Stewart British Columbia

ahschneid
Sep 6
6 min read

The trip between Skagway and Stewart was broken up with a stop in Yukon for one night. We were pleasantly surprised to find a nice campground completely unseen from the highway. It was a nice spot for a good night's rest. We arrived in Stewart the evening of Friday 29 August.

We saw Shannon walking their dog Riggs right when we arrived at Bear River Campground in Stewart BC. They texted us the information about the fishing trip and they picked us up at 7:40am Saturday morning. We were out for 8 hours and the fishing was somewhat slow. We each caught a King (Chinook) salmon, with Shannon catching the biggest. Anita's was small, Brent caught two nice size salmon and Steve caught a nice size salmon. The captain had also put out crab pots to catch Dungeness crabs, but that was slow too. Only two keeper male crabs from four pots.

Skagway to Yukon 28 August 2025

Skagway to Yukon 28 August 2025

Yukon to Stewart BC 29 August 2025

Yukon to Stewart BC 29 August 2025

Yukon to Stewart BC 29 August 2025

Yukon to Stewart BC 29 August 2025

Bear Glacier

Yukon to Stewart BC 29 August 2025

Yukon to Stewart BC 29 August 2025

Bear Glacier

Yukon to Stewart BC 29 August 2025

Bear Glacier

Yukon to Stewart BC 29 August 2025

Bear Glacier

Stewart BC 29 August 2025

Our campsite at Bear River Campground in Stewart BC

Stewart BC 30 August 2025

Morning of fishing trip

Stewart BC - 30 August 2025

Stewart BC - 30 August 2025

Stewart BC - 30 August 2025

Wild Northern Fishing Charter (Mooching using fly rods in downrigger)

Stewart BC - 30 August 2025

Shannon with her catch...

Stewart BC - 30 August 2025

Brent reeling one in...

Stewart BC - 30 August 2025

Stewart BC - 30 August 2025

Stewart BC - 30 August 2025

Stewart BC - 30 August 2025

Stewart BC - 30 August 2025

Keeper Male Dungeness crabs

Stewart BC - 30 August 2025

Shannon, Brent, Anita and Steve

After our day of fishing we all got together at our campsite for a smorgasbord of smoked salmon, crabs, sole, baked potatoes and veggies. We were all pretty tired after the day of fishing and called it a night pretty early. On Sunday the 31st Steve and Anita planned to go to mass at the local Catholic church, St. Felix. It turned out that mass is only offered on the second and fourth Sundays at 4pm, so we missed mass that week with no Internet and none available.

We went out to explore Stewart on Monday and we drove into Hyder Alaska to see if any bears had been seen at the Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Site. No bears had been seen since the previous Thursday evening. Brent and Shannon had seen some that evening too. The rangers at the viewing area thought it was too warm for them to come out. All the locals said it was very unusual to have temps in the 70's this time of year. It was sunny and beautiful so we tried to spend as much time outdoors as possible. When we returned to our campsite on Monday we were surprised to see a couple we had met last winter at the Grand Design Rally in Quartzsite AZ, Darrell and Teresa! They had just arrived and were staying two nights. It is almost surreal to run into people you know in Alaska, but it's happened twice to us this summer. We had dinner plans with Brent and Shannon that night, but the next night we hung out with Darrell and Teresa just outside our campers. They attend Escapee rallies and talk like they're lots of fun. We've talked about going when one is convenient and close to where we are. That might be this winter in at Lake Havasu AZ. We'll see.

The night of Labor Day we were supposed to have a good chance to see the Aurora Borealis AKA Northern Lights. We woke up at 1am on 2 Sept and drove to a dark place but didn't see anything. We were not in an open area. There are no open areas near where we were staying, so we missed the lights. We saw a lady in the laundry room who saw them from the last campsite we stayed at in the Yukon (Baby Nugget Campground) and she showed us the pictures. We'll catch them one night. She also saw bears at the Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Site in Hyder on Thursday, 3 September, the one night we didn't go!

Hyder Alaska 31 August 2025

We saw this big Grizzly bear on the way to Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Site when cars were pulled over and we stopped too...

Hyder Alaska 31 August 2025

Hyder Alaska 31 August 2025

Hyder Alaska 31 August 2025

Hyder Alaska 31 August 2025

Hyder Alaska 31 August 2025

Stewart BC 1 September 2025

Stewart BC 1 September 2025

Stewart BC 1 September 2025

Stewart BC 1 September 2025

Stewart BC 1 September 2025

Stewart BC 1 September 2025

Stewart BC 1 September 2025

Stewart BC 1 September 2025

El Tostador is where we had dinner with Brent and Shannon

Stewart BC 1 September 2025

Stewart BC 1 September 2025

Stewart BC 1 September 2025

Stewart BC 1 September 2025

Big Grizzly bear we saw on our way home from Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Site

Hyder Alaska 1 September 2025

Hyder Alaska 1 September 2025

Back side of picture above...

We had gotten a pass for seven days for the Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Site so we went almost every day. We started just checking the board for anything seen because the number of dead salmon was rising every day and the smell was less than pleasant. On Tuesday 2 Sept, we drove up to see Salmon Glacier. That was a 20-mile up a dirt/gravel road. We hadn't washed our truck yet from the trip on the Cassiar Highway and through the Yukon, so we caked on some more dirt.