Today we ate breakfast and then just hung out in the lodge while looking through our pictures. We then went up to the falls until about 2:30. It was pretty crowded so we hung out and played Gin until it was our turn to go to the upper platform, which is the more popular one. A few boars were fishing, but not too many...so around 2:30 we headed back to the Lodge. We ate a snack and then I went to store our food in the food cache, and when I came back I went to the bathroom (there IS a point to this). When I opened the door to leave the bathroom, I was greeted by Ranger Imes telling me to stop. I assumed there was a bear near the bathroom so I shut the door...why I did that? I'm not sure. I kept looking out the window, but I couldn't see anything. Finally I saw my dad outside coming to my rescue. Turns out there was a sow with her three spring cubs about 25 yards away from the bathroom! You're supposed to be at least 100 yards away from a mom and her cubs. Now the camp knows me as the girl who was stuck in the bathroom, and my dad as the guy who reeled in Divot! We went back up to the falls after that for about three hours. The bears must have known the salmon would be jumping because by the end of the night, there were at least TWENTY bears! That was unbelievable. And the cherry on top was seeing a sow with her yearling cub just down the beach from us when we were walking back to camp. These creatures are amazing. I also think I saw the three-year-old baby that I photographed as a cub just two years ago! I recognized my baby! Tomorrow we head out to the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. Can't wait!
These are the four bears who trapped me in the bathroom! Alaska makes everything a little more exciting!
My dad shot this awesome picture of the upper falls. I think I counted 12 bears in this picture alone! Just down the river there were 8-9 more bears!
I really love this picture. This bear was just snoozing right under the walkway to the platforms. We stopped to take pictures of it, and let's just say if I would've jumped off the walkway, I may have been able to snuggle with the bear for a few seconds right before he realized it.
This was one of my favorite shots from the trip. They say the salmon jump out of the water to check and see where the bears are before making their way up the falls. This salmon unfortunately jumped right into the bear's mouth! Talk about bad judgement.
This is my baby bear from two years ago! The picture below is the one I took two years ago when we came to Brooks Camp on a day trip. The bear was just a yearling then. The picture above is the three-year-old that I saw at the falls this year! You can kind of see some similarities, especially in the face.
This was the momma and her yearling cub we saw on the beach. The cherry on top of a great day!
No comments:
Post a Comment