Wildlife, Bears, Deer and so many Whales

Today we are at Icy Strait Point on the Chichagof Island here in Alaska. This island is a tourist attraction owned by the native people through their corporation.  One thing we have found here in Alaska, is that the native people here are living and fully integrated in the state.  They do not live on reservations like many at home do and we have met many of these great people, young and old.

The young lady from our river cruise in Fairbanks is studying to become a nurse and others who live and work here are so very informative on this part of the country and of course, their heritage.

So our tour today took us up into the back woods area where we took a hiking path to search for wildlife.  Now, us city folk took this path, part ground and part boardwalk with three outlook points over a river.  Just before we began, we realized that we were actually going into the wild, when our guide was joined by another local man. Take note that he has a rifle over his shoulder !!

It had ben raining all night last night so the river was high and we did not see any wildlife on this walk. There were salmon in the river that we saw.

On the bus ride back to our starting point, we finally saw some dear and an Alaskan Brown Bear walking down the road.

Next, we set off whale watching.  Barb and I have done this before and seen Minki Whales in Newfoundland, and humpbacks at a distance off Vancouver but never seen a breach or even the tail fin of any whales.

Shortly after leaving, our boat spotted the misty plume of a whale and we headed towards it.  Well, we came across a pod of Orca's or killer whale. What a sight!!

The crew told us that orcas travel in pods but they can travel up to 100 miles per day so they are rare to find.  We had another special experience.

Next we went off to find one of the local humpback whales from this area and we found one. First time we watched and saw his massive tail come out of the water, another first for us.

We enjoyed the day, watched a show after dinner and retired for the night.  This is the first time that we actually felt the boat move or we had too much to drink, again !!! Actually, we had moved out to some open water for awhile. We are going to have to come home for a rest soon.