I’ve wanted to return to the Salmon Glacier ever since we explored that area in 2010. The flowers were spectacular, the wildlife visible, the weather fine and the glacier, impressive. So, when we carved out 3 weeks for a vacation this summer, that was our goal. Foolish perhaps, as I’d forgotten how far away it is from Colorado. But we made it there and back, with no time to dawdle. I’ll let you know what we found, but first we had to get there. We knew there was huge fire devastation in the NE corner of British Columbia (BC), but the rest of the province was calm when we made our plans. By the time we were underway, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and southern BC were all on fire. First night over the border at Roosville, MT/BC, we found the lovely St Mary’s River valley with the bonus of a shortcut to the western side of BC over Gray Creek Pass where we thought the smoke would be gone.

 Turned out the shortcut was over a rough road and not a time saver, but the scenery was lovely. (Not that we had time to stop to enjoy it.) There is a picnic table on Gray Creek pass, so we did take a short break to observe smaller interests.

The smoke wasn’t abating, in fact crossing the Kootenay Lake on a car ferry this was the view.

Around New Denver the roads were being closed due to fire, but we squeaked through and managed to find a nice mossy campsite near the mouth of Halfway River. An owl hooted us to sleep.

A second ferry on highway 23 to Shelter Bay wasn’t quite so smoky. We were making progress getting out of the smoke. A long day of driving put the smoke behind us.

North of Williams Lake, off the Lynes Creek road we took a chance on the Forest Lake CG. There are so many small forest service campgrounds available to campers willing to take dirt roads to get to them. During the week at least, they were nearly vacant. The Provincial Park campgrounds are another story…busy and usually requiring reservations.

At the large city of Prince George, we turned west on 16, the Yellowhead highway. Followed that until the turnoff on the Cassiar Highway 37 heading toward the Yukon.

At the intersection are the Kitwanga (or Gitanyow) Totem Poles. Some of them are over 100 years old (and showing their age).

Totem poles are created to document creation stories or to signify the clan members of a particular community or the lineage of a family. Each totem pole features symbolic and stylized human, animal, and supernatural forms. Carved from red cedar logs, they are rot resistant. A totem pole can last up to 100 years before the ravages of nature and time take hold. Eventually they weaken and the totem pole will fall.

To the First nations people this is the natural cycle of the totem and the tree it was made from. They are left in place to rot or taken to a safer location to return to the earth. They are never stood up again after falling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Until the potlatch ban (1885 to 1951) was lifted, totem poles were appropriated by Europeans to take to museums and parks around the world. Christian missionaries encouraged cutting down totem poles, which they saw as pagan obstacles to converting indigenous people. Here are couple more then and now showing how the totems are disintegrating.

The St. Paul’s Anglican church, a landmark built in 1893, stood next to a wooden bell tower. The bell tower had rotted and was replaced in 1974 with what we see now.

The church had been vacant, used only for weddings and funerals when, under very suspicious circumstances, it burned on Canada Day, July 1, 2021. Another Catholic church in Alberta burned the same day under equally suspicious conditions. Four other catholic churches on indigenous lands in BC had burned earlier with no culprits charged. My guess is the first nations people have long memories and are very unhappy with the actions of the Catholic missionaries.

Speaking of fires, it was about this time we were alerted that our own house in Colorado was in an evacuation zone due to wildfire. Yikes! Not much we could do from BC. Fortunately for us, we were notified the restrictions were lifted a few days later and our house remained intact. Whew!

 

 

Our first night on the Cassiar Hwy. we found Derrick Lake campground. As before, there were very few other campers. On the way we saw our first and only moose. At the lake we saw and heard one of the few loons of the trip. Bird and wildlife sightings were minimal and didn’t improve.

Take the turnoff on 37A to get to the Salmon glacier.

There is a very big provincial park and campground at the Meziadin Lake but it was crowded at the time. We passed the Bear glacier a few miles after the turnoff. In 2010 a bear was ambling along the highway.

This time, nary a bear. Here is a preview of what is to come.

Next post, we reach our goal…the Salmon Glacier.