the north coast experiment: highway 37

Sweet, sweet long weekends. Nothing is better. Easter might just be the cream of the long weekend crop due to it's extended tenure. But, as much as I love a long weekend, I also sometimes find them a bit overwhelming. I always feel like they need to be BIG. Something needs to happen. I don't want to squander the gift. Staying at home seems a bit like a long weekend cop-out. Needless to say, as Easter snuck up on us, I panicked a bit. What to do?

Luckily, there is a lot of northwestern BC for us to explore. So on Good Friday after some very last minute planning, we headed out for a weekend excursion with a few friends to the humming metropolis of Stewart, BC and Hyder, AK. To get there, we struck out along Highway 37.

Turning off Highway 16 east of Terrace, Highway 37 leads from the Kitwanga junction (gas station has a permanently out-of-order washroom, be warned) and leads 725 km north to the Yukon border. Stewart is a much more manageable 215km along. En route, we stopped along the way to snap some photos are enjoy the scenery.

Driving east along the Skeena. I will never get sick of this scenery.

Kitwanga junction

St Paul's Anglican church at Kitwanga junction

Since I am my mother's daughter, I was obviously stoked upon learning that there is a National Historic Site along the way, the Gitwangak Battle Hill National Historic Site (see here for more info). Self-guided interpretive trail...JACKPOT (no sarcasm intended...no....really)!

Looking down on Battle Hill from the road

At the top of Battle Hill.

The Gitwangak Battle Hill was an 18th century fortress established by legendary Gitwangak warrior, 'Nekt. Used as a base with several homes, the fort was protected by a series of spiked logs that were rigged to be let go should any enemies try to attack. Pretty badass, if you ask me.

Doggy stairmaster

View from Battle Hill.

After a few stops, however, we got road-trip impatient and made a beeline for Stewart only stopping again once we'd turned off onto Highway 37a and the scenery started looking like this.