As you can see from these photos it was a stunning day and lovely and warm.
We were originally going to be split into two groups with our group doing the afternoon bear tour this afternoon and cruise tomorrow and then a free day. The other group were going to have a free day today with their bear tour tomorrow afternoon and cruise the day after. However, we were all able to go on the bear tour together so we boarded the boat for this after lunch - spent the morning at the laundromat - still have to do washing!
We had a very scenic one hour boat ride.
Finally we arrived at the Anan Wildlife Observatory. We got off the boat and started walking along a track. Across the water we could see the island where the First Nation people used to come together to meet as they could see there was an abundance of salmon to fish so this was a good spot.
We walked in two groups. The lead guide had a loaded shotgun in hand and another gun in a holster. Dawn was following him and had to watch his back (literally) in case any bears arrived while he was talking to his group. Steven was behind her and John was at the end of the next group (this was the slow group - he is mainly slow because he takes so many photos - he also had to check behind his group for bears).
This was the first black bear we saw at the water side just below the walkway.
You could see why the bears were attracted to the area with so much salmon running.
Here are some of the bear shots we took.
Mum and baby following.
They all seemed to like sitting or standing on top of this rock - maybe they had a good view of where the best spots were.
He found a good spot and has grabbed a salmon.
After a while the brown 'grizzly' bears came out further up stream and had lots of fun playing together.
There was another mum with a cub who liked the safety of the underneath of the observatory deck. This was taken with the camera almost on the deck floor between the upright timbers. She left the baby here and would go down to the water grab a salmon and bring it back to feed her cub.
The baby bear would hide amongst the tree roots.
These brown bears are siblings and are not really 'fighting' - just playing! or at least that is what they "always" say isn't it :P
There was another observation area closer to the water where only five people could be in at a time.
More shots.
We could have watched them for hours. We were able to stay at the observatory for at least 3 hours.
Beautiful views along the walk. Once again we were separated into two groups. This time Dawn was at the end of the first group.
Going on a bear hunt... going to catch a big one... I was a bit scared - kept looking over my shoulder, just in case - the lead guy with his gun was sometimes out of sight. John was again at the end of the second group and was able to take this shot across the water - he was checking over his shoulder the whole time too! There was one bear we saw on the way back but he stayed away!
Then it was back on the boat and a lovely ride back again to Wrangell.
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