I got the laundry completed and supper started before it started raining last night. It was a pleasant evening in the RV. This morning I made John get up early so we could make a run out to Chilkoot River to see bears before breakfast. It is a beautiful river with lots of salmon moving up it and we saw several eagles but no bears. We'll try again later. After breakfast we broke camp and moved the RV to a side street and explored the quaint town, lunch, nap and a nice walk. After supper at a so-so restaurant we again went out to Chilkoot River before boarding the ferry to Skagway.
This time we got to see bears! A mama grizzly bear and two cubs were ambling along the river below the bridge, sometimes fishing, sometimes rooting around for berries. They were neat to watch along with the park ranger, volunteer spotters and quite a few other people. It seemed like the bears were going to move too far away to get a good picture so we left and drove around the park but on our way back, the bears had moved back toward the bridge. Mama stopped to fish so the cubs started to rough house. The ranger told us that they were about two-years old and that the mother was only about 6 or 7 years old. He was surprised that she wasn't playing with her cubs since she was such a young mother. About that time mama wandered over to the cubs and the male cub attacked her and she began wrestling with him. The female cub wasn't interested in fighting, so she just watched them and showed off for us. When they stopped playing, they ambled up the river bank, under the bridge and into the brush on the other side. We couldn't have gotten any closer!!
We left Haines on the ferry for the 15 mile ride Skagway at 10 PM and arrived at 11 PM. We have gone far enough south and it is far enough from the summer solstice that it was pretty dark so we did not get to see much scenery. After we got off the ferry, we drove about 5 miles north of Skagway before we found a turnout to spend the night.
No comments:
Post a Comment