This is our second cruise in Alaska. We went four years ago in September on NCL.  This time it’s August on Princess.  We are stopping at many of the same places.  On our previous cruise two out of three excursions were canceled.  We are hoping for better luck this time.  Our first excursion is the most important one for my husband.  He is dying to see bears catch salmon in the river. 

We had an excursion set and they canceled on us so we found this one in the last month.  We are scheduled to take a float plane over to an island to watch the bears. We got off the boat about fifteen minutes earlier than needed, so we wandered around a few stores before meeting the van.  

Jake drove us to the float planes. They were performing final checks on the dock.  Then two crew members pushed the plane into the water!  The dock tilted to help them, but it still looked difficult. 

We boarded the plane according to our weights.  Michelle was our pilot. There were five of us on the tour.  The weather was super calm.  We were able to see a whale clearly in the water from the air. 

The plane took off so smoothly that I didn’t even know that we were in the air. 

The views over to the island were amazing.  I loved looking down into the clear water and over the mountains. 

The island is actually a part of Ketchikan, but you can only get there by plane or boat.  The area was called Trader’s Cove.  

After hiking up the dock ramp and then up a hill, we all boarded a van. We drove by a ranger station (which was unmanned this year) and headed to the trail to the bears. 

Before we walked through the woods we were able to use the outhouse, which was pretty clean.  Jake told us what we should do if we saw a bear (let it go by, never run) and to keep up conversation in the woods so they knew we were there.  He stopped quite a few times to tell us about different plants and why animals ate them.  

We arrived at this boardwalk area with a gate (I’m sure the bears could figure this out, but what do I know).  

The platform had a wall with windows so we could watch the river area. 

There was a man-made salmon ladder to help the salmon go upriver when the water was low (it was low when we were there). You can see all the salmon in the deep pool of the river. 

We sat and waited for our first bear. Apparently we just missed a mom and her cubs (relayed to me by another group there).  The first bear was a bit awkward.  He didn’t find his footing and flopped into the water a few times. 

He was pretty big though, so I assumed he knew how to fish.  He sat for a while just watching.  Jake said that patient bears usually caught more fish.  

This guy tried several areas, but never caught anything.  

At one point another bear showed up.  He looked at the bear in the middle of the river and continued downstream.  Obviously the one in the river was bigger. 

After the bigger bear gave up, we think the other bear came back.  It was hard to tell though.  Some bears have a bit of white on their fur, some have brown, some look mostly black. 

I questioned why they were not going after the salmon in the deeper area.  Jake said the salmon disperse quickly and the bears have a difficult time snagging them.  We missed this one bear catching this salmon that he ate on the rock in the middle of the river.  He was that fast. 

We actually got to see this bear catching his fish in the deeper area.  It was almost as if the salmon was not able to move.  I like how you can see his mouth open here. 

I really appreciate the claws on this bear.  Yikes. 

The best part of the day was seeing this momma bear and her three cubs.  I spotted her and was jumping up and down whisper yelling babies!  

The cubs followed her in a straight line.  It was obvious they were taught exactly what to do.  

She fished and they sat on the rocks and watched for other bears. Male bears will kill the cubs.  Jake said that if another bear approached, we would see the cubs climb a tree.  

The mom tried fishing in the rapids with no luck. She went over to the deep pool and got a fish.  She immediately started hiking up the hill to get the cubs to safety.  

We were at this spot for three hours.  Another tour group came through three different times.  They were barely there for any time at all.  If you want to book a bear viewing trip, I highly recommend finding one that lets you sit for at least a few hours.  We think we saw at least 10 bears.  These groups maybe saw one.