Towards the end of our Alaskan boating adventure, we made a stop at Anan Bay which had a protected cove, a great view, lots of seals, a stream, and lots of bald eagles. Basically just like every other anchorage we found on the trip. However, Anan Bay is home to the Anan Wildlife Observatory which is really just a nice way of saying HOLY $HIT THERE ARE EFFING BEARS EVERYWHERE!
Open arriving at the trailhead, you are greeted by a ranger that gives you the low-down on what to do “if” you encounter any bears and then sends you on your way. Luckily Leslie had been there 8 years ago and had pre-packed her cowbells for this exact moment. My main takeaway from the ranger was that the bears make the rules in the woods. They like to use the trails just as much as the people so if you encounter one, don’t move and let them decide what they want to do. See bear, freeze. Got it.
We headed out down the 1/2 mile hike through bear infested woods banging our bells and talking overly loud just in case. Once we got to the bear blind (Basically a deck in the woods next to a waterfall/creek) I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of black bears EVERYWHERE. A quick count told me there were about 8 or 9 bears. Then I looked across the creek, and up in the trees, and OH $HIT THERE’S LIKE THREE RIGHT BEHIND US! I couldn’t keep track in the end but I estimate around 25 black bears and 1 or 2 grizzly’s roaming around the creek catching salmon and climbing trees. We spent a solid 2.5 hours just snapping really cool pictures and watching bears run around us (Note: wet bears smell a lot like wet dogs).
It was also about that time I started thinking, “Huh, with all these bears running around on the trail, how the hell are we going to get back to the boat?” Since you can’t use your bear bells or make noise in and around the blind, a few people had timed it already to leave when the bears were mostly by the creek. Sounds good, lets do that too. So following that plan, the 6 of us headed off the deck and back up the trail to our boat.
We made it roughly 30 feet down the trail before Leslie (in front) stopped dead in her tracks. A momma bear with 2 cubs had stepped out from behind a ridge onto the trail and was staring directly into her eyes giving off the distinct vibe of “one more move and I will eat you”. We stood still for what felt like 25 minutes when there was a rustling behind us. Another bear had started coming up the trail and wanted to pass us on the left. The bear slows down as he gets closer to us and starts sniffing around trying to find something. Dan is the only person between Leslie and I and in an effort to keep tabs on both bears (momma still dead-locked on Leslie) swings his head around quickly and lets out 1 solitary ding on his cowbell. Bear #2 hears this, flips out, runs backwards away from us, and procedes to pass us on the other side while giving us a wide berth. As I’m tracking that bear, I glance back to see if anything else is sneaking up behind us and I see ranger #2 back in the bear blind frantically signaling us to come back to the blind immediately.
We slowly back away, momma bear STILL dead-locked on Leslie, and make it back into the blind to the relief of everyone there. We waited another 20 or 30 minutes for an opening and then made another break only to get stopped again about 100 feet up the trail. Luckily, this bear didn’t really care much and we were able to move on without much worry.
There is a picture above that shows what the locals call a “bear jam” where people get stopped on the trail, just like us, and are not able to move any further. In the particular case of the picture, there was a bear sleeping on the trail and the group of 15 people had to literally stand there and just wait for him to wake up all the while bears are running all around them down and back from the creek. The two guides with that group had rifles. We had no guide and bells.
For many more bear photos, the full collection is over on my site. Despite them wanting to eat me, the bears were amazing and amazingly cute to watch. If you are ever near Anan Bay I highly suggest checking it out. I also recommend going sometime in July or August since the salmon are spawning then and there is much more bear activity (don’t forget to buy a pass though!).
