We back tracked back up the Stewart-Hyder Highway (37A) and back to the Cassier Highway (37). Along the way we stopped at several First Nation Villages to see totem poles. The fist village was Gitanyow, where there were many reproductions of totem poles. The plaque below explains what the poles stand for.
The Mile Post had indicated the totems at Gitanyow were the oldest, but I think the oldest were at Gitawangak. They were leaning and looked very old and authentic. One of the local stopped to warn us as she was driving by, not to get to close because there were precariously leaning towards the street.
We also stopped at Kitwanga and viewed the Kitwanga Fort National Historical Site, the first major Canadian Native site to be commemorated by Parks Canada.
We continued to the junction of the Cassier and Yellowhead (16) and headed towards Prince Rupert. We stopped in Terrace for the night at the Ferry Island Municipal Campground. Its a wonderful campground with a nice walking loop along the Skeena River in the rain forest. There are about 53 whimsical tree carvings along the loop. It was kind of like a treasure hunt looking for and finding the carvings.
Liz and Nancy have found one of the many carvings.
The campground sits beside the Skeena River
There were other things to see and do in Terrace, including lots of hiking and there is suppose to be good mountain biking. Next time.
Friday, we continued to Prince Rupert and headed directly to the information center. I thought the GPS was acting up again because there was no visitor center at the address I had entered. We found the visitor center, but at a different spot after much circling. Apparently the center had moved and we had the wrong address. My apologies to the GPS. Prince Rupert is not RV friendly, at least in the Cow Bay and Down Town area. The streets are narrow and the parking lots small, and unlike most visitor center there is no parking. I finally found a place to park on the street, taking up 4 or 5 spaces.
We determined that there would be no boon docking and back tracked to Prudhomme Lake Provincial Park. A very nice campground, right off the highway. With it being Friday, I was concerned about finding a campsite. The three of us didn’t have any problems finding a site, but I was glad we weren’t much later because the campground filled up pretty fast.
Saturday morning we headed out to Butze Rapids. This is a reversing tide rapid. One is suppose to see the rapids reverse with the change in tide. As suggest by the Mile Post we arrived at the site about an hour after low tide and watched as the tide came in. The changes were very subtle. ...like watching grass grow. Pretty though.
Butze Rapids during the tide change. The tide is coming in.
Grassy Bay with the rapids about the middle of the picture.
Next we went to the North Pacific Historic Fishing Village and Museum in Port Edward, just a few miles from Prince Rupert. The Pacific Cannery was built in 1889 and housed a salmon cannery. It was interesting to learn how the canning process evolved from everything being done by hand to being almost totally mechanized. The cannery continued running until about 1972. Most of the canneries have burned down or have been abandoned and the Canadian Government purchased the Pacific Cannery and has restored much of it.
The cannery also house the workers and you can see some of the house at the end.
Some of the nets. The owner paid $183 for the property to build the cannery, but that was a bargain. He had to pay $150 per net.
These are the tools used to make and repair the nets.
The workers were paid at the end of the season. They bought everything at the store on credit, and at the end of the season, the balance was applied to their earnings. Usually, there wasn't much left over.
All of the fish offal, heads, tails, fins, etc were boiled down to fish oil, which was stored in these big tanks.
We visited the Cow Bay district of Prince Rupert. It is full of little speciality shops and the streets are decorated in black and white to depict cows..even the dumpsters are painted. The story is that cows were being brought to Prince Rupert and there was no dock to off load them so the cows had to swim to shore.
The town also has a nice sunken garden, which is being restored.
There are totem poles sprinkled throughout the town. We visited Totem Park and saw two reproductions , but they were not as impressive as the ones we had seen in Gitawangak.
Tomorrow we back track along the Yellowhead towards Smithers. Liz’s tow bar is being shipped there and hopefully her car will be waiting for her there also.
No comments:
Post a Comment