THE BEARS!!
We find ourselves still dreaming of the Dalton and our experiences along the only highway in Alaska to cross north over the Arctic Circle, in all the glory of the Arctic tundra in the fall! Next stop along our travels was at the Kinaskan Lake Provincial Park. We have really enjoyed our time at these State Parks, which are dry camps and very often beside a lake. Phil had a successful fishing session and we had Rainbow Trout for tea and then breakfast the next day! We crossed the Border back into the States and arrived in Hyder, Alaska. WOW – it was just as good as we had been led to believe and well worth the journey! We visited Fish Creek Wildlife Site, which has a board walk for the viewing of wildlife........ Grizzly and black bears come to this creek to catch Chum and Pink Salmon which spawn in the creek, during the summer months. The spawning fish were our first glimpse of an activity of nature which we hear about, but are rarely in a position to observe. We had to be patient for the next few hours as activity was scarce, but just as we watched a pair of Bald Headed Eagles as they sat majestically in the tree – up the river came a GRIZZLY BEAR, in search of an early tea! An amazing sight – we were lucky enough to be able to watch two grizzlies as they ran through the water and grabbed their salmon tea that day. They would catch one and then leave the water to eat, before re-entering the water for another go. They both settled on three fish each........and we have over 20 minutes of video footage which we watched over that same evening at the Bear River Campground in Stewart (back in Canada!) Our hearts took a good few hours to return to a normal beating pattern as the adrenaline took hold about the sights that we have been so honoured to see. There is something exhilarating about being that ‘dangerously’ close to nature- to a GRIZZLY BEAR, who was within metres of us and could have easily come and joined us up on the boardwalk if he had so wished! This experience has excelled what we have all been waiting to see, and we all feel elated and absolutely content with our memories, photos and video footage! To be in such close proximity to a mighty and powerful wild animal – born and living free – we only hoped that these bears didn’t have a headache or a grudge to bear!! As we left Hyder, just for a bonus, a Black Bear decided to walk out in front of Nessie – Wow again! When we stayed at Seeley Lake the following night, we were all still buzzing from our ‘time with the bears!’ For many, bears are obviously just part of a way of life –but to us they are the most amazing creatures to be able to spend a snippet of their time observing! Lions in Africa could well be our next stop.......! On Labour Day weekend there were lots of children at the camp we next found ourselves at (Fraser Lake), as this would be the final long weekend break before school returned after the summer vacation (8th September)in Canada. We believe that many of the US schools went back around August 17th. So, as all the children were having a blast on their bikes and in the play area, we were ‘surprised’ when they were all advised to go back to their pitches, as a bear had been seen in the camp! Once again, this made living amongst ‘the wild’ a very real experience for us and the children too!
Wednesday, 16 September 2009 18:32:04 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)      Comments [1]  Alaska | Canada