Cassier Hwy

Cassiar Highway, British Columbia, July 26-28

Hi everybody!  It has been quite a trip.  Oh my goodness!  As I am writing we saw a bear on the side of the road and we slowed down and took some pictures of him and he walked right up to the motorhome and checked us out.  I think we could have bonded with him if a semi wasn't in back of us.  That was absolutely the best bear sighting we have had on this trip!  Thank God for this gift!  Back to our trip.  We left Skagway and started the Cassiar highway.  We had read that it was much improved over the Alaskan highway but they lied.  It was porpoisy and gravelly on much of it and didn't get much better until we were halfway through.  But we did see a couple of neat attractions.  We didn't make our turn when we were supposed to and came upon the Carcross desert.  What a surprise!  It is an area of sand dunes.  It is composed of sandy lake-bottom material left behind by a large glacial lake.  I am so glad we missed our turn.  You never know what you'll find in the mountains.  And it is a rainforest.  I never heard of a desert in the rainforest.  We turned around and made our turn and came upon Jade City.  It earned it's name as a commercial outlet for jade mined from the nearby mountains.  The store was just packed with beautiful pieces of different specimens of jade.  These Cassiar mountains provides 92% of the worlds jade market.  This was a neat place with free coffee, Wi-fi and overnight camping.  This was definitely a jewel. 
We stayed 2 nights at turnouts in the road when we got tired of driving.  At our lunch breaks we ate and then took a power nap to re-energize us.  The nights were, to say the least, cool. We woke up to 40 degree temps.  We used the oven for dinner and turned on our generator in the mornings.  We don't mind.  We are tried and true campers.  Even George hasn't complained about the cold.  After all, it is Alaska and Canada.  We have about 150 miles to Stewart, B.C. Where we will stay for a couple of days to recharge.  See you there.