Which first - the Cassiar or the Alcan?

I can see why people who travel in June prefer going up the Alcan. We'll be heading out from Seattle to Alaska in August. Leaving room for flexibility, of course (road conditions, forest fires etc.), I think our best bet is actually to go up the Cassiar in August and return via the Alcan. I think it maximizes our chances for bear viewing at Hyder and as I understand from your post as well, the Cassiar *should* be ok to travel in August, as it's late enough in the season? Again, we'll find out for sure in August 2015. They say this is going to be an El Ninio year, so who knows. We traveled the Rockies extensively in 2011 and it was a difficult year, though beautiful. We saw lots and lots of snow in the mountain passes of Colorado and even found ourselves in the middle of a little snow storm in Mount Rocky National Park. Couldn't cross the ridge road and had to return! That was mid-June! In Glacier, they opened the GTTS road just a couple of days before we arrived in mid-July! In 2013 we were traveling the same areas in July and had to deal with huge fires and change our plans accordingly. So yes, definitely leaving room for flexibility!