The Cassiar Highway toward Prince George
June 19-20
The beautiful campground at Boya Lake was our first stop on the Cassiar Highway. It is an amazing turquoise lake set among small old growth fir trees. (see our previous post) We wish that we could have stayed another night and rented canoes from the people who have a seasonal canoe rental business. They also sell the best firewood that we have ever purchased. (small things make you happy when you are camping).
It was time to head south. The website Milepost www.themilepost.com has a great mile-by-mile description of this beautiful highway: “The Cassiar Highway was completed in 1972, and is asphalt-surfaced with the exception of a few short gravel breaks. The highway is generally narrower than most 2-lane highways, with little or no shoulder. It has easy curves and some long straight stretches. Although not particularly hilly, there are a few 8 percent grades and 2 switchback turns. There are no passing lanes, beyond one in the first few miles of the highway. The centerline and edge line markings may be missing along some northern sections of the highway”
We spent our day on the Cassiar Highway following rivers, lakes and small streams driving 320 miles south toward Meziadin Provincial Park on the lake. It takes a full day to cover those miles in a Westfalia if you include a nice lunch stop. There are several campsites right on Meziadin lake and it is a beautiful campground. They even have Wifi! (for $6) There were quite a few mosquitoes when we were there so a bug tent would be nice to have. This lake is supposed to have great fishing and I would like to have spent a day trying my luck. There were several fly fishers camped there.
The next morning we were up early and headed further down the highway to one of our previous campgrounds at Beaumont Provincial Park. As we left the Meziadin campground we knew that we were reluctantly passing up a visit Stewart and Hyder. The highway to these two villages pop. 100 each (one in BC and the other in the US.) passes the Bear Glacier and that have always been on Bob’s list of places to visit. This is a great destination in late July because the bears come to feed on the salmon. Since the salmon runs had not begun we decided to continue south. As we headed down the road we suddenly came upon a glacier that comes right down to a lake that is just across from the highway. We slowed, took pictures and continued on toward Beaumont Lake…..or so we thought. We soon encountered signs for Stewart and Hyder and suddenly realized that we had turned the wrong direction leaving the campground and had taken a 30 mile detour out to Hyder. We made a U-turn and headed back to the main highway stopping to take some photos of the bear Glacier along the way. The drive to Hyder is beautiful and winds through rock canyons and follows a wild river. The scenery is among the best along the Cassier and is not to be missed. It was a lucky detour.
