North to Alaska: Ketchican and more bears

Coming into Ketchikan you immediately notice the difference in lifestyle. Most houses have a pontoon - not for their boat but for their float plane.

Today we are going on an excursion with Island Wings to Anan Creek Bear Observatory in the Tongass National Forest. We met Tim, our guide, near the ship and he took us to the float plane, expertly piloted by Michelle. We were joined by another couple from another cruise ship - a mother and daughter from Oregon. Without delay we took off from the runway that is the strait of water outside the office - 1500 take offs and landings a day in the area - only about 6 of which are commercial.

We had a beautiful flight over the rainforest before landing near a beach. After a short briefing we were off on a short 20min undulating walk to the observatory. As we arrived there was a bear just off the path so the ranger told us to wait while it walked off ( I was glad we had a guide complete with gun just in case). The observatory is a wooden deck above Anan Creek, a small area of which is undercover. We had beautiful weather again so no need to use the wet weather gear. There is also a photo blind that you can sign up for for 30 minute sessions that is down by the river. There is a limit of 20 permits allowed per day so I contacted Island Wings on 17 July 2014 to go on their list for a permit to be released in October 2014. Again, you need to think ahead if you want to do this

The view upstream

We saw half a dozen different bears - many of whom caught salmon. And there was plenty of salmon ( this pic the best I could do without a filter)

The bears would come very close to the deck but never enough to feel threatened - close enough that you could touch them ( if you were stupid).

The brown post in the top left of picture is our deck

A young gun showing his strength

Look at those claws

There were lots of eagles hoping for left overs

A juvenile bald eagle

After 2 1/2 hours we had to leave and had another lovely flight back to Ketchikan.

These trees are growing vertically against the sheer cliffs of the Fjords

Our ship from the plane

The only down side to the trip is - you cannot eat for 5 hours which, to a 12 yo is an eternity. In fact we were all very hungry at the end and got Tim to drop us off at the best hamburger joint in town - Burger Queen - and he was right. A stroll around town showing how a lot of the area is built up above the water and also how brothels thrived 100 years ago.