Canada Guide
The North
Stewart
Some 67km west of Meziadin Junction on the Stewart-Cassiar Highway lies STEWART, Canada's most northerly ice-free port. Here a series of immense glaciers culminates in the dramatic appearance of the unmissable Bear Glacier, a vast sky-blue mass of ice that comes down virtually to the hwy and has the strange ability to glow in the dark. Stewart itself, 37km west of the glacier, is a shrivelled mining centre (pop. 550) that sits at the end of the Portland Canal, the world's fourth longest fjord, a natural boundary between British Columbia and Alaska that encircles the town with peaks (the ferry ride in from Prince Rupert through some of the west coast's wildest scenery is sensational). Dominating its rocky amphitheatre is Mount Rainey, whose cliffs represent one of the greatest vertical rises from sea level in the world.
For hotels, the King Edward Hotel, 405 5th Ave ( 
250/636-2244 or 1-800/663-3126, 
www.kingedwardhotel.com ; Price: $61-80) has basic rooms and offers units with kitchenettes in its King Edward Motel (Price: $101-125) on the other side of the street. The Ripley Creek Inn on the estuary at 306 5th Ave ( 250/636-2344 or 636-2701, www.ripleycreekinn.homestead.com ; Price: $41-60) has eleven rooms in the main lodge building and other rooms in linked buildings, including a former brothel from 1928. The nearest campsite is the Rainey Creek Campground on the edge of town on 8th Avenue ( 250/636-2537 or 1-888-366-5999; $12–20; May– Sept), and the tenting area (excluding RVs) is located across Rainey Creek, a pleasant little stream. The King Edward Hotel is the town's main pub, restaurant and coffee shop – it's where the locals eat (the heaving king crab feast for $40 is enough for two people) – while visitors tend to prefer the pleasantly polished Bitter Creek Café (part of the Ripley Creek Inn complex on 5th Avenue a block west of the King Edward), which offers an outside deck and a mouth-watering dinner menu that includes pistachio-crusted halibut ($20). For bread and baked snacks, duck into the bakery and deli next door to the Bitter Creek.