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| Salmon Glacier |
The next morning on our way to Hyder and Fish Creek Wildlife Viewing Area, we spotted two bald eagles just sitting on a stump waiting for sun--a good omen for our bear viewing.
But, when we visited Fish Creek the only animals eating the salmon were the gulls. We spent a couple of hours at Fish Creek hoping for bears but struck out. Not a bear in sight.
So, we drove the 40 minutes on a gravel, pot-holed road to the summit of Salmon Glacier. This is the 5th largest glacier in North America, and it's in Canada. While we crossed into the US for Fish Creek the road to the glacier crosses back into British Columbia. Salmon Glacier is a remnant from the Fraser Glaciation period that peaked about 14,000 years ago. The glacier sits at 4,300 feet. The weather at the top was in the mid 60s.
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| Salmon Glacier Panorama |
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| The receding toe of Salmon Glacier |
We returned to Fish Creek hoping to finally see bears. We were lucky. We saw one bear and he put on a great show. He is a sub-adult male grizzly about 1000 pounds. He had a great time fishing, and I had a great time watching his antics.
This grizzly's focus was only on fishing. The fact that 30 people with cameras were standing on a boardwalk just above him didn't distract him at all.
When he was successful, we could hear the cracking of bones as he consumed his catch.
Sometimes, the fish got away, and his expression changed to a "boo-boo" face.
He ranged from one bank to the other looking for fish hiding in the shadows. He made time for back scratching when he ended up under low-hanging trees.
Before the bear came we discovered that some of the people at Fish Creek were kind of bear groupies. Several photographers had just come from Haines, Alaska, where they told us bears were plentiful. After watching this grizzly, we were smitten and added Haines to our itinerary.
Tomorrow we return to Highway 37 (Cassiar Highway) and resume our drive north through British Columbia to Yukon Territory.
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