The Friendliest Ghost Town in Alaska: Hyder (11 June)


We have two nights in Stewart so we decided to cross the border back into Alaska to visit the town of Hyder. Hyder is isolated. The only way to get there is by flying in or via Stewart in Canada. Hyder and Stewart are located at the end of a narrow fiord so they are surrounded by steep slopes, waterfalls, glaciers of all shapes and sizes, and trees.



While Hyder's origins are in gold mining, it’s hard to see why Hyder exists nowadays. Immediately on entering we saw several abandoned or dilapidated buildings with two occupied premises, one a bar (closed on Mondays) and the other a gift shop selling tourist tack and fudge. (We spent $13 there.) The empty buildings have resulted in Hyder marketing itself as "The Friendliest Ghost Town in Alaska." It is said to be listed on the official Ghost Town Register; if there is such a thing.





Past the first street, Hyder has a few other operational businesses, one of them being a kitchen in a bus where we bought delicious seafood chowder. We continued on to Fish Creek where we were about three weeks too early to see the salmon making a run up the river and the bears catching them. Nevertheless, it was an interesting and attractive place. The boardwalk is constructed with sides to maintain a barrier between bears and spectators when the salmon are running. Some of the trees were over 50 cm in diameter so probably well over 100 years old. 



Tomorrow we start heading towards Vancouver in a four day journey via Houston (not in Texas), Prince George, and Clinton. Hopefully at least one of them will have robust wifi.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas

Image
Our big adventure started with a flight from Auckland to Las Vegas. We are staying in Sam's Town Hotel and Casino. Its marvelous. So kitsch. There are 2,600+ one-arm bandits, roulette and other tables,  betting on sports across 60 screens showing everything - horse racing, dogs, NBA, etc. There's a bowling alley, multiplex cinema, shows, a pool, conference rooms, oodles of restaurants including a 24 hour McDs. The atrium has real trees and other plants, running water through an impressive 3 story waterfall, and fake but animated animals - bear, mountain lion, woodpecker, squirrel, eagle, deer, etc. Its as close as some of the people here will get to nature. It's easy to be appalled but we're enjoying seeing Trump's America; it's great - again 😁. Tomorrow we take a shuttle and check out the strip. We don't pick up the motorhome until May 3.
Read more

Las Vegas to Beatty via Death Valley

Image
We set off at 8.00 this morning, taking about an hour to clear the traffic lights and traffic but we were soon in desert. The first picture shows us at a morning tea stop.  In true western style, there was also a horse at this stop although it arrived in a truck. We eventually arrived at the visitor centre at Furnace Creek in Death valley. As the photo shows, it was 103degrees Fahrenheit (39.5C). It's a fascinating area with a strong recent history of mining for gold and other minerals (we visited an abandoned borax mine). It has also been full of characters and stories, some of which are believable. This was a wagon used to pull out borax with a 20 mule team. We visited Rhyolite, an old abandoned ghost town (there are even sculptures of ghosts) where gold was found in 1904, a town established in 1905 and had between 5,000 and 8,000 residents in 1908 before the mines went bust. The population had dropped to 14 in 1920. Death Valley is stunning. The land form...
Read more

Motorhome

Image
On Thursday we went to collect our motorhome. It's made in America and very different from the more commonly seen European styles in New Zealand. The decor, floor plan, finish and style are quite different. We have an island bed (yippee) and there is also a slideout. That is, when we park we can push part of one side out about 50 cm giving us more space. Actually, "we" don't push it out; we just press a button and it happens. After collecting the motorhome and getting told how to manage it we went to Walmart for some groceries and then to Arizona Charlies where we stayed overnight. There are five motorhomes in our group with the operators in one that they own and an Australian couple and two other New Zealand couples as well as us.    
Read more