Its called the Cassiar highway (after one of the towns on it in the North) and it was only opened up in the last decade or so. There are still a few patches of dirt road on it but for the most part it is a nice little paved highway.
Its still a relatively minor road though because most of the bridges on it (and there are quite a few) are just a single lane wide. the traffic has to take turns in each direction...though there is rarely anyone else coming the other way when you get to a bridge. The road is also much nicer than the big Alaska highway that I rode up on because it has lots of curves... more fun on a motorbike that is :)
But, the really nice thing about the road is that its route passes through almost all "Old Growth" forest. This is amazing country! The forest is magnificent... classic "rain coast" mature forest! You can instantly see the difference to the regrowth forest in much of the rest of the province (well, the accessible parts anyway).
Instead of only one or two types of tree of pretty much all the same hight and diameter, this forest is full of a dozen different shades of green from the different species and varieties of tree. The trees are also of all sorts of different heights and diameters and though they are not that much taller than some regrowth forests, the diameters of the trunks are much greater.
All in all, it looks like a much older and healthier forest to me... beautiful.
And the highway winds south for about 500Km.
At that point, there is a short 50Km spur road that heads toward the West. It goes to the little town of Stewart where the bears from the previous post are. The road into this town is an amazing little drive down a valley that becomes very tight with a raging little, rapids filled river running right next to the road. And there are quite large mountains towering up on either side of you with the lush old growth forests clinging to their lower slopes where they can get hold. The upper slopes and avalanche gullies are alpine tundra, giving way to bare rock and scree at the tops.
And there are more hanging glaciers and braided waterfalls in this short stretch of road and surrounding the town than I think I have seen anywhere else at all!
The weather was very misty and drizzly when I rode in, so I have few and not very good quality pictures of it, but take my word for it...Its well worth the drive.
The town of Stewart its self is rather a dull little place, though it does try to do "the tourist" thing ... with limited success - I had a really nice, really cheap King Crab dinner at a little fish and chips spot :) . The town is "just" on the end of a fjord to the North Pacific ocean, but the road through town goes a bit further on and across the US boarder to Hyder (where most of the bears are) and then on up the side of a mountain to magnificent views (when its not cloudy) of a very large and impressive glacier (Salmon glacier).
Anyway, its a sleepy little town with not much going on, but Id consider living there just to spend time in that awesome old growth forest and alpine country...
and there was a significant sized helicopter base there supporting the mining activity in the mountains!!.... hmmm.
