Black Bears at Anan Creek
- photos from Alaska vacation July 2015
From Ketchikan AK I took an early short flight on a de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver seaplane managed by Carlin Air, out to Anan Creek. Once there it's about a 30min hike back to a blind set up by the rangers. The hike itself is a simple one, the trail is well marked and in some areas even decked to make it easier to get through. That said you still have to be careful since you'll come across other wildlife on the walk. While hiking back to the observation area there were more than a dozen bald eagles perched along the river and on the riverbed. What was more interesting was on the way out a black bear decided to sit next to the trail for a bit and enjoy some berries, and further up a lone wolf decided to follow the trail a bit before crossing and heading up and over the hill.
This was the first bear to catch a fish that day, scooped it right out of the water and proceeded to make his way under the viewing deck to ejoy his lunch in peace. The above shot is by far my favorite shot of the day, and possibly my favorite shot of the entire trip.
Fluffy here was by far the largest bear of the day. There were a few points where he'd just stop and stare at me, alsmot as if posing for the camera and then go about his business.
The observatory has 2 areas set up, the first is a viewing deck which puts you a little above the river on a cliff side. It gives you wonderful views down and around the area. Spending time at the observatory area is great, you're literally close enough to touch the bears (I wouldn't try it though). Bears will litterally walk right up to the deck, and actually crawl under it to relax or eat their fresh catch.
Unfortunately not many of them were able to catch fish, at the time I was there the salmon run was a little low due to lack of rain fall and black bears don't tend to go into the middle of the river. One of the smaller bears I saw while I was there tried and tried for more than an hour with no luck.
The second area is a small blind down on the edge of the river, it's small, covered and only offers a few small holes to shoot from but you're so close that even a small lens will do. While in the blind I shot primarily with the 70-200mm f/2.8 and the 24-70mm f/2.8 in part because there wasn't enough room to really move with a larger lens like the 200mm f/2 but also because you were close enough that you didn't need it.
