Located only 15 miles south of Skagway, Haines, Alaska offers a day-trip escape to a different world. While Skagway has thousands of tourists flooding its historic boardwalks daily, Haines basks in a quiet, not-so-touristy approach to life. Ferries run daily between these towns, so it’s easy to get there on a whim. Over the summer, I went twice!

The first time I visited, I marveled at the stunning Chilkat Mountains, enjoyed the rocky beaches and the fisherman’s harbor, then took the historic walking tour around Fort Seward.

The second time I visited, I enjoyed a lovely float trip down the Chilkat River through the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve. We saw many bald eagles and huge nests up in the trees. From late summer through the winter, Eagles are attracted to this area by the thousands to feed on the running Coho, Sockeye and Pink Salmon.

On this trip, I also went to the SE Alaska State Fair. I guess I didn’t take any pictures of the fair, but while I was there, I met a wildlife photographer who was visiting Haines on assignment. He told me that he was heading off to Chilkoot Lake that night to look for bears. Did I want to join him? Of course!

In the setting sun, Chilkoot Lake and the Chilkoot River were spectacular! Eagles sat in the trees and flocked to the river edge for their nightly meal. My new photographer friend spent a few minutes taking photos of the eagles, and then headed to the cluster of people standing along the river.

Several visitors and locals “in the know” were standing with their large cameras around a salmon weir. A weir is a fence built across the river, in this case to funnel salmon through a narrow passage. The Alaska Fish and Game Department builds these weirs and employs biologists to stand on them during daylight hours. Their job is to count and take data on the salmon as they’re passing through the narrow opening. This is a simple way the agencies can extrapolate data on the number and types of salmon returning to spawn in that river.

The local bears of Haines have figured out that the weir is beneficial to them as well because they can straddle the narrow passage and get their fill for dinner. Of course, the game wardens prefer to finish their work hours before giving the weir over to the bears, so sometimes they have to defend the weir until it’s time to go.

We watched this play out as a Mama Bear with her four little cubs appeared out of the forest and started to cross the weir. The worker made loud shouting and banging noises to scare her back into the forest. He finished his work and quickly got out of the way. Soon, the family of bears came back out of the forest, crossed the road and headed for the weir again.

The bears easily jumped the fence and started to walk across the weir.

What Mama Bear didn’t know, was that there was a large male bear approaching the weir from the other side. When he lunged at her, she quickly turned her cubs around and started to run. (This is not a video.)

Once off the weir, they galloped back into the forest with the little runt bringing up the rear.

What drama! A day full of salmon, eagles and bears made for a great day in Haines!