The Twin Falls which we had tried to photograph in the morning were blanketed in fog and visibility was too poor for better pictures. We drove back into the town of Smithers where we got a morning coffee and explored the down town area. There were some nice shops which were built in typical mountain town style and here we were able to finally buy our missing items for the cameras. On the way back to the vehicle we were stopped by some locals and after a quick chat about the change in my pocket I was told I had a great handshake and we continued back to the vehicle with our higher spirits. Following HWY 16 out of town we ran into the same lovely ladies that stopped us last night, however here we had to wait for approximately 15 minutes and the traffic was impatient and honking the whole time. The next stop was Moricetown where we got some excellent shots of the Moricetown Canyon right off the highway.
The next series of communities along HWY 16 were called The New Hazeltons where we made our first stop to try to dry out our soaking wet tent. We did this in the Visitor Center parking lot where we caused quite the attraction with most individuals stopping and asking us about how our fancy contraption works. After towel drying most of the water off the tent we headed towards the local suspension bridge which is known to be one of the highest in North America.
Driving towards the Cassier HWY turn-off we kept our eyes pealed into the bushes for any bears or other wildlife which were described in our tour book as being abundant in the area. No such luck for these travelers, all we saw was a fox running across the road far away.
Our next stop was Stewart, and the drive into town was absolutely spectacular with the road winding through the valley between snow peaked mountains and passing ancient glaciers melting into a nearby river. The town of Stewart is very small, and there is a lot of old history laying around, this included old rail cars used in the mines, tugboats, rock drills and some old cannons. We decided to fork out $16 for the local campground where we were finally able to enjoy hot showers, dry weather, and some more curious campers.
Tomorrow we are quickly crossing the border into Alaska and will be visiting a world famous viewing point at Fish Creek for watching the local bears feeding on Salmon in the river. Our hopes are high that we will get the chance to see one of these magnificent creatures before we head North towards Whitehorse.
Our original plan of using my Iphone for services is going down hill fast, because it is difficult to upload pictures through the phone and in these parts I have no service. This means we have resorted to using local coffee shops with WiFi so our postings are typically written in the evening and then posted the next morning.
