“USA 🇺🇸 to Canada 🇨🇦 ~First Leg / Returning to the Lower 48 from Haines, Alaska to Stewart, British Columbia”

• August 23, 2023
• By Pen
• 2 Comments

Heading Back to The Lower 48 From Alaska

This Route:
Haines, Alaska to British Columbia, to the Yukon and back in to British Columbia: 890 Miles

Day 1:

Haines, Alaska 🇺🇸 to Just Past Tagish, Yukon 🇨🇦

This would be a push day to get us well under way, to eventually get going, true South.

Before we get to go true South, we first had to go North, then East. It has been a lot of extra miles, but we would not have wanted to miss Haines and Skagway, before leaving Alaska.

Around these parts, there are huge mountain ranges, so there is no going through them. One must go around.

We left Haines during the third day in a row of storms, and we were happy about that. Breaking camp in the storm was no fun, but we got Jonah hooked-up and The Whale buttoned up, and off we went!

Within an hour, we were crossing into Canada, again. We lost an hour, due to time zone change, but we don’t feel it. When we did our five-day trip to Dawson City, Yukon, we lost that hour then, too. I didn’t change clocks then, since five days is nothing, but we are in Canada for 18 days this time, so I changed the clocks.

The closer we got to our Southern route, we had dry pavement and some brighter skies. Not a lot of sun, but no rain. We still had wind for half the day. Strong winds that liked to blow The Whale around, like a matchbox car.

Every mile we drove today, was just backtracking for us. We’ve been in the same place on the Alaska Highway (AlCan), but going the opposite direction gives ample opportunities for scenic views, that are new.

How interesting to go through Whitehorse, Yukon for the second time, since May, to discover the construction we drove through, back then, is now complete. There is some new blacktop and it was nice.

The roads, now, are better overall than any place in Alaska. There are some bad places, with frost heaves and torn up blacktop, but as always, just slow way down to go over. We’ve gone from the majority of roads being bad, to the majority of roads being good, so far. We hope this last, where we can continue to actually cruise at 50 mph.

Wildlife Sightings:

2 Swans
5 Wild Horses
1 Deer
1 Coyote

After an 8-hour day, of primarily traveling the Alaska Highway, once again, we found a decent place to pull-over for the night.

During the day, we had one rest stop for 30-minutes and one fuel stop that took about 20-minutes.

The good news is, we are under an hour to Teslin, Yukon and the Teslin Lodge where they make delicious Cinnamon Rolls!! So, we will get under way in the morning and get us some!! We stopped on the way up, so we already know they are delicious!

Photo Dump ~Day 1 ⬇️

⬆️ Crossing into Canada

⬆️ Only in British Columbia for a very short while, before back out and into Yukon 

⬆️ Construction is done in Whitehorse! Nice pavement 

⬆️ Alaska Highway in French 

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Day 2:

Tagish, Yukon 🇨🇦 to Blue Lakes (near Boya Lake) on the Cassiar/Hwy 37 British Columbia

We awoke to a beautiful blue sky with sunshine! I hope it lasts. Taking scenic photos without rain is always better!

There were about four other RVers who also overnighted in the same large pull-off. Yukon is not so generous with boondocking spots, but British Columbia will be easier.

Daryl has a little bit of wifi with his phone service from the lower 48; Cricket. We have enough to operate maps, when we have a signal, so we can see our progress. When we turn on maps, even if we ttavrl

in a dead zone, if you do not turn off maps, it continues to work. I kept my maps on my phone, going for three days. (I used Daryls hot spot on his phone, for a hot second, to get my maps activated). There is great signage, so maps is not the only way to go, but on this day, we had to take the Cassiar, or Route 37/Dease Lake Highway exit, off the AlCan, which is a new route for us. We just want to make sure we did it right, AND from this point, we would finally be driving South, yay!

We had an all-day drive again, since our first campground, in Stewart BC, is almost 588 miles away, yet, and the Cassiar Highway turn-off is about 200 miles. We would like to cover at least 300 miles.

I was SOOOOO wrong about the Cinnamon Rolls stop *sigh*

I have no idea what I was thinking, since that stop is at a Lodge named Tetsa..WAY on the other side of Watson Lake, and west of Fort Nelson, coming UP the AlCan SO, since we will be taking the Cassiar turn-off, WAY before reaching them… Not Happening! The two names sound a lot alike so I got confused. Teslin and Tetsa. My bad!

Several hours later, Daryl is still talking about the missed cinnamon rolls 😜

We had great weather, today, and it was so nice! We also made our cut-off from the AlCan, no issues, and are officially heading South, for this part of our trip, all the way through Prince Rupert and our second campground stop, there.

Highway 37 is narrower, but still a decent road so far, but not great, as our third day would be the hardest. There has been fire devastation on this route at the start of Hwy 37. We heard about these fires, while we were in Alaska, but as far as I know, all fires are out. No smoke, but yes, burned trees… always sad to see.

I knew we were getting close to British Columbia, when we saw a Black Bear, munching on some grass, happy as can be!

Our day, today, was just over five hours. In that time, Daryl took a 40-min nap, and later we topped-off our fuel in The Whale and filled up Jonah, near Watson Lake. Still no premium fuel for the Bug, but what can ya do.

We are ahead of schedule, so we get to be a bit more choosier where we boondock, since we are not pushing at all. We saw a spot near one of many little lakes (called Blue Lakes) in the area and pulled in. (we were just pretending there was no burned forest around us).

At our site for the night, we are only 372 miles from our first campground stay in Stewart. This means a normal drive day, tomorrow, too.

Wildlife Sightings:

1 Rabbit
1 Black Bear

Photo Dump ~Day 2 ⬇️

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Day 3:

Just Past Highway 37 Junction to Blue Lakes / “someplace” and 133 miles from Stewart BC 🇨🇦

Not a great visual, I know. We were so remote, there was nothing for the maps to pin, and having no wifi, this was impossible to mark where we stopped. So the “X” is an estimated distance, on our way to Stewart 

BTW, This Hwy 37 has many names: Cassiar, Dease Lake and British Columbia, and Stewart Highway. It all depends on what part of Hwy 37 you are on.

I had a hard time falling asleep last night, because it started raining as soon as we went to bed. Pre-Alaska trip, a little rain on the “tin” roof was pretty cool, but now it’s just taunting. Being right next to a lake, I wondered about flooding (the nerves comes from getting woken up by a tsunami warning in July, that we were in danger and to leave the area; for which there was no escape route for us at that time).

This morning, though many more puddles, the sun was out, and no flooding. We enjoyed the morning drive, until it clouded up and started raining, again.

Daryl finally quit talking about Cinnamon Rolls, on this day….🤣

Today, we drove 5.5 hours with no stops at all. We are about three hours from our first campground stop, in Stewart BC and we are glad about that.

The road turned worse and it was slow going, again, to avoid the bad parts. Construction again, too. We are not seeing much wildlife, as I had hoped to, by this point, but I’m still staying optimistic. We got pretty spoiled driving up through BC in the spring time, when we got to see so much!

The scenery is quite pretty on Highway 37, the further south we travel… like gorgeous!

Wildlife Sightings:

1 Red Fox

Photo Dump ~Day 3 ⬇️

⬆️ Fox

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Day 4:

133 miles From Steward BC to Arriving at Stewart BC 🇨🇦

The same visual, from the “X” to Stewart BC and our campground stay 

No rush this morning. We got to be a little lazy and take our time. Three nights in a row, boondocking and being off-the-grid is plenty for us, so we are motivated to get to the campground, with full-hookups and wifi! We have new tenants coming in to our house in California, so we have some business to take care of and need to be connected.

Life

Oh my gosh, what a day!

After a few hours on the road, things began to change. First, we started to see many Black Bears, and the roads improved a little.
We would be 5.5 hours on the road today, with one fuel stop. 133 miles took longer than anticipated, due to this part having a lot more curves. 

As we got closer to Stewart, we were reminded why we came this direction to begin with! It has been so worth it!

The Glaciers. The Bears and the Campground. Yes, Bears in the Campground!
This is gonna be fun!

Wildlife Sightings:

4 Black Bears

Photo Dump ~Day 4 ⬇️

We drove on new pavement! Best four minutes of our whole drive! 🤣

This one had a scar of some kind on his rear end. He moved fine, though. This one and the one before, I think might be siblings. They were close together, by one curve in the road, and looked young, like mom kicked them out, just this summer

Bear River Rv Park 

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Our entire drive from Haines, Alaska to Stewart, British Columbia ⬇️

Alaska

British Columbia 

Yukon