Today we saw new wildlife!!
We took the FastFerry to the small town of Haines, which is 350 miles away by road, and 35 minutes by sea! On the way, the boat stopped so we could take pix of some Harbor Seals and we saw several Bald Eagles soaring in the mountains.
The fjord between Skagway and Haines is the longest and deepest in North America, varying in depth from 500 to 1700 ft. There are numerous snow-melt waterfalls tumbling down from the virtually sheer mountainsides, all covered in trees and capped with snow.
Several times this past couple of days we have stood in total awe at the way the afternoon sun comes shining through gaps in the clouds, with the blue sky beyond, and just sparkles off the snow. And because the snow has partially melted, the bare rock of the mountain tops poke through creating an almost black and white picture. Sometimes we stand for minutes on end, just gobsmacked.
Anyway, the sun was hitting the peaks this morning, and viewed from the different perspective of the sea, was brilliant.
Haines is small, but quite hilly, so we walked a lot today. Of course, your two heroes having completely lost all track of time, forgot it was Sunday, and virtually nothing was open!
We eventually found The Bamboo Room, which advertised fish and chips. So, being hungry and not having a lot of choice, thought we should at least try it.
I had the best piece of fish for many a year, and I’ve been back to England several times, but this halibut was superb.
Marlipops pigged out on a halibut salad, which she said was delish as well.
Afterwards, we had to find a local fisherman’s store and bought, yes you guessed, some fresh salmon!
We did buy some halibut as well, together with some of the biggest scallops we had ever seen.
We then visited the local Bald Eagle Natural History Museum. Apart from looking at the hundreds of stuffed animals, birds and fish we had an informative talk from a local person type man, who told us that because the water in Haines valley comes from deep underground, courtesy of a very old glacial deposit thing, it is warm, never freezes and the three square miles of valley supports an amazing abundance of wildlife, including over 3000 bald eagles in the fall who feast on the spawning salmon, for about a week, and bird watchers and others come from all over the world just to watch bald eagles feed.
I had that at home for years without going all the way to Alaska! (My Dad’s nickname is Bald Eagle.)
On the way back to the ferry we happened to see, sitting at the top of a tree, a bald eagle, who it turns out lives nearby and tolerates us mere mortals taking pix very near. So check out the pix.
Sitting on the dock waiting for the ferry, we observed, with our highly honed wildlife spotting skills, yet another bald eagle being dive bombed by some seagulls. Now, a bald eagle is over 3 ft tall, and has talons that would rip your face off, and a seagull is a wimp in comparison, so they were either brave or stupid.
Back in Skagway, we went again to the lost town of Dyea, earlier than yesterday, to see if there were some people around. I forgot yesterday to inform you that when we got there yesterday, we were the only ones about, it was darkish, and in the wooded area was very Hansel and Gretel- ish, and them woods is full of bears!! So I wimped out and said I didn’t think we were being clever out in the woods surrounded by grizzlies and black bears, so we did a runner back to the car.
Well, tonight, when we got there, the ranger lady we had met yesterday was there, just leaving, and no one else. She said we should be OK, but if we saw a bear, to stand shoulder to shoulder, not look it in the eyes and let it have the path, and for goodness sake, don’t run. She also said to shout out at intervals, “Go Bear”
So, off we went, just as last night, no one around, Marlipops striding away in front, me behind thinking there was a bear behind every tree, shouting “Go Bear” as gruffly and as loudly as possible. We got about as far as yesterday…………….and did a runner back to the car again!!
When we lived in Florida, we knew that snakes would slither away at our approach, and gators stay in the water where they should, but here, bears are bigger than me, and their claws are longer than mine, so yes, I am a wimp. Also, we discovered, contrary to what I informed you several letters ago, Bears do not always s… in the woods, we saw bear crap all over the road in several places.
The salmon we bought was grilled, and was heaven.
Wildlife watch today was sea otters, harbor seals, bald eagles, and a squirrel.
