WRANGLING AROUND WITH BEARS
Updated: Mar 15, 2020
The day finally came for us to photograph bears at Anan Wildlife Observatory in Tongass National Forest!! We were picked up from Wrangell and after an hour boat ride, then a half mile hike through the wilderness, we reached the bears!
I knew immediately when I saw park rangers with guns that we were being protected closely. The observatory was a large, wooden, open deck and covered blind, suspended over the most amazing creek with gushing water running over huge boulders, ending far below into the sea.
There was a blanket of salmon running upstream trying to reach the top to lay their eggs. And where salmon are running there are bears, lots of bears.
We watched in awe as black and brown bears came out of the woods to feed, sometimes fighting over food or protecting their cubs. We had bears coming up to the wooden deck right where we were standing and a baby cub crawling under the deck at our feet!
On the way back to the boat we even had a bear blocking our trail, a little scary but we were very protected. What an awesome adventure!
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