Alaska 2024 - Day 3 Haines
Sunday, 11 August 2024
We navigated the Alaska Marine Highway up to Chilkoot Inlet, arriving in Haines at 8:00 a.m. We were kind of inland, protected by mountains and land the whole journey, so it was another smooth transit.
We pulled up to the pier at 8:00 and had our "Haines Through A Lens" tour scheduled for 8:30, so it was an early start for us! The town is lovely, situated beneath some pretty tall peaks.
The weather was chilly, and windy, with intermittent clouds but no rain, so very good for Alaska. Our group had less than 20 people and an entertaining mix of personalities. A British guest had a wry, witty sense of humor I really enjoy.
Our tour guide was an experienced wildlife photographer. She gave us insightful photography tips, tailoring her responses to our individual skill levels and questions.
On our first stop, we saw some awesome views of the valley and surrounding mountains. There was a bald eagle on a sand bar, but it was beyond the range of my lens and skill level. See my attempt below.
Thankfully, I had a chance to capture a much better depiction of a bald eagle and a golden eagle during a future stop on our cruise.
I'm also grateful that, despite my low skill level and entry level equipment, there were great views I could capture.
The clouds really lent some mystique and drama to the valley.
On the way to our next stop, we saw a brown bear!
The bear was hanging out near a sluice used for counting salmon. The salmon have to swim through the small opening where a Parks Service person can count them to help determine the numbers of fish that can be safely caught while maintaining the population for future years.
The fish congregate here, waiting their turn to be let through, making an almost free lunch for the bears. This one was well known to locals and was named Lulu. The wildlife has habits and the people have their habits, but in Alaska, the people do their best to adapt to the wildlife.
Next stop was Chilkoot Lake. Again, beautiful views of the lake, the sourrounding valley, and striking contrast due to the clouds.
The black dot near the middle of the photo is a sea lion. By the time I changed my lens to try to get a better photo, it had disappeared into the depths, no doubt searching for the juiciest nearby salmon to munch on. I did get many excellent sea lion photos at a future destination on the cruise which I'll be sharing.
One excellent tip from our guide for photographing people was, if you're photographing someone next to a lake or the sky, have the person's head positioned over the open area to make them stand out. It works! Look at Galina. 😄
For our next stop, I saw that big brown object near the center of the photo as the bus pulled up and shouted "bear!", kind of surprised the bus driver hadn't already directed our attention to it. Turns out, it wasn't a bear, but a brown, fuzzy, not really so bear shaped rock. 😦 I wasn't super popular with the tour group for a few minutes, and I was kind of bummed that I wasn't going to be getting more bear pictures.
The strip of exposed land on the island near the upper right is the result of a landslide in 2020 that destroyed the local road and some houses and killed two people whose bodies were never found. It was called the Beach Road landslide on Mount Riley and you can read more about it here if you're interested. The island is still recovering from it.
After a wonderful and informative tour of Haines and some outstanding photography guidance, we headed back to the ship for a late lunch and rest in preparation for our trip to Sitka, our next stop.
