The Salmon Glacier

14 July 2010
Wednesday

Woke up to a cloudy, misty, grey day. We must still be in Alaska!

And in the temperate rain forest.

After a morning of laundry and other chores, we headed on up the road. First stop was the Fish Creek Bridge Bear Watch Area which is part of the Tongass National Forest. This is one BIG forest. We walked the protected boardwalk but saw no bears. Typically the salmon run begins 1 July but it has not yet begun for this year. No salmon = no bears. They are apparently looking for food on the berry bushes.

So we continued further on up the road toward the Salmon Glacier which our campground host says will make all other glaciers pale in comparison. Suddenly we are in British Columbia again. This border thing is amazing.

The road got muddier and greasier as the rain fell more in earnest. Then the road became curvy and started to hug the edge of the mountain. Some parts were OK for two cars; other parts, not so much. The curves got curvier and the grade got steeper. Soon the fog added its intensity to the equation. Jim was starting to think that this was not such a very good idea after all. After about 22 miles in low gear and thick fog we saw a sign: POSTCARDS. A little further on: DVDs FOR SALE. Soon we saw two outhouses and a couple of cars parked. And still the fog persisted. And there from the back of his SUV, the Bear Man is selling postcards and books and DVDs. We looked but saw NOTHING but fog--thick, thick fog. So we decided to buy the DVD just to see what it was that we were not seeing. He told us to continue onward; that the air would clear about two miles further. Hey, we had come this far, what was a few more miles.

And exactly two miles later, the mist began to dissipate. We soon saw the glacier and what a glacier it was! We only hope the pictures will show what we saw. On the way back we stopped innumerable times to take pictures as the mists would clear and then reappear. While Jim took pictures of the scenery and the flowers I kept an eye out for cars and bears. Saw a few cars but no bears until we were just about back to the campground. A black bear was gathering berries along the side of the road; apparently the salmon did not make it in today.

And so tomorrow we will try one more visit to the bear park before saying good-bye to Alaska.