October 9, 2025
I had spoken with several people in Denali National Park, as well as in Anchorage, who shared stories of bears they had seen near Haines. When I made my Airbnb reservation my hostess assured me that she would guide me to a spot not far from town where I would be VERY likely to see some grizzly bears, so I was really looking forward to getting there.
Here is an overview of the area I will be in for most of the next two days.
(Photo credit: Google Maps)
You will see the Bald Eagle Preserve in the upper left portion of the map. The town of Haines is the lower right hand corner. I will indeed see a grizzly bear twice near the entrance road to Chilkoot Lake State Recreation Site (above Haines). Tomorrow morning, after seeing the bear again, I will take a ferry to the town of Skagway, in the upper right corner of the map. I will be showing some other maps shortly so you can better visualize the places I will be referring to.
I imagine this is not the first thing you were expecting to see. I went in to ask if it is indeed a Radio Shack store. I thought they had gone out of business a few years ago, though I did see one in Lander, Wyoming back in 2021. The woman behind the register informed me that yes, there are a few former Radio Shack locations still in existence, though the main company is gone. The loyal owners share their stock and ship items to where they are wanted. This store sold other things as well (such as fishing and hunting supplies).
I had a rather long conversation with the clerk, and she shared a video of someone who had been fishing at Chilkoot Lake and as they were leaving the property came across a mother bear with three cubs, walking towards them in the road. The driver stopped and started taking the video with his phone of the bears approaching the truck and walking past the driver’s door. He lowered the camera to continue shooting the video in the rear view mirror, and when the mother bear got towards the back of the boat he was hauling on a trailer the bear stopped and stood up on her hind legs, apparently smelling the “catch of the day” onboard. It was sealed in a cooler (there are huge fines for letting a bear get hold of a fish you had caught) so the bears finally went on their way.
The lake road he was on is where I will spot a bear both days while I am here.
I drove into town and took a few photos before going to the Visitor Center.
When I got to the Visitor Center I found this sign outside. I will show various portions of it.
The photo above shows the route I came in on. It ran right along the Chilkat River until it got to town. All four of these photos show some substantial mountains in all views.
The photo above is looking further right (east) and shows Chilkoot Lake in the upper right hand corner. I will drive the road which runs along the Bay, past the place where I will be boarding a ferry with my car tomorrow, and eventually ends at the entrance to the Chilkoot Lake State Park. It is about 10 miles from town.
The photo above omits Haines but more clearly shows the Lutak Inlet which ends before Chilkoot Lake.
The last part of the map shows the Taiya Inlet which the ferry will navigate to take me to Skagway. After I board it the ferry will come down Lutak Inlet from the upper left and turn left to go to up Taiya Inlet to get to Skagway.
Here is yet another photo of downtown Haines. It was located on Main Street.
It shows the main street (You are here), the harbor at the end, and the cruise ship dock on the right side. Fort Seward is an old military installation which is now just residential buildings.
Here are two photos of the harbor:
After taking a look at the town I drove up to the place where I hoped to finally see some grizzly bears!
I parked in a small dirt parking area near a bridge which crosses the north end of the Inlet. That bridge leads to some houses, where the road dead-ends.
From the bridge, this is the view looking down the Inlet towards Haines.
I know it is quite small, but please note the house just right of the center of the photo. I will make a reference to it in my next post.
After checking out the bridge and the waterway between the Inlet and Chilkoot Lake, I got in my car and drove into the State Park. As soon as I got on the road I saw a grizzly bear walking down towards the water on my right. I drove further into the State Park until I could safely park my car, grabbed my cameras and walked briskly (with my bear spray!) towards where I had seen the bear.
I walked back out on the bridge and soon spotted it swimming across the Inlet from my left to right.
My first bear sighting in the wild!! My next post will be photos taken with my digital camera, as the zoom lens will come in handy.
After taking bear photos I walked back to my car and spotted a bald eagle on the ground in the woods next to the Park access road.
I hung around the access road talking with other visitors and photographers. It turns out the bear I saw is a “regular” and they see it just about every day. They also knew about the female with the three cubs which I had seen a video of when I arrived in town.
I finally decided to drive back into town and grab some dinner before checking in at my Airbnb. This was the view of the harbor when I left the restaurant, which was adjacent to it.
Next post – digital photos!
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