Pack Creek, Admiralty Island

Pack Creek 2005

While visiting the Stan Price State Wildlife Sanctuary at the north end of Admiralty Island in mid August, temperatures hovered at a record 91 degrees F. Naturally, the brown bears who normally crowd the salmon streams decided this was a good time to take long naps in the woods, so only a few of them showed themselves during our visit. Nevertheless, the beautiful setting has much to offer.

Windfall Harbor, just south of Pack Creek, offered amazing reflections and streams stuffed full of spawning salmon. On a late evening kayak paddle, Betty heard a roar that echoed across the beaches. The sound proved to be a boar brown bear in an altercation with a mama bear and her cub. The boar scrambled away, and Betty quietly drifted closer to mom and cub on the beach, getting to within 100 yards before the animals caught her scent and bolted from the beach. A special moment...

After a morning at one of the Pack Creek viewing areas, lazing about in the sun (while the bears lazed in the shade), we returned to the Delphinus, our home base during our week-long trip, for a sumptuous lunch prepared by Hilary, our talented cook.

At Pack Creek, the big lenses sometimes "win" with great up-close images of bears. Unfortunately, on this hot day, it was not to be.

At the entrance to the trail at Pack Creek leading to the bear viewing tower, we find not-so-subtle bear sign, or in this case, lack of a sign.

After an unproductive hour and a half at the viewing tower overlooking lots of spawning salmon (the bears were all sleeping), we decided to call it a day. As we climbed off the tower ladder to head back to the Delphinus, we encountered a mama bear very up close and personal. In the stand-off that followed, mama shooed her baby up a tree, and we humans shooed ourselves back up into the viewing tower. After a few minutes, mama coaxed baby out of the tree and they scooted away in the woods. And we scooted our way back to our own refuge. (Note: original photo is not sharp.)

Sloshing around in the warm waters of the beach, photographers await the Zodiac skiff that will take them back to the Delphinus. Windfall Harbor is in the background.