Today we did the Valley of the Ten Thousand Smokes day trip. I should mention that the sow with her three cubs joined us for breakfast today. They ate grass right outside our window while we ate our breakfast! Talk about cool. We began our trek around 9 am as we headed to the valley. The drive was about an hour or so until we finally arrived at the visitor's center. My dad and I decided not to do the 3-mile hike because it was chilly, super windy, and raining. It was still so interesting to see the valley and learn about the eruption. Novarupta erupted on June 6, 1912, around the same time as the Titanic, so it was not as popular of a news story. It had such an impact on the world though. People living in Juneau, AK, about 750 miles away from the volcano heard the blast over an hour after it erupted (http://geology.com/novarupta/). Even Africa was affected by it! Once we got back to camp, we drank some hot tea to warm up, and then we went fishing. I caught a nice salmon which escaped my line due to an unexpected pile of logs underwater (totally my fault). My next fish was the biggest one of the week, but it was snagged in the gill. Finally, I hooked one in the mouth! I was so close to reeling it in...until the ranger stationed at the corner yelled down to us that someone had seen a bear sneak through the woods towards the beach. The woods are right behind us as we fished, by the way. I thought to myself, 'I bet it's somewhat far away and probably heading the opposite direction towards camp.' Boy was I wrong. I looked back to see if I could see it, and there it was about 25 yards away, headed our way! My dad cut my line, and then we turned, grabbed our backpacks, and started walking TOWARDS the bear in order to get out of his way. The bear and I actually had a moment where we acknowledged each other. It was SO unbelievably awesome! By the time we passed it, we were probably 10 yards away from him. Crazy! Like father, like daughter I suppose. It sure was exciting! Can't wait for tomorrow.
This is actually a picture I found online exactly where we were at the Visitor's center! This is overlooking the smokeless valley.
This was taken at one of the stops on the way to the valley. So beautiful.
This was the fish I snagged in the gill. So pretty!
This picture was taken directly before the sneaky bear came out of nowhere, and we had to cut my line! That was my favorite bear story of the week!
My dad caught this salmon after dinner in the rain. Talk about a true angler!
We didn't make it to the falls today, but I took these two pictures from the bus while we waited for everyone to pile on for the valley tour.
Anywhere you went, there were bears. And I loved it.
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