It’s a town with fewer than 100 permanent residents – a place where wildlife outnumber people and it's the eastern-most town in Alaska. Only five minutes from Stewart, British Columbia, the towns could really be one but for a long-ago-drawn geographical border placing one in the USA and the other in Canada.
The two towns were once home to around 10,000 people at the height of the gold rush era more than a century ago. Today Hyder could be referred to as the most Canadian town in Alaska. With limited services in the town, residents here rely heavily on Canada for day-to-day living. The only road access to the town is through Canada and tourism plays a big part in the town’s economy. Those who might like to add the State of Alaska to their road trip bucket list might say that an overnight stay in this small town could qualify.
The big tourism draw here is bear watching. Three miles north of the town, the Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Site offers safe viewing platforms for visitors to view bears in their natural habitat as they fish for chum and pink salmon in the waters of the Fish and Marx Creeks.
The other thing to see and do in Hyder is a visit to the Salmon Glacier. Officially in British Columbia, the fifth largest glacier in Canada can only be reached by road through Alaska. Passports are not required to cross into Hyder but are needed to return to Stewart. The border crossing is manned by Canadian border services – no United States border patrol exists here. Canadian dollars are accepted. RV camping is available in both Hyder and Stewart.