Getting close to Alaska!

Yesterday was a ton of fun! We drove up the Cassier Hwy part way, then turned onto the Glacier Hwy to Stewart, BC/Hyder, Alaska. We spent the afternoon birding and sightseeing in Stewart/Hyder. I saw four new life birds! Northwestern Crow and Mew Gull in British Columbia, and Varied Thrush and Pacific Wren in Alaska! Varied Thrush is an awesome bird with a really neat and unique song! Visit this link to see and hear a Varied Thrush: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/varied_thrush/sounds

Yesterday morning we also visited some first nations people's totem poles and a really old, beautiful church and bell tower (see below). The Cassier Highway is proving to be extremely beautiful! Today, even though it rained the whole day, we saw some incredible scenery and even saw some good birds and a second American Black Bear!!

 As beautiful as the area is, I am extremely disappointed and saddened by the amount of clear cutting going on up here. It is unbelievable how many trucks go by filled with logs, how many timber yards have thousands and thousands of trees piled up and how many lovely mountain-sides are completely bare, torn up, and ugly.

Tomorrow we head up the rest of the Cassier Hwy to the Yukon and hopefully make to the Alaskan Hwy!