Opportunistic Eagle and Tenacious Salmon - Russian River Campgournd Part 1

Juvenile Eagle snatching a salmon carcass from the river.

Notice the fish starting to jump right behind the Gull.

There is a salmon jumping in the center of this picture.

Once they get over the whitewater in the previous picture they have THIS to go through.

We know some of them make it because you could see them swimming around in the water. One of the areas is where the water looks black and clear in the center of the picture. You can't see then in the picture but it gives you an idea what they go through.

With the 4th of July weekend fast approaching we left Anchorage with expectations of having trouble finding a campsite. It was Thursday 7/1 and the start of a favorite weekend for families to go camping, have cookouts, watch fireworks and here in Alaska go salmon fishing. As it turned out we didn't have a problem at all. Of course that depends on what you consider a problem! When we arrived at Russian River State Campground the first thing we saw was "Campground Full". We thought we were headed further down the road but as it turned out we were able to stay in the overflow area and put our name on a waiting list so if anyone did not show up or canceled we would have a chance to get into the campground. We were told we needed to be at a designated area at 5pm in order to be eligible for a site if one was available. We showed up for the evening "roundup" on Thursday, then again on Friday at noon and once again on Friday at 5pm. Success! We got a site and for 2 nights. We got in, set up and went for a walk along the river. The state had built a boardwalk along the river to allow fishermen access to the water to fish. There were a lot of people in the water fishing but not many with fish on a stringer. The word on the water was the fishing was terrible. That may be why we got a campsite on such a popular weekend, especially in this campground! When fishing is good or bad the news spreads very quickly via radio, TV and word of mouth, so people that planned on coming here to fish may have decided not to come at all. When someone does catch a salmon they clean it right there at the river's edge. They are supposed to cut up the carcass and throw it into deep fast moving water. But most just toss it in the water whole. Because of that it is not uncommon to see Grizzly Bears by the river scavenging for carcasses and chasing off the gulls that drug the carcass up in the first place. But this night we didn't see any. We did however see a lot of Gulls and a few Eagles. We got a great picture of a Juvenile Eagle swooping down on a piece of fish skin or carcass and snatching it right off the bank taking it into a tree. That was a perfect ending to a great day! On Saturday we hiked up to the Russian River Falls where we had hoped to see some salmon trying to jump the falls. On the way up to the falls it seemed like most people we talked to either asked us or we asked them if they had seen any bears. Luckily no one we talked to had seen any bears. There was one couple who said they talked to someone who had seen a bear earlier that morning. So I kept my pepper spray handy and we kept talking and making noise. About 1.5 miles into the hike we did hook up with Ray, a 65 yr old man from Klamath Falls, OR. who was hiking alone. Between Ray, Chip and myself we kept the conversation going for the 1.5 miles that were left to go. When we got to the falls and viewing platforms I was excited to be able to see salmon trying to swim upstream. The tenacity that these fish have to get upstream is incredible. We watched from the platforms that I think were close to 30ft above the white water for quite getting pictures of salmon in midair trying to get through the white water. After a while Chip and I said goodbye to Ray and hiked down to the water's edge in hopes of getting an even closer look at the salmon. As it turned out I think the platforms gave us a much better vantage point because we didn't see any salmon jumping from where we were.