Bucket List Checked

08/22 – 08-25/19 Time to head south and start making our way back down to the lower 48. After our adventure in the Interior of AK we spent the night in Fairbanks and another at Deadman Lake again. We decided to make our way down to Haines, AK and then hop the Ferry to Skagway. We stopped at the Welcome to AK sign to take a photo since it was early in the morning and not so crowded and busy as when we arrived. Better late than never. The scenery on the Haines Highway through the Yukon, BC, and back into AK was spectacular and different that anything we had seen previously. We pulled into Haines and stopped at the grocery store before heading to camp. Weather was a little cloudy and damp but we make our way out to Chilkat State Park where there was plenty of open camping spaces so we settled in and took Sierra out for a walk. I of course took the camera along just in case. Sierra and I walked down to the inlet and as we were walking back another camper told us there was a mother and baby moose making there way through the campground. He said he saw Mike trying to take pictures with his Phone. It was almost dark but I was able to get a couple of shots before my battery died. When I got back to camp, Mike said she and the calf had walked right through our campsite. Mike and I drove into town to check out the local farmers Market and saw the set of Dalton City that was constructed for the Disney movie White Fang. We enjoyed poking around the town of Haines, walking the Docks and driving around Fort William H Seward’s historic buildings. We heard there was another campground on the opposite side of the town beyond the Ferry Terminal where there was a fishing weir and where bears often congregated. After filling up with fuel we made our way out to Chilkoot Campground. We passed the weir on the way there and saw a number of people with long lenses….looks like we were in the right place to see the bears. We found a beautiful campsite right next to the lake and walked back down the road to the fish weir. The fish and game dept. monitors the fish that are passing through the weir and also helps to keep people and bears getting to close together. We were told that there had been a bear at the weir earlier but there were none on our first walk down. Walking back into camp we noticed a strong smell of gas. We looked under the camper a saw that the fuel tank was leaking. We drove the camper back into Haines to find a parts store and spent the next few hours working in their parking lot to seal the leak with some epoxy designed for just such an event. The patch seemed to hold and so we headed back to our camping spot. We met Holly and Terry who were also hoping to get some good photos and had been traveling specifically to destinations where they could view bears. We walked back to camp and were just finishing a game of cribbage when she stopped by our campsite to let us know that there was a couple of bears at the weir. I grabbed the camera and we made our way down and were able to get a few pics of the bears fishing and chowing down on Salmon. What a thrill! Getting a picture of a Grizzly bear in the wild was on my bucket list! Check!!! Over the next few days we enjoyed numerous walks to look for, and photograph the bears, wildlife and scenery. At one point all the fisherman on the river were bunched together on a island. We assumed correctly that there was a large bear close by and were able to get another bunch of great bear photos. We stopped off at the Haines Brewery and toasted our wonderful luck with a pint of Spruce Tip Ale. We also enjoyed one of the tastiest and beautifully presented meals of this entire trip at the Pilot Light Restaurant. I don’t usually take pictures of my food but couldn’t resist snapping a quick photo of my halibut tacos. While conversing with the waitress we learned that her family owns a restaurant near Hearst Castle, she gave us the name and we will definitely stop by when we travel down the California coast with Mom and Dad next month. We fell in love with the town of Haines and would love to return here someday for another visit.