped out and stayed in a campground. ($25) They tell you not to go out after dark here because of bears and wolves. Tomorrow Hyder and the bear creek viewing area. Steward and Hyder are two miles apart. Stewart is in BC, Canada and Hyder is in the US, strange I thought. You don't go through customs going into Hyder but you go through Canadian Customs coming out back into Stewart.
We saw one black bear this afternoon eating clover beside of the road. 15 minutes later we saw a mother with two cubs beside the road. Pictures later. This morning I saw a fox beside the road but no pictures.
The scenery today was a lot of beautiful clear lakes and streams and many mountains with snow on top as we came through several mountain passes. All types of vegetation and wild flowers including fireweed and fox tail barley. We went through one area that is know for its concentration of huckleberries. Stewart is at sea level so as we neared this area the spruce gave way to more and more hardwoods. We saw less extensive areas of rocks and more grass. North of here everything is gravel and rocks. Then the last 38 miles we descended through a mountain pass past rugged peaks and snow covered areas. We stopped to take pictures of Bear Glacier which drops into the river right beside the road. It is going to be a long steep climb out of here. It is beautiful here as we are surrounded by mountains. Here in Stewart the leaves are just starting to come off of the trees. Our campground even has grass. We may stay one more night in this area depending on what we find here tomorrow.
ps. We haven't had phone service in almost a week that is why we haven't called anyone. This is the second time we have had good internet in about two weeks. This connection is so slow I don't know how many pictures I will get posted. I'll try to post the most interesting first, then some older ones I missed the other night.