Which first - the Cassiar or the Alcan?
We're planning a Seattle to Alaska and back trip for the summer of 2015. I read through the 2013 roll call thread's summary and am reading the 2014 one now, but since I haven't come across the info I ...
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I have done the round trip both ways, but normally, not as late in the fall as you are talking about. The Cassiar on the way up in late May or early June, is very nice, very few tourists, you don't have near the truck traffic, lots of wildlife babies out and about, but no bears have reported for duty at Hyder as of yet.
Traveling from Seattle, I would probably do the Alaska Hwy first. Cross the border at Sumas or farther west, then up the west side of the mountains, cut over to Banff NP and head north on the Icefields Parkway to Jasper, then east toward Hinton and north toward Grande Prairie, to Dawson Creek and the start of the Alaska Hwy. Coming back south, cut off on the Cassiar Hwy, just a few miles before you get to Watson Lake, YT. The Cassiar is a more remote and scenic road, than is the Alaska Hwy, IMHO. But the Cassiar is a slower drive, because it is much the same as when it was first finished, with the road curves, ups and downs of the hills, etc. It is a nice paved road, a bit narrow in places, that takes more attention to your driving at times. But it is more rustic, like the Alcan used to be before it got so civilized, etc. LOL
The three provincial parks on the Cassiar are some of the most scenic I have found in Canada or the US. September would be a better time to see them I think. Of the three Boya Lake is our favorite, on the north end of the Cassiar. Then in the middle of the Cassiar is Kinaskan Lake, also nice and on the southern end, there is Meziadin Lake PP. it tends to be much busier and have more visitors but a great place to stay while visiting Stewart-Hyder, closer to the coast. The weather tends to be better at Meziadin Junction and Lake.
If you like to see the bears, this route will work. I am not much for spending time watching bears, they smell bad and they will bite if you are not careful. Plus I have spent too many days bear hunting in Alaska, the 25 + years we lived in rural Alaska. But many folks seem to get a lot of pleasure out of watching a bear catch and eat a salmon. Different people like different things, it seems.
However by the time you get back to Hyder in the fall, you may well be sick and tired of seeing bears, as they are abundant in northern Canada and many parts of Alaska. The last trip we made, 2011, I enjoyed watching the young brown bear at the fish hatchery in Valdez. He was a less than full grown one, probably the equivalent of a teenager. Once he got full of eating fish, he loved to charge the crowd of people watching him from way too close, in my opinion. He would scatter the crowd of screaming running tourists and then after feeling very much the "big bad bear", he would get back in the water to fish a bit more and play. Then when the crowd gathered again, out of the water would charge Mr. Bear. He would do this for a couple of hours and get tired of it and wander back across the road and into the forest.
I found it much more fun to watch than the bears at Hyder catching and eating fish. LOL
Boya Lake PP
Boya Lake is one of the clearest lakes I have ever seen.
Traveling from Seattle, I would probably do the Alaska Hwy first. Cross the border at Sumas or farther west, then up the west side of the mountains, cut over to Banff NP and head north on the Icefields Parkway to Jasper, then east toward Hinton and north toward Grande Prairie, to Dawson Creek and the start of the Alaska Hwy. Coming back south, cut off on the Cassiar Hwy, just a few miles before you get to Watson Lake, YT. The Cassiar is a more remote and scenic road, than is the Alaska Hwy, IMHO. But the Cassiar is a slower drive, because it is much the same as when it was first finished, with the road curves, ups and downs of the hills, etc. It is a nice paved road, a bit narrow in places, that takes more attention to your driving at times. But it is more rustic, like the Alcan used to be before it got so civilized, etc. LOL
The three provincial parks on the Cassiar are some of the most scenic I have found in Canada or the US. September would be a better time to see them I think. Of the three Boya Lake is our favorite, on the north end of the Cassiar. Then in the middle of the Cassiar is Kinaskan Lake, also nice and on the southern end, there is Meziadin Lake PP. it tends to be much busier and have more visitors but a great place to stay while visiting Stewart-Hyder, closer to the coast. The weather tends to be better at Meziadin Junction and Lake.
If you like to see the bears, this route will work. I am not much for spending time watching bears, they smell bad and they will bite if you are not careful. Plus I have spent too many days bear hunting in Alaska, the 25 + years we lived in rural Alaska. But many folks seem to get a lot of pleasure out of watching a bear catch and eat a salmon. Different people like different things, it seems.
However by the time you get back to Hyder in the fall, you may well be sick and tired of seeing bears, as they are abundant in northern Canada and many parts of Alaska. The last trip we made, 2011, I enjoyed watching the young brown bear at the fish hatchery in Valdez. He was a less than full grown one, probably the equivalent of a teenager. Once he got full of eating fish, he loved to charge the crowd of people watching him from way too close, in my opinion. He would scatter the crowd of screaming running tourists and then after feeling very much the "big bad bear", he would get back in the water to fish a bit more and play. Then when the crowd gathered again, out of the water would charge Mr. Bear. He would do this for a couple of hours and get tired of it and wander back across the road and into the forest.
I found it much more fun to watch than the bears at Hyder catching and eating fish. LOL
Boya Lake PP
Boya Lake is one of the clearest lakes I have ever seen.
