2024 Alaska Road Trip (Day 49)

This journal posting chronicles Day 49 of a road trip to Alaska and back with Diane, Kenny and Deneen.

Full list of journal posts for 2024 Alaska Road Trip

Day 49 - Saturday August 10th

Today was yet more tracks south on the Stewart-Cassiar Highway from Kinaskan Lake Provincial Park to Kitwanga River RV Campground, Kitwanga, BC. We drove a total of 235 miles/379 km.

Sunrise at Kinaskan Lake was 5:57 AM and sunset in Kitwanga, BC was 9:15 PM.

The farther south we drove the better the road became, we went from no lines on the road to a single yellow line, and today we went from a single yellow line, to a double yellow line with passing zones and even a fog line.

After a while it became clear that there was a lot more traffic this far south on the Stewart-Cassiar Highway, including heavy haulers, so the road is much better maintained than father north.

We believe that the truck in front of us, which we followed for a very long time before finally being able to pass, was hauling gold ore from a mine to be process somewhere south.

Metal bridge with heavy haul truck in front of us. — Bell-Irving River Bridge - Stewart-Cassiar Highway (Hwy 37), British Columbia, Canada

We were surprised to start to see fall colors as we headed south given it is only mid August.

Leaves turning yellow next to the road. — Early Fall Colors - Stewart-Cassiar Highway (Hwy 37), British Columbia, Canadas

We stopped at the Nass River Bridge rest stop to try to find the Meziadin Fish Ladders that we had read about in a driving guide to the Stewart-Cassier Highway. There was even a sign at this rest stop talking about them.

We figured out that the turn off was about a half mile back, so we drove back there, and after a short distance on a gravel road we found a place to drop the trailer so we could explore more easily. Unfortunately we are pretty sure that the fish ladders were down a road that had a no trespassing sign on it, so we did not get to see them.

Looking under a modern bridge at fast flowing water. — Nass River Bridge - Stewart-Cassiar Highway (Hwy 37), British Columbia, Canada

It is unclear how this unfortunate soul backed their moving van off the side of the highway into a ditch blocking half the road. I assume they were trying to turn around, but there were no side roads for a long ways either direction so I don’t know what they would have missed.