We spent a lot of our time visiting the Chilkoot River in Haines. This beautiful river is where the salmon run, and where we found the Chilkoot bears, as well as eagles, seagulls and others vying for the nutrient-rich fish.

The Chilkoot is surrounded by forest and and empties into a lovely lake, the Chilkoot Lake, which in turn empties into another section of river, where we visited frequently.

The rain was beginning to catch up with us and we had a couple of pretty dreary, rainy days, but most days we made at least one visit looking for the bears. No luck the first couple of times, but we finally spotted a sow and her cubs at the mouth of the Chilkoot River where it then dumps into the Lukat Inlet.

These two cubs were our first grizzly cubs of the year! We saw several black bear cubs back in Yellowstone and we saw quite a few grizzly bears in Yellowstone and Denali, but no grizzly cubs.

Grizzly bear cubs have an adorable feature, they have white fur around their necks. Since they are born early in the year, during the sow’s hibernation, the white fur is almost gone on one of the cubs, but the other still has an almost complete white collar.

We watched the sow and cubs fishing along the beach. Then we saw another bear on the other side of the river mouth, also feeding. The other bear was working his (we assumed he was a male) way towards the beach where the sow and cubs were.

All of a sudden, he got in the water and started swimming towards the beach.

When the sow realized this, she started running in the opposite direction with her cubs, until we could no longer see her. That is when we confirmed that the other bear was in fact a male.

Males take over the best feeding areas, and sows move along to the next best areas, in this case closer to the humans. Male bears will also sometimes prey on bear cubs, so the sows do not want their cubs near the males.

We found the sow and cubs feeding on a beach by a neighborhood that is located between the river and the inlet. There were a lot of people around and after she fished for a while, the sow looked like she wanted to move back to her original spot.

At one point, she began to head back with her cubs, apparently unaware of the male bear who was partially submerged in the water fishing.

Then, when she and the cubs spotted the male bear they ran back. This happened twice. Finally, she decided to head to the river, where she and the cubs continued to fish.

One day we went kayaking on Chikoot Lake. It was another cloudy day and the water got a bit choppy in the middle of the lake, but it was a nice paddle and we saw several waterfalls and a cute kingfisher alongside the lake.

We found the sow and cubs once again in the river and got a pretty close view of her and the cubs fishing in the river. Grizzly bear cubs have a low survival rate. We heard that this sow has lost several in the past. It is especially tough when they are so close to humans.

I thought that the sow’s face showed how much she has been through and how much wiser she has become.

The cubs are just adorable, they bound around and play with each other. Mom has taught them to fish and they all fish independently.

We also found a group of Mergansers that always seemed to hang out in the same spot on the river. These ducks were able to paddle swiftly across, down and up the moving water. They were quite fun to watch as well.

And, of course, we watched some of the eagles alongside the river, some in the trees, some standing on rocks or tree trunks in the water. They are opportunistic and will only go after the easiest prey possible.

Patience is called for with eagle photography as they can stand in the same spot for a very long time.

But Hector captured some great images, I especially love the one with the eagle roosting (with one leg up). And we so enjoyed watching them.

We saw the sow and cubs a third time on the river, at this point a lot of the salmon were dead along the river after having spawned.

But the bears prefer the live fish and were still fishing. We spent hours watching this beautiful family.

The cubs will hibernate with the sow this winter and remain with their mother two to three years, during which time she will not mate. I wish them a life full of salmon and berries.

We always saw the bears in the late evening when the light was pretty dim. But I think Hector captured their essence in his photographs.

 

We were hoping to see at least one of the large male bears close up, but we never did. But I think the mom and her cubs were much more fun to watch.

~ Brenda