It has been absolutely beautiful here in Alaska. Wayne decided to take advantage of the wonderful weather we have been having and for my birthday he decided that we should hike the Russian River on the Kenai Peninsula. We were in search of finding a bear and earlier in the week Wayne spotted one on the river as we were driving into Seward. Not having time to stop and check it out, Wayne was determine to go back and find a bear. We were lucky enough to leave the boys with 'Pops' and 'Memi' and so we decided to make a day of it. We we first got to the river we walked down the bank to where Wayne last spotted the bear. No luck. But we were surprised to see all of the sockeye salmon making its way up the river in their bright red spawning color.
Wayne was pretty excited to still see some of the salmon still in the river getting ready to spawn. After having no luck on the river for seeing a bear we decided to walk up to the Russian River Falls and upper lake in search of bears up there.
When we hiked up to the falls we were so excited to still see some of the salmon jumping the falls trying to make it up to the lake. It was a fun experience to see how high these fish can jump up the falls.
The Russian River falls was absolutely beautiful! If you ever get a chance to make it to Alaska I definitely recommend taking this hike. Not only is the scenery beautiful but there is so much wildlife there to enjoy!
Here is a female Sockeye Salmon in spawning colors. She is pretty exhausted from making that tough climb up the falls. There were tons of fish in the river and we were sure that we were going to see a bear. We kept our eyes open and continued our way on the hike up to the upper lake.
Once we got to the upper lake we were certain that there would be a bear around. We hiked along the bank and spotted many dead fish that had been recently eaten. We even began to spot bear tracks everywhere! We started getting a little nervous that we were following not only one Bear's tracks but that of a mother and cub bear! It was then that we should start making noise to let the bears know that we were there. Wayne and I began to talk a little bit louder and Wayne decided to bang two rocks together to make noise. The last thing we wanted to do was to startle a mother and baby bear. Unfortunately we were running out of time for seeing a bear and we began to head back.
This was the last paw print we saw right before we decided to head back. Although we didn't see a bear on this trip we still had an amazing time. It was a beautiful hike and we are for sure that when we come back...we'll see our bear.
