We had visited the Park many years ago on our cruise of the
Internal Passage. However, we had only been on the water, taking a fjord cruise
out of Seward. While we enjoyed that immensely, we had always wanted to return
and put boots on the ground.
We headed to Cooper Landing to do some escorted hiking. The
weather wasn’t spectacular, quite rainy, so the normal trails were muddy. However,
we were able to hike around on the lower more stable trails and we actually had
really good luck spotting a great number of the resident Bald Eagles.
We surprised our guide a bit. We spotted this Spruce Grouse,
which our bird book indicated had habitat here. Our guide at first said that we
obviously had mistaken a Ptarmigan as a Grouse, as he had never seen a Grouse
in the area, and he had been guiding here for 15 years. After I showed him the
picture I had taken, he reluctantly agreed it was not a Ptarmigan – indeed it
was a Spruce Grouse!
Not only did we spot resident Bald Eagles but we had really
good luck, despite the weather, in spotting some resident Black Bears. We had
seen Brown Bears (or Grizzlies or Kodiak Bears) in several of our destinations.
However, there are Black Bears in Alaska and we had yet to see them.
We got a very special surprise. We spotted a big Black Bear
up on a hillside that seemed to be moseying downhill a bit. Next, we spotted
some more bush movement, and spotted her cub. For whatever reason, she decided
to bring her cub down to within 30 feet of us. What a treat! And they didn’t
just spot us and skedaddle – they hung around and put on a show. They were so
close we could hear them sniffing for food!
Talk to you soon!
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