Cassiar Highway to Port Hardy

Since we had gone North on a more inland route through Jasper and Dawson Creek, we wanted to take new roads going home. Since we wanted to cover all of Vancouver Island, it made more sense to take the ferry from Prince Rupert through the inside passage down to Port Hardy where we could do Vancouver Island from the top down. To get there we needed to go down the Cassiar Highway (37) to the (16) and take the (16) West to Prince Rupert.

The Milepost book we follow described the Cassiar Highway (37) as 900 miles long, well paved, narrow with no shoulders, and that is pretty much what we got. We would add three days drive with no cell service.

We spent our first night on the Cassiar at the Boya Lake Provincial Park.

campsite at Boya Lake Provincial Campground

Boya Lake Provincial Campground

The second night we stayed in the Kinaskan Provincial Park.

campsite in Kinaskan Provincial Campground

campsite in Kinaskan Provincial Campground

campsite in Kinaskan Provincial Campground

We fell in love with British Columbia’s Provincial Parks. They are very well maintained, in beautiful locations (usually right on a lake) and very resonably priced.

We were again disappointed as to the rarity of wildlife sightings. We saw one black bear dash across the road and into the forest.

But, we did get decent shots of a porcupine and a Ptarmigan, which we had seen before, but had not gotten photographs of.

young porcupine on the Cassiar Highway (37)

ptarmigan off the road out of the Boya Lake Provincial Campground

We stayed in another Provincial Park called Kleanza Lake after completing the Cassiar Highway (37) that was on the (16) near Terrace en route to Prince Rupert.

When we arrived at Prince Rupert we did our usual looky-loo drive around and fueled up in anticipation of having plenty of fuel when the ferry put us ashore at Port Hardy some 300 nautical miles away. The Prince Rupert RV Park was almost next door to the ferry terminal. We didn’t get a photo as we had to be at the ferry terminal by 5:30 am. But, we weren’t inclined to record our space anyway as we were parked right up next to a large Caterpillar bulldozer. The only high point is that we each got to a take long leisurely shower.

The ferry ride was pleasant through the Inside Passage, but made for a very long day. We got up a 4am and didn’t get to bed that day until well after midnight. We did upgrade our seats to the “Aurora Lounge”, a card pass lounge at the front of the vessel with reclining seats and a full 180 degree view.

We saw a couple whale blows, a flipper wave and a fluke. We had a port of call at Bella Bella and while docked we saw at least 100 large silver fish jump completely out of the water. We never saw what was chasing them, but we had heard that large trout will go after “silvers” (salmon?). We splurged on a couple of nice meals and since there was no Internet access Laura read and DR did DR stuff, as neither of us like to sleep in public.

ferry from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy

ferry from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy

ferry from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy

from ferry

from ferry

from ferry

We drove off the ferry in Port Hardy at around 11:30 pm. DR thought we might find a pullout or something on the road to Holberg. After driving about 5 miles in a real dark forest on a narrow logging road, we decided to return and spend the rest of the night in the Wildwoods Campground just outside the ferry terminal. We were finally able to lay our weary heads to rest and slept in the next day.

On a positive note we did get word from home that our kitty, Louie, is eagerly waiting our return.