Making Memories in Alaska Day 5: A Bear-y Busy Day

                                       

Today was the day! We were going to see the bears...hopefully! This had been the adventure that led us to this part of Alaska. Don wanted to walk among the bears and we found a way to do it. 

Our beachfront lodge was part of the Land's End Resort complex and was a 3 bedroom "beach house." It was beautiful and laterally sat right on the beach. This is the view from the sitting window.

Carleigh is up there somewhere, view from the third floor bedroom and loft

our own deck and steps down onto the beach

Now for bears!

This was a boat tour, 1 hour across the Cook Inlet to Lake Clark National Park, 2 hours wandering with the bears and then an hour boat ride back again to Anchor Point and 30 minutes back to our house.

From the website:
Alaska bear viewing, We are the only commercial operator providing  daily guided Alaska bear viewing trips by boat.  May, June, July, August
You will depart from Anchor Point, Alaska near Homer & we will take you 38 miles across the beautiful Cook Inlet to Chinitna Bay in Lake Clark National Park. A short walk up the beach to a grassy marsh where several bears congregate to feed on the sedge grasses.

So we grabbed breakfast and headed to Anchor Point.

The set up for our boat ride across the inlet was very interesting. It was just a boat launch in a small park and the trucks with trailers lined up and one by one, they staged and a giant tractor hooked up to the trailer and took the boat to the water and set us free. 

We were outfitted in waders and different boots. The boat would come close to shore at Lake Clark and we would all get off the boat and wade ashore in water about a food deep and choppy...QUITE AN ADVENTURE to get off and back on the boat. We traveled with 4 other people, the captain/bear guide, and his stepdaughter/first mate.

The boat we went across the inlet on.

After getting off the boat, we walked and sloshed through a beautiful field/marshy area. The captain/guide who's been doing these tours for a while assured us that the bears are desensitized to human interaction. Even though they are in the wild of the national park, most of them grew up here as cubs and have been around people "watching" them since they were young. 

"If we leave them alone, they will leave us alone." Our guide Mel told us that. Even with that reassurance, I stayed very close to him the entire walk. :) 

we each had a walking stick to help balance us, it was really muddy and at times a few inches deep with marshy water.

The bears would look at us every now and then and go back to their business of wandering and eating the grasses.

Overall, we saw about 5-6 bears in the field. They were just wandering and hanging out. We got as close as about 30-40 feet away from them. Only once did Mel say we should probably back up a bit as one of them started wandering in our direction.

We spent close to 2 hours with the bears in the marsh and then Mel wanted us back on the boat before the tide got too low and the tide flats might hinder our ability to wade out and climb back on.

As we were making our way back to the boat, this guy was just wandering on the beach and hanging out. As you can see, boats aren't the only ones that visit this area, this plane full of a tourist group just landed on the beach about an hour after we got there.

While Don and I were bear watching for 6 hours. Carleigh and Elisabeth were exploring Homer Spit and the town of Homer by bike. The Lupine flowers were in full bloom!

We me back at the house at about 3:00 and had a great lazy afternoon before heading out to find a happy hour and then dinner. I had read about the Salty Dawg Saloon and wanted to see what it looked like. It was billed as the ONLY Dive Bar on the Spit with a very rich history.

From their website: The tradition of sticking dollar bills started a few decades ago when a man walked in and tacked a dollar on the wall of the log cabin and explained that his friend would be by later and the buck was to buy him a drink. It started exploding in the early ‘90s, when tourism started to pick up. Today, it’s hard to find a spot where there is no money.

So, we didn't stay! It was a VERY interesting place...dark, overly warm and the dollar bills are no joke! We entered the front door, it was very packed, the music was blaring and we walked through the complete "bar" in about 10 seconds and exited through the back door.

You can ask Don Rahn about this experience, he was not impressed and one might say he was slightly traumatized by this 10 second experience. He was the first to exit...very quickly out the back door.

Right behind the Salty Dawg was a very cute Salty Girls gift shop. It was quite a relief from the dark vibe of the saloon.

Don needed some retail therapy after visiting the Salty Dawg. :) So he purchased what he is calling his "emotional support whale."

We then walked along the spit for a while and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves (after the Salty Dawn walkthrough). It's such a cute place. It's truly a fisherman's harbor area with enough shops and restaurants to cater to the tourists at the hotel.

We enjoyed our dinner at the Harbor Grill and then walked back to the house.

What a day! It was a fun time and we each had our own adventures. Tomorrow is another drive day as we head to Seward for 3 nights. Seward is the home base of Kenai Fjord National Park (our 3rd Alaska park) and we've got a boat ride for Don and I, while Elisabeth and Carleigh embark on a 5 hour kayak adventure up close and personal with the glaciers and sea life.

So, stay tuned for:

Making Memories in Alaska Day 5: Onward and Upward to Seward

Today definitely proved our family mantra true...

It's Seldom A Dull Moment with the Rahns!