“USA 🇺🇸 Alaska ~Haines Chilkoot Lake Recreation Site and Grizzly Bears and a Moose at the Salmon Weir ~VERY EXCITING”

• August 6, 2023
• By Pen
• 2 Comments

Chilkoot Lake State Recreation Site and the Salmon Weir ⬇️

We would make two trips out to the Salmon Weir, on this same day, in hopes of seeing Bears, fishing/eating their catch!

It would take a third visit and waiting about an hour to finally see the Mamma Grizzly (Sow)  and her two Cubs (Coy) make an appearance. It was well worth the wait!

In addition, while waiting for the Bears, a Moose wandered by, across the river  ⬇️

⬆️ For perspective, I am this far away from the Bears, using a zoom lens

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The drive is so beautiful, coming from Haines, and only nine miles from our campground, on Alaska State Highway 7.
It’s all paved, with only few bad spots.

Chilkoot Lake State Recreation Site is at the south end of Chilkoot Lake, near the outlet to the Chilkoot River. The campground sits amid a beautiful stand of Sitka spruce.

The park and surrounding area offers some of the best salmon fishing in Southeast Alaska, with four salmon runs, starting in mid-June and ending in mid-October. Because of the salmon spawning in the river, and at this end of the lake, this area is also a Bear highway. Bears frequent the river to feast on the salmon. Please learn proper bear/human etiquette, as this protects both you and the Bears.

There is no clear area to see the Salmon Weir from the side the Bears would be on, due to too much brush.
If we see a Bear fishing, I’m most likely going to get a video, so will have to break the rule.

What is a Salmon Weir?

Weirs help to establish those baselines and then detect changes in populations over time. They also help fisheries managers evaluate and adjust their management actions, reconstruct past salmon abundances, and forecast future salmon returns.

For this weir, a record is shown, daily, for the count of Salmon

53,732 Salmon have passed through, since the run began. That’s a lot of fish!!! I’m 

⬇️ By my third visit; four days later, this many Salmon

Across the river, a large Eagle waited patiently in the tree. I watched him. When he made his move, I got a couple shots. He did catch a salmon and I could tell he was quite experienced.
(Just expand the photos to see the Eagle)

With both visits; late morning and early evening, we did not see any Bears, but heard from a visitor there were a few, late afternoon, walking through; not fishing.

I’ve seen a video of a mama Grizzly teaching her two cubs to fish at the weir. Totally cute and no worries, no people are allowed on the Salmon weir, but there are people fishing and catching Salmon in the river, near it. (they must be 300 ft from the weir, to fish) Bears have no such rules…

There are lots of signs around and an interactive book to make sure people are “Bear Aware” at all times, when visiting.
The other “sign” is lots of Bear scat, so much one has to avoid stepping in the piles, when walking around.

We are around for another week, so we will try for a very early visit, next time, to hopefully see Bears, fishing, or just Bears, anywhere in the area. Yes, we carry Bear Spray and know the Bear Aware guidelines.

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We also attempted a drive to Mud Bay, which is another direction out of Haines. We almost made it, too. We stopped when it turned to gravel with holes as big as Jonah. Nope, not happening.
We got a few pretty pics of the glacier, just didnt get to see the old cannery. Oh well, we are not lacking for interesting places to see. 

It was time for chow, so we headed back to town 

On Sunday, most restaurants we closed, but we found the Bamboo Room, open, and we heard they have the best Fish n Chips in town.
We were all about that, so off we went.

What we did not know, until after we got there, this property used to be a brothel! 😜 … which would explain the photos on the outside of the original building.
Oh and the Fish n Chips were excellent!

The next couple of days we will be very busy, so I will post when we get wifi again!!

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