Chilkoot River Bears

Caution... lots of photos...

Tuesday, August 24th - - I had noticed this sign yesterday on my way to the campground at Chilkoot Lake but didn't give it much thought. But this morning when I was leaving the campground, I noticed a bunch of cars pulled off along the road and people milling about with long telephoto lenses on their cameras. I stopped the car, grabbed my little point-and-shoot camera and walked over to see what they were looking at... these bears were outside the bear zone! Guess they don't know how to read ;-)

There was Mama bear and her cubs (could be the same ones that Sue and Fred saw a couple of days ago). There were three cubs, they just never all got together for a group photo...

Look at those claws! And it's just a baby...

This evening, as I was going back to the campground, there were some scattered rain showers and I was greeted by a double rainbow! To the east, the direction in which I was going, the sky darkened and it poured down rain.

Meanwhile, over to the west, the sun was shining. Ya gotta love it. Continuing on toward the campground, I noticed movement off to the side of the road, and then, what did appear before my eyes?

Why, Mama bear and her three little cubs! By the time I had grabbed the camera and turned it on, Mama was already across the road. (I was safely inside the van as they were way too close for comfort. This photo was taken through the windshield.)

Half an hour later, I left the gloomy campground (it is heavily forested and not much light gets through the trees, especially when it is cloudy) and went back into Haines for a while.

On my way, people were gathered in one area alongside the road so I stopped... Mama bear was there and at least two cubs. They were further away than those this morning and the cubs stayed close to the bank, hidden by the weeds and brush.

It was so neat seeing them like this, in their natural habitat. They went about their business, generally ignoring us humans, though they did check us out now and then.