Tag: grizzly-bear

Grizzly Bear #2 in Haines, Alaska

October 10, 2025

I returned to the State Park near where I had seen a grizzly bear yesterday. It had crossed south of the bridge and swam across the northern tip of Lutak Inlet. It then strolled down the shoreline, and started to come back before venturing into the woods west of the bridge.

When I arrived today I drove in the access road and saw some of the photographers I had met yesterday. One of them was waving at me and pointing out into the water, and sure enough, there was a grizzly bear out on a rock- probably the same bear I saw yesterday.

Those were both taken with my iPhone camera. Most of the rest of the bear photos will be taken with the digital camera.

Before I go on I should describe where I am. The Lutak Inlet is south of the bridge I took photos from yesterday, and is south of where I am now. Chilkoot Lake is a short distance north of where I am. The stream with all the rocks in it is called a “weir” and connects the two bodies of water. Water flows south from the lake, through the weir, to the Inlet.

That is looking north from the bridge.

In this situation, the weir enables fish, mostly salmon, to swim north from the Inlet to the Lake, and enables authorities to monitor how many fish pass through. Of course bears eat fish, so this is a major draw for them to have a reliable source of food.

This is a graph showing the timing and volume of three types of salmon who pass through this weir.

I am here in early October, so the Sockeye and Pink salmon period has passed, and the salmon the bear is finding are now Coho. As you can see, the supply of fish was considerably higher from early June to mid-September, and I imagine there were probably lots more bears here at those times.

OK. Enough talk. Here are more bear pictures. This is the only one I saw, and according to the “locals” it is most likely the same one I saw yesterday.

The next 5 photos are a sequence which show him catching and methodically eating a fish. He brought it up out of the water and set it down on the rock he was on.

When he was finished with that one he kind of wandered around looking for more salmon.

This when he decided he had had enough and started coming ashore. I was up on edge of the road near the water as I took these photos. When it appeared that he was coming back to land I moved to the far side of my car, which was parked parallel to the weir on the opposite side of the one lane road.

When it was clear he was coming up to the road the other photographers started moving further up the road and behind a short concrete wall. They were familiar with this location and felt that the bear posed no risk, though I was told all of them had bear spray with them (as did I).

At this point I got IN my car.

Before he crossed the concrete barrier which prevents vehicles from driving off the road, he stood and looked off to the right for a short time, then turned around and started walking up the road to the left.

When he started walking away I got out of the car to take my final photos.

He continued walking up the road and eventually went up into the woods. The other photographers apparently felt the show was over and they dispersed. The road only continues a short ways before reaching the lake.

From start to finish, this whole photo encounter took 16 minutes. I hung around for a little while but soon had to leave to get back to the ferry terminal.

I will post photos from the ferry ride, and the town of Skagway, tomorrow.

Grizzly Bear #1 in Haines, Alaska

October 9, 2025

I have been having an amazing trip through Canada and Alaska, but if I had to point to a disappointment it would be not seeing many wild animals. I finally have my chance to see a grizzly bear in the wild.

As I mentioned in the previous post, these photos were taken from a bridge at the north end of Lutak Inlet, about 10 miles north of Haines.

I spotted the bear swimming across the Inlet from left to right.

Here is the photo I posted, taken with my iPhone camera.

The rest of these were taken with my digital camera, with a zoom lens.

He appeared to be sitting down in the river, scratching the left side of his head:

He soon brought up a dead fish, which he proceeded to consume.

This is a photographer I had seen coming down the road as the bear was walking down towards the water. I spoke with him later and he is one of the people who told me that this bear is a “regular” and is seen just about every day.

He is possibly what the bear was looking at in the photo above.

He started walking towards the shore. You can see where his hair is matted down from being in the water. I read somewhere that bears don’t like to get their ears wet, which is probably why he kept his head above water.

He shook off most of the water and started walking south, away from the bridge I was on.

He reached the house I mentioned in the prior post – which was pretty far away from the bridge I was on.

He finally turned around and started walking back north. Shortly after I took this photo he turned to his left and I lost sight of him.

I then spotted a bald eagle near the waterway between the Inlet and Chilkoot Lake, north of the bridge I was on. It was eating a fish that it had apparently caught.

I will drive back up here in the morning after I stop at the ferry terminal to confirm that I am in town and will be there for boarding. They understood, and told me what time I needed to be back.

I was the first car in line when I got back.

Haines, Alaska

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!