North on Highway 37 to the Yukon

Terrace, BC to the Yukon

When planning a trip for a year we tended to have general ideas of where we wanted to go (west then north then south) but we really don’t start planning out details and looking more closely at maps until we near a place that we have to make a decision (ie a fork in the road). The decision to travel north on highway 37 to Yukon/Alaksa (rather than the Alaskan Highway) was made back in Prince George where we went west towards Burns Lake, Smithers, Terrace and Prince Rupert rather than north east towards Dawson Creek (which is Mile 0 of the Alaskan highway). This doesn’t mean we are not going to do that portion of the Alaskan highway. We will just do it when we come back south from Alaska/Yukon.

So back to Terrace we went after getting off the ferry in Prince Rupert. Again Terrace is a great place to get all your “travelling errands” done. Rather than back tracking all the way back to Kitwanga (where the yellowhead #16 highway meets highway 37), we decided to do a little side trip to the Nisga’a Memorial Lava Bed Provincial Park. This place is pretty crazy. I didn’t even know Canada had had a volcano eruption recently (ie recently as in 1750). If you’ve ever been to Iceland – the 3 things we felt were similar were the lava fields, natural hot springs and places that we are sure we were mispronouncing (Laxgalts'ap, Gingolx,Gitwinksihlkw, Gitlaxt'aamiks are the nations that comprise the Nisga’a nation. We had similar trouble pronouncing these places as we did the cities and towns we visited in Iceland).

If you’ve never been to Iceland and are roadtripping in BC, then this would be a great preview for you for Iceland (and just a really interesting and beautiful place to visit in Canada and a nice day trip from Terrace).

From Nisga’a provincial park, the GPS and maps were telling us to take “highway” 113 in order to avoid backtracking to Terrace and then another 100 km to Kitwanga to get on highway 37. However, that was the worst stretch of gravel road we have driven on yet (and we have been driving on a lot of gravel roads). We made it though and turned onto highway 37 to start heading north. However, not long after getting on highway 37, we took a side trip to Stewart, BC. A beautiful drive into this remote town with a glacier and waterfalls at every turn. The town itself is just this small little place that welcomes the tourists and then sends them on their way back out the highway. Across the border (without an actual border patrol on the US side) is Alaska. So amazingly enough, we had already been to Alaska before we even got to Yukon. Hyder looks and feels like a ghost town although there are still some houses and 1 or 2 stores that seemed to be open. They would also be okay with me writing that they are a "ghost town" because the sign welcoming you to Hyder says “Friendliest ghost town”. We were a bit early for the salmon run but they do have a viewing platform for the people that are there now. Although the platform is not to watch the salmon, but to watch the Grizzly Bears that comes down to feast on the salmon. We drove another gravel road about 40 km to reach another viewing platform for the salmon glacier and it is jaw dropping beautiful. (I suggest just going there yourself as any picture I post will not do it justice).

Salmon Glacier (north of Hyder Alaska)

Bear Glacier (on the drive to Stewart, BC)

Back onto highway 37 and I really don’t have much else to say. There are “towns” on the map but really they are just lodges to get gas, stay the night or get a bite to eat as you drive north. Highway 37 was a long, long drive down a narrow road which sometimes had a yellow line in the middle and sometimes didn’t.

Our last rest stop before the Yukon border was Boya Lake Provincial Park. This is probably the prettiest provincial park we have been to in BC.  We had lunch, walked the dogs and I had a cold refreshing plunge into the lake (I think you have to be in the lake longer than 5 seconds for it to be considered a swim). We could have stayed the night here but knowing that the Yukon was close and being excited to get there, we drove a little longer (when you have 18-19 hours of daylight, driving later into the evening is actually pretty common) to make it to Yukon. 

Lunch stop at Boya Lake Provincial Park just south of the BC/Yukon border