Remember when I said I was a little cheap? Well, my wife Jenesa isn't! See where this is going? Anyways, to make a long story short....we both wanted to see bears on this trip to Alaska. Not just one bear, but lots of bears!
We did some research beforehand and realized the bears usually do not appear until the salmon begin spawning in mid-July. And, in order to see lots of bears....you would need to pay for a private tour that would fly you into the bear region (usually in a remote area of Alaska). Of course, these tours were NOT cheap....and, the tour company would NOT guarantee a bear sighting. So we kinda argued about this idea for a a little while before Jenesa said this could be her birthday present for the next THREE YEARS!
Poor Leonard! Not only was this "breaking the budget" but it also involved flying in another floatplane (remember Ketchikan?). We booked through Rust's Flying Service months in advance of our cruise....and would highly recommend them in the future. Smooth sailing all the way to Redoubt Bay!
The Redoubt Bay Lodge is about as remote as it gets....sitting hillside beside the Bay where our floatplane landed. Nothing else around for miles and miles (except the bears!). On this adventure we would cruise around the Bay in a pontoon boat heading towards bear territory. Hiking was not allowed nor recommended. Our guide gave us a 95% chance of seeing at least one bear.....and within 15 minutes .....Peek-a-boo!
Hello, bear! Goodbye, bear! Within 30 seconds this guy crawled up the hillside and disappeared into the trees. So we continued to motor our pontoon boat over towards another area where the salmon were literally jumping up out of the water. And, we waited....
And waited....
And waited...
And waited...
Ninety-minutes later.....it was not looking good. It's been a while since I've prayed....but I was praying that one bear was not going to cost me three years worth of birthday presents for my wife! I was praying for some hungry bears to wander down to the shoreline and gobble up all of these delicious salmon jumping up out of the water. I was praying for a bear miracle today!
Hallelujah! It was as if the bear gods heard my prayers....and the heaven's sent down four unbelievably awesome bears!!! Now I was getting my money's worth! And, the show was about to begin....
It was lunchtime! The baby bears went fishing in the creek for salmon, and mama bear jumped right into the Bay for some salmon of her own! Look at all the fishing lines around mama bear (pic below!). There were several fishing boats attempting to catch the salmon as well.....and I had my camera ready in case one of the fishermen accidentally snagged mama bear! July 4th is just days away.....and I knew there would be fireworks today if mama bear got caught in a fishing line!
After 15 minutes of enjoying this family of bears....four MORE bears appeared! Uh oh! Our tour guide said this could get quite interesting as each family would not only be protective of its cubs.....but of its food. We were ready for a rumble!
Luckily, the bears played nice and kept their distance from each other. One family would fish near the shoreline while the other family would eat further up the creek....and then switch places. For the next 40 minutes we had an amazing time just watching these bears! I also got some great pictures! And, Jenesa definitely got three years worth of birthdays out of this adventure!
Goodbye, bears! You put on quite a show! The rest of our bear pictures can be found on our Redoubt Bay Bear Adventure page (click on the link). Check them out!
2 comments:
How awesome!!!
Very cool! ~Amy
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