Anan Creek Observatory, Wrangell, Alaska

If you look behind us you can see the start of the trail to the observatory!

Captain Jim preparing his shotgun, JUST IN CASE

The "outhouse" complete with peep hole!
This picture will make sense when you read the blog!!!

This was at the beginning of the walk in.

This is Darby. She would go in the water and catch a fish then bring it up under the observatory floor and eat it. Needless to say the odor at the observatory was very ripe!

This is Darby again after she had eaten and was waiting to go back for more! We were only about 6 ft. away. She kind of looks sad!

There must be an entire corridor of openings behind these rocks because bears would go in and then come out 100 yards up river.

Those are some big teeth!

Anyone have a napkin? Zoom in if you dare!!

Fish 1, Bear's 1,000,000,000,000,000

~sniff ~sniff~sniff~

This is Max. He was the smallest of all the bears and appeared to possibly be orphaned. But he seemed to handle himself pretty well. He would sneak out and grab the left overs from what the larger bears would leave behind when they were back out fishing!

Here fishy, fishy, fishy!

This is Virginia. According to the ranger she is a little fighter. She is always showing up with some kind of wound. They know her from the notch out of her ear and the scar on her nose.

BUUURRRRPPP....... excuse me!!! That was some good caviar!

This is Georgia, the only Grizzly we saw. She behaved herself but according to the guides a couple weeks ago she was having fun tormenting the people on the trail so she got sprayed with bear spray.





Anan (Ann-Ann) Creek Observatory was awesome from start to finish. We were all met at the dock by Captain Jim, Ivan and Scott. They welcomed us aboard and proceeded to give us the low down on what to expect when we got to Anan. The main points were NO food, NO chewing gum, NOTHING that could possibly attract a bear to your person. IF we did encounter a bear on the trail stay calm, don’t run and let the guides handle the situation. My rule was, make sure to be following someone who looked like they would run slower than me. Just kidding!!! The one thing we all thought was funny but actually was a safety procedure was, if you had to use the outhouse up at the observatory you had to let Jim or Ivan know and they would escort you. The outhouse is approximately 40 feet from the enclosure of the observatory. Once in the outhouse you locked the door from the inside. After you had finished what you went there to do you had to stick your finger through the peep hole in the door, wiggle it and then look out to see if you got the OK or stay put hand signal. Depending on weather a bear was outside the door or near the outhouse. If there was a bear out there you had to stay put until the bear was gone. I had made up my mind right then that if at all possible I was not going to use the outhouse. When we got off the boat the first thing we had to do was get information from a Forrest Service Ranger. We had already been briefed not to ask questions because that would only take up time that we would have watching the bears. Our guides could answer any questions we may have had. Jim was the owner of the tour outfit and the one who carried the shotgun. YES a real shotgun. That was both comforting and unsettling at the same time. Jim led the group and Ivan, a professional photographer and 40+ year resident of Wrangell brought up the rear. We had been told to stay close together along the trail in case we encountered a bear. If there was a large space between us that would encourage the bear to try to go between people. This was particularly important when we were close to the observatory where the bears were pretty much guaranteed to be. The trail in was ¾ of a mile long and through a gorgeous rain forest. It was exciting, with Jim in the lead scouring the entire area for any sign of bears while cradling his shotgun at the ready , telling us about Georgia the Grizzly Bear that had to be sprayed with bear spay because she was getting to close to the tourists. According to what we were told, Georgia seemed to get a kick out of bluff charging the groups and scaring them. She was very close to being shot when she finally responded to the bear spray and retreated. They have not had that problem with her since. But that got our attention and we all did exactly as we were told. We arrived at the observatory safe and sound and were now ready to watch bears from the safety of the viewing deck. The observatory consisted of a redwood deck about 30ft square with a 4 ft fence around it (as if 4 ft would keep a bear out). It had 2 levels, the top level was where we did most of our viewing, and the second was a small platform connected to the top but at a lower elevation. This was where we entered from the trail and where you enter the stairway down to the viewing blind. The entire observatory was built above ground and it was not uncommon for the bears to take their catch under the floor and eat it. Needless to say the stench of rotting fish was very strong in some areas. The first order of business when we arrived was to sign up for our 30 minutes in the viewing blind. The viewing blind was right down at the rivers edge and got you up close to fishing bears. While in the blind you were behind a camouflaged structure that had 5 openings, 1 for each person allowed in at a time. Because we were the only group there for quite a while we were able to go down at any time that there were no more than 5 people. But most of the viewing was done from above on the viewing deck. At one time I counted 8 black bears feeding. We soon learned from watching the interaction of the bears that size does matter in the bear world. As does sex, if you are a large male you rule the river! As well, if you are a male (not necessarily large) the females gave you a wide berth. As we watched, the ranger, a cute 20 something on her first assignment to this area, would tell us the names of the bears and some of their background if she knew it. There was one little guy, they called him Max, he appeared to be young. They guessed he may be a 2nd year cub and alone. They don’t know what happened to his Mother. The first time we saw Max he was looking for fish and came out of the rocks just as a larger bear was fishing not far away. Little Max stopped in his tracks and lowered his head but kept his eye on the larger bear. When the larger bear turned towards Max as if to go in his direction, Max retreated to the rocks. Max would stay tucked in the rocks and poke his head out to see if the coast was clear then he would scurry out and pick up the scraps that had been left behind by the fishing bear and run back into the safety of the rocks to eat. Another bear, Darby would go down to the river get a fish and bring it up under the deck and eat it. She did that about 4 times before she went on her way. When she was making her way under the deck she was no more than 6 ft away from us. Then there was Virginia! She is apparently a scrapper! She had a chunk missing from her left ear and a scar across her nose. The ranger (I wish I had gotten her name) said she always is coming up with some kind of sores. Virginia must fight over the 1000’s of fish, afraid she won’t get her fill. Well, let me tell you she gets her fill. She is so FAT…. hahahah. But then they are all pretty fat. It’s getting to be the end of the season and the bears are storing up for winter. Most of the bears will double their body weight by the time they go in to hibernation. About an hour before we were to head out, Georgia, the grizzly was spotted in the lagoon. We all hoped she would still be around when we left so we could get some pictures of her. I think we all secretly hoped she would be on the trail since we had experienced guides who knew how to handle her. As it turned out she was still in the lagoon fishing but not anywhere near the trail. It was better that way so she was not in danger and neither were we! I know I keep saying this but

“It WAS a perfect ending to a perfect day”

By the way………… Neither Chip nor I used the outhouse while we were up there! Maybe we should have just to have had the experience!