A morning drive around Prince Rupert to view a few more murals. At one stop we saw two bald eagles sitting in the top of a tree. Both just seemed to be surveying the surroundings. Rosemary thought the eagles appeared like an ornament on the top of the tree. We then drove about 20 minutes to Port Edwards to visit the North Pacific Cannery National Historic Site. A guided tour was very interesting. Established in 1889, it is the oldest surviving salmon cannery. About 30 buildings linked by wooden boardwalks includes the canning lines, company store and living quarters. One canning line is still in working condition and was turned on to demonstrate. At its peak, there were 80 such canneries sending canned salmon to Europe. The workers were made up of Europeans, Chinese, Japanese and First Nations (natives). Each group had separate canning facilities mostly due to language barriers. The cannery is built of wooden structures resting but not attached to pilings over the water which took advantage of natural refrigeration from the cold water. In 1968, Canada passed a law that canneries must have concrete floors and stainless steel walls causing an abrupt shut down of the old wooden canneries. Amazingly, this cannery was not stripped like all the others and the original equipment still remains. In the afternoon we walked around the shops of Cow Bay, a part of Prince Rupert along the waterfront. Dinner at Fukasaku was excellent with delicious black cod together with assorted sushi and other items including octopus and scallop mantle.
Day 79, June 19, 2019, Wednesday. Prince Rupert, BC (92 miles)
Another quiet night at the Terrace Walmart. We utilized the visitor center’s free potable water and sani dump and headed west towards Prince Rupert. The drive was even more beautiful then what we have seen earlier on the trip. Bigger mountains with lots of snow, some with steep cliffs with waterfalls cascading thousands of feet into the Skeena River. As we got closer to Prince Rupert the river got wider and then it was obvious that there was a tidal effect on the river. When we arrived in Prince Rupert, we headed to the Walmart but we found the parking lot too small fo rus so we found street parking near the courthouse. We walked to the Sunken Gardens followed by a 3.2 km hike, the Rushbrook Trail, along the bay during which we constantly had four bald eagles flying over our heads. During our walk around town we saw numerous murals on various buildings throughout the city. We also drove around the city and found the marine terminal where we catch our ferry to Alaska on Friday.
A stop to the Terrace visitor center was well worth it. I had desired to go to the Nisga’a Memorial Lava Bed Provincial Park which is 60 miles north of Terrace and 60 miles back but with earlier info that the last 15 miles was unpaved made us reluctant. The gal at the visitor center had been there the past week and informed us the road was good and paved all the way now and we could take our coach without any problem. A side note that there was no discussion of anything to do in Terrace. So off we went in the coach towing the car. The park has an auto tour with 17 stops (some of which are actually outside the park but in Nisga’a territory) of which we hit 11. Beautiful snow capped mountains, a couple waterfalls, a drowned forest where the river flows through the trees, a few short hikes and extensive lava beds made for a very nice day. Oh, and we saw another black bear making it the eighth bear we have seen in the past week but which I forgot to write about. We also saw a bald eagle. The lava is from the last volcanic eruption in Canada, 270 years ago. It killed 2,000 of the Nisga’a people. The park is jointly managed by the Nisga’a and the BC Parks. The lava beds are covered with lichen which can grow without soil. Over time, dust and dirt can accumulate enough for some other plants to take root but given the small and some distorted trees present, other plants do not thrive there. There was also a hot springs which was reached by a boardwalk through a flooded forest to two wooden hot tubs. No one was in the hot tubs. It is had to imagine anyone getting undressed enough to go in as the mosquitos were out in force and the air temp was cold. The Nisga’a call the water “stinky water” due to the sulphurous smell. Back to the Terrace Walmart for another quiet night.
We left the Telkwa campground and went to the Smithers visitor center to park the coach. We walked down Main Street. The town architecture is modeled like a small Swiss town. Rosemary got her latte at the Bugwood Bean and I got my jelly donut at Paul’s Bakery. We also got some goodies at the Smithers Sausage Factory (alas, not sausages). We were planning on a hike to Twin Falls with a 525 foot drop but the rain came so we decided to push further west. We stopped at the Hazelton visitor center but it is closed Mondays. We detached the car and drove to “Old Town” Hazelton with many historic buildings. On the way we crossed a rather large one lane bridge and stopped at an overlook to a view of a river valley. Hazelton claims to be the totem pole capital of the world but we saw a much better display in Vancouver. From there, we had a beautiful drive along the Skeena River and snow capped mountains arriving at the Terrace, BC, Walmart. An evening car drive around downtown Terrace was pretty uneventful.
Beautiful, absolutely beautiful. We enjoyed our visit to Alaska. We saw it from a cruise ship. I like your way better!
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