Ice. Water. Fire.

With a bit of trepidation, we crossed he border from Alaska into Canada. Objective – drive down the Cassiar Highway to Prince Rupert. Reports of British Columbia (BC) and California burning left us wondering whether our desired roads will be open. Over five hundred wildfires cannot stop us. Fingers crossed.

In the end, only a couple areas on the planned route were closed due to fire. Light smoke and ash enveloped one campground motivating us to move along. Luckily, Yukon and BC offer vast territory to explore. Great places to camp and explore abound.

Twenty thousand of Canada’s two million lakes are located in BC. Campgrounds by the lakes are spectacular.

Like many areas in Alaska and Canada, the desire for striking it rich brought people. When turning on the road to get to Atlin, locals stopped the vans to welcome us to the area. Nice.

Hyder, Alaska, population 87, is accessible by water or by a 41 mile detour off Canada’s Cassiar Highway. Why go to Hyder, you ask? Bears. Fish Creek is famous for bears and salmon. We wanted to see bears.

Water, fire. Where is the ice? Glaciers, glaciers and more receding glaciers. Every sign by a glacier showed a map with the position of the glacier in years past.

hen researching the Cassiar Highway, descriptions indicated a 543 mile rough, pothole filled road. We were ready. The road turned out to be the best quality road Miles traversed in months.

Lava Road Auto Tour is right up our alley. Lava, fuzzy, lava, first nations museum, lakes, glaciers. Around 1700, 2000 people were killed at Canada’s latest volcanic eruption. Large lava flows dammed the Nass River and destroyed two villages of the Nisga’a people. Lava beds rise as much as 36 feet above the road.

From afar, a modern building appeared as we drove through the Nass Valley. The Nisga’a Museum is stunning inside and out. Education. Artifacts. History.

We loved the Nass Valley and the Nisga Nation. Thank you for letting us explore your land.

Rigs traveling in Alaska and Canada come in all shapes and sizes.

Arriving in Prince Rupert is bittersweet. Here we bid goodbye to our traveling buddies, Chris and Chris. They head back to Oregon and we hop on the BC ferry to Vancouver Island. We will miss them heaps.