The packrafting down the Tokositna River was our last major Alaska adventure, even though we still had over a week of traveling before heading home. While flying home doesn’t bring the same anxious anticipation as flying north, it’s still really fun and offers some incredible flight-seeing.
We took the Cassiar Highway route on the way back through Canada in order to stop at Stewart, BC, and Hyder, AK — more on those later.
I stopped for the night at quite a few places because Betsy was driving the van and we would meet up at an airport for the night. So it was fun to visit a few of the towns along the way, though after 2 1/2 months travelling, there was some temptation to just ditch her and fly straight home. I didn’t.
Here are the Alaska and BC stops we made:
Gulkana, AK
Excellent view of Wrangell St. Elias Mountains. There is a small terminal building with snack box. Showers were inop in 2025. We’ve camped there many times.
Burwash Landing, BC
I landed at Beaver Creek for Canadian Customs, then on to Burwash Landing to meet Bets. Not bad but not near the actual town – we camped just outside the fence in the grass. Thought we saw wolves but it was just large coyotes.
Teslin
I like Teslin. It has a nice small terminal building. You can walk to a restaurant / lodge called the Yukon Motel.
Dease Lake
Airport is run by Talhtan tribe who apparently don’t care about market pricing. Landing fee was $20 and overnight fee was $60 on top of landing fee. Vs. between $0 and $10 at nearby airports. But they did pull my stuck 182 out of the sand.
Stewart / Hyder
Great stop and next post will be about Stewart / Hyder.
Burns Lake
Nice grass to camp on and new terminal building. They have two full-on hotel rooms attached to the terminal building. No one was around so I don’t know how much to rent a room.
Cache Creek
Eerily empty airport. Arid, burned landscape made this airport seem like it was in the middle of Nevada.
West Coast Flying Adventures 