The end of the Cassiar is Highway 16  right takes you to Prince Rupert and if you go left you head toward Prince George. We went right first to Terrace and then to Prince Rupert.

Before we arrived at Terrace, we stopped in the village of Gitanyow to marvel at their collection of totem poles. Some of them dating back to the mid 19th century

Some were really ornately decorated, while others had on or two figures at the bottom, then a plain pole. I think we’d  have fit in the latter category, the two of us and a coach at the top. Driving west for another hour or so we arrived in the city of Terrace and the Ferry Island Municipal Campground

This campground was situated in a dense forest with 150 campsites, the park was only half full and those who were there were fishing on the Skeena river

Lots of Native American sections of town here, this was the local Coast Mountain College, and all signage in town is in 2 languages, English and First Nation

We decided to leave the coach behind and drove the Jeep to Prince Rupert for the day.

Prince Rupert is called the Gateway to Alaska and is said to be named after Charles II’s cousin Rupert

As usual the first stop was for a bite to eat, then we strolled around town

Prince Rupert is a major ferry terminal, mainly ferries coming through the Inside Passage from various ports north and of course a major fishing port, with fish processing plants everywhere. 

We did catch a few seals playing in the harbor

Came back to Terrace for a nice Indian meal, then left the following morning for Smithers. A town halfway between the 2 Princes, on the Yellowhead Highway and located in the Bulckley Valley where we decided to stop for a couple of days.

Our campground of choice was the Riverside Municipal Campground We were given a site next to the camp host where everyone checked in, so a very busy area

This is a fiberglass statue of Alpine Al who has become the towns symbol. Smithers has adopted an alpine theme  and a town  bi-law requires businesses to construct their buildings using an alpine theme.

The people here were so friendly recognizing  immediately we weren’t a “Smithereen” as they’re called

They had some great restaurants here with quite diverse menus

There’s only one tourist site to visit here and that was Twin Falls Gulch, which was a short drive out of town and a 1/4 mile walk to the observation deck

We arrived in St George on a Sunday and not much was going on. Unfortunately we were so tired we didn’t have the energy to explore

We stayed at Blue Cedars RV Park which was very nice. We’d tried a Walmart first, but didn’t feel comfortable, too crowded.

Next day we moved on and headed south again.