September 14, 2013 Saturday
Day 70

This campsite is so nice, right on the water; from time to time, we hear the horn from a ship or ferry passing by, announcing their comings and goings. I think it's neat to hear.

We stayed in all day and watched College Football, plus, through the camper windows, I watched boats go by. It was another rainy cool 40s day.

We also booked an all day Glacier and Wildlife Cruise for tomorrow in Prince William Sound. Can't wait! It is supposed to be sunny, let's hope so.

About 7pm, it had cleared off, so we took a drive to hunt for wildlife sightings. Upon exiting the camper, I heard a noise and I saw a young black bear in the campground, maybe 20 yards away. He stared at me and I stared at him. A raven was messing with him, too. When Michael came out, we got in the car and slowly drove a little closer to him, he started to run up a tree, then decided to saunter off into the trees. Our camp host had warned us that a bear had been getting into her trash and, so the cans are now kept inside the laundry room. Guess she was right!
We took off on our drive and at Abercrombie Creek we saw brown bear (grizzlies) 1 mom and 3 big cubs. Brown bear are significantly larger than black bear, and these bears were huge. We watched them fishing in the stream for awhile. We stood on the little bridge above the creek, but they were plenty close enough for us to watch. They were all trying to catch the salmon swimming upstream. One of the cubs was standing right by a fish that must have gotten so freaked out that it just flopped right up on the shore. The bear looked shocked, but pounced on it and started to carry it into the bushes. His siblings tried to get some of it, but he was not sharing! Fun to watch.

Stopped briefly at the fish hatchery and watched sea lions, harbor seals and sea otters. They were really active and entertaining, even more so than last night.

Further up the road, we saw more black bear, in several streams as well as other places right near the road; too many to count. One was even crossing the road in a spot where we had just been standing.

We both had empathy for these animals, especially the bears. Their entire lives are a constant struggle for food, shelter and survival from predators. We enjoy watching them, and we have great respect for them.

It was starting to get dark, so we headed back to camp, satisfied with our successful "wildlife hunt".

Wildlife Sightings
Bear, black and brown
Sea lions
Sea otters
Harbor seals
Ravens
Sea birds