Stewart, BC and Hyder, Alaska

I departed Dease Lake at 7:40am and it was 44 degrees outside.  I drove 246 miles and when I arrived in Stewart, BC it was 63 degrees.

Stewart is a small town, and it’s on the border of Canada and the United States with the town of Hyder, AK located on the other side of the border.

When I arrived in town, I went to the only gas station and filled up and then drove down the main street and stopped in the visitor center.

Even though we had to drive through construction with a pilot car, the drive into Stewart was nice.  I also saw a beautiful glacier.

As I got closer it was overcast and a bit foggy.  Driving through the mountains felt like driving into a scary movie.  It was beautiful.

We stayed in Stewart for two nights.  One of the “activities” that was included was a ticket for two days to go to the Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Site located in Hyder, AK.   

In order to go to Fish Creek we had to go through the US/Canada border.  When traveling over to Hyder there was no check point to stop.   When we returned from Hyder we had to stop at the Canadian Custom’s to return to Stewart.  It was only a few mile drive from Stewart, Canada to Hyder, AK.

I was invited to go along with some friends to Fish Creek.   They invited me to go with them both evenings that we were in town.  

Our first visit to Fish Creek we did not see any bears but saw lots of mostly dead Chum Salmon and Pink Salmon.  The Salmon is what brings in the bears.

Fish Creek has a boardwalk that you enter and can look down into two streams.  Of course, we ran into others from our tour group, so it was fun checking out the area.  

This wildlife observation area is run by the national forest service, so there are park rangers working the area.  They all have walkie talkies and keep in touch with each other by letting others know where the bears are located with the purpose of keeping the observers safe. 

On the second night that we visited we were very lucky and saw two bears!  Upon arrival and entering the boardwalk area we saw folks taking photos which was a good sign that a bear was present.   Low and behold there was a grizzly enjoying the fish eggs from the salmon.  It was very picky and was only looking for the females to eat their eggs.  At one point it stepped on a dead fish and fish eggs erupted like a volcano from the fish!  The eggs are high in fat which the bears are looking for heading into their winter hibernation.  

While watching the grizzly it started walking and made its way down the stream towards the area where we entered the boardwalk.  We followed it and watched it as it continued to eat and then walked under a bridge onto the other side of the road. 

The rangers were all alert as they said that bear had never done that before.  They said the bear’s name was “Rudder”.

Once the bear was well on the other side of the road and walking down the stream farther away from us did the rangers permit us to enter the other boardwalk.  

As we were walking down that board walk, we found out that the grizzly crossed over the street and entered the stream that we were now looking at.   We watched the grizzly proceed to walk down the stream in front of us and back toward the original boardwalk that we came from.

We then returned to the first boardwalk to see what the bear was doing and found it in an open area on the opposite side of the boardwalk.  Of course, the rangers were all alert to that bear’s activities. 

We decided to walk back to the entrance of the boardwalk and were going to head back to the campground.  While walking back I noticed a black bear crossing the road and heading into the stream.  I shouted Black Bear to my friends.  The rangers had no idea this bear was in the area.  We watched the bear for a little bit and finally the rangers showed up.

The bear walked into the grassy area right below where we were standing on the boardwalk and headed right toward us.  I have a video below of it walking toward us.  It then goes under the boardwalk to the other side and heads into the stream on that side.  

We heard that once the black bear saw the grizzly it ran up the hill.  Those bear types do not get along.

What a fun experience at Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Site