South from Alaska

A few last words about our two days in Hyder Alaska. We went over to the Fish Creek viewing platform several more times, but did not see any more big grizzlies.

We did catch several views of what I think was the same black bear across the pond. He/she was a bit shy and kept disappearing into the bushes. 







I found it quite interesting to see the fish spawning in the shallow water of the creek right below the viewing platform. 

They were all dark in color, except for one that was bright red. I asked the ranger why it was the only red one. His explanation was that it was a lost Sockeye Salmon. It had come up the wrong creek and was doomed to not find a mate!






The other interesting thing to see when in Hyder is the Salmon Glacier which is about 17 miles out of town, on a somewhat rough gravel road.

Because the road goes alongside and above the glacier you can get a good view of the surface texture and blueish color.

We did have a couple more wildlife sightings on the road. The first was as we left Fairbanks, a momma moose and her two babies walked right across the highway in from of us. We were not going fast and were able to stop, but it was a good reminder to stay alert.

The second was after our Hyder Alaska stop, we had just pulled back onto the Cassier highway when I saw what at first I thought were a couple of cutout bear silhouettes on the side of the road.

As we slowed to go by, we could see they were Grizzly Bears. Probably youngsters.

Craig did not put the window down, nor did I stop. This picture was not zoomed in. The bear was right on the edge of the road! 

Wow, we sure did travel back to the lower 48 quickly! We are now in the Salt Lake City area. Craig made this day by day chart.

We had two reasons to skip sightseeing and drive every day. Our destination was Salt Lake City because we have an appointment for our annual maintenance services at the Warner Freightliner Truck Center. They did a great job on our radiator a few years back. We also found a repair facility that would look at and hopefully replace one of the leveling jacks on the Alfa. It has been giving us some trouble, and finally stopped working at Dease Lake up in BC. Fingers crossed that they will be able to get the job done.

The other big motivation to keep rolling was the pernicious smoke from the Western wildfires. We encountered it from just south of Prince George, all the way to Utah. A little rain on our arrival day seems to have washed the air a bit.

So this is indeed the end of our Alaska Adventure. In the next few weeks we will get our services, return to California for the body work on the Alfa, and settle in at Jojoba Hills for the winter, plus lots of good time with the family in San Diego.

Craig has just ordered a new camera for me. (My birthday is coming.) I am excited to get to know it, join the photography group at Jojoba, and post some of my new images here. The pictures in this blog have always been a combination of those taken by Craig with his Nikon "big boy" camera, and those taken by both of us with my small, but pretty good, Sony RX100. But after five years, it is time for an upgrade. 

RV life is good! 😊 

Bear Watching in Hyder, Alaska

My last post was about our "final days" in Alaska. We left Denali on August 29 and drove 250-325 miles per day for 5 consecutive days. We passed through the Yukon, and in British Columbia, turned south onto highway 37, also know as the Cassiar Highway. On our fifth day, we took a little detour out of Canada to the small town of Hyder, Alaska, which is one of the few places that you can actually drive to, to see wild bears. The US Forest Service has a wonderful observation deck from which the public can watch the bears as they feed on spawning and deceased salmon in Fish Creek.

In Hyder, we arrived at a little RV park with the amusing name of "Camp Run-A-Muck", early enough to go over to the Fish Creek Bear viewing station for an hour or so. When we arrived this big grizzly was in the creek. 

We could see many large salmon spawning in the shallow water. They rapidly swam out of his reach as he plodded along. In the picture above, you can see two dead fish by his front leg, but he ignored them.

A little while later, in another part of the creek, he went after  something.

It was a pretty decrepit dead fish.

He took it over to the bank and ate some of it, and then wandered into the forest.

Later, a black bear showed up, but it stayed in the deep shadows so none of his pictures were worthwhile.

Our plan is to go back early Sunday morning, late Sunday afternoon, and again early Monday morning. Hopefully we will see more bears, but if we don't, these images already make the detour well worth it.