We spent two days in Hyder : two days watching bears fishing for salmon. An incredible and unique spectacle that we will never forgot.
Monday, August 15, 2022
Hyder is an -almost- ghost town in Alaska. It’s so small and so remote that there are no US customs to go there. From Steward, BC, we can go to Hyder without stopping or stamping our passport. We go to Hyder not to see ghosts, but to see bears! The salmon river attracts all the surrounding bears hungry for tasty and easily caught fishes. Let’s hope we can assist to some fishing performance! 🤞
The boardwalk that runs alongside the river is closed by a gate. We have to register first before being able to enter. Some people are already there and some of them have huge cameras. Now it’s time to wait.
Two hours go by. We are busy observing the salmon (the biggest we have ever seen) and reading. And suddenly, here comes a bear! He is massive! We can see all his muscles. He slowly goes up the river. The salmon run away from him in big splashes. He ignores them, until one is not fast enough. He jumps forward and grabs it with his claws. He then takes it in his mouth and walks to the bank to enjoy it. What a pro!
He is eating his third fish when another bear comes along. They size each other up. They slowly approach each other. What will they do?
Suddenly they are standing on their hind legs... fighting. Wow! What a show. A ranger tells us that they are actually brothers, more playing than fighting. We spend more than an hour watching them bickering and fishing together. When one of them catches a salmon, he runs away from the other.
What a beautiful moment! We've seen lot of things with these bears: close encounters on hiking trails, we saw them breastfeeding, fighting, fishing, climbing trees, climbing our Jeep, crossing the road in front of us. So many adventures. So many memories! Shortly after, a third bear appears: the mother of the two brothers. She is massive. Now her grown up cubs are the boss. She goes carefully around them through the bushes. They observe her but don't approach her. Then, she goes fishing a little farther on the river.
At 9pm, the night falls and it's time to leave the boardwalk. To go back to Steward in Canada, we have to cross the Canadian border post. The customs officer asks us the usual questions, checks our passports and allows us to pass. We hope to see bears again tomorrow!
Tuesday, August 16
We wake up at 6:30am. 20 minutes later, we are on the road. We arrive just in time to see a big black bear appears. We love black bears, they are very funny. This one doesn't stay long, just the time to catch a fish and to disappear in the bushes. He reappears higher on the road, his salmon in the mouth. The next car driver is going to make a funny encounter! During the 3 hours we spend on the platform, we also see again the two brothers from yesterday.
At 10am, we leave the boardwalk. Bears are nice, but there is another attraction near Hyder: the beautiful Salmon Glacier. A 4x4 track leads to a viewpoint on this glacier. It's impressive.
While going down from the glacier, we encounter a black bear! These bears are everywhere! It's impossible for us to leave Hyder without stopping at the walkboard. It's 2pm and we have to wait two hours before seeing one of the two brothers. What a gourmand!
We decide to go back to Steward at 5pm. At the customs, the customs officer recognizes us: "You've already been through yesterday, right?" "Did you see any bears?" He asks us the usual questions, checks our passports and lets us pass. We set off for the local campsite to take a shower and eat. Then, at 8pm, we can't resist: we go again to Hyder! It's the perfect time! We just have to wait a few minutes before seeing a big brown bear. His fishing technique is more hazardous than the other bears we observed: he runs everywhere in the river, in all directions, until he catches a salmon. He is very funny.
It's then time to leave Hyder and its bears for good. We can't believe we saw so many bears fishing in Hyder: 5 bears in the river, plus one on the road from the glacier. We've seen 61 bears since the beginning of our trip! Wow! Me, in the car: "I bet that we are going to see number 62 there, right now". A curve in the road and here it is! 62 is there, wandering along the road.
At customs, the customs officer exclaims: "You again!" At this point, he doesn't even bother with the usual questions: "Nothing new?" he asks us, before letting us pass. We leave Alaska for the last time. We had lot of amazing adventures on the 49th State of the United States and we are a bit sad to leave it behind us as we continue our trip.
The Yukon and Alaska gave us a taste of great outdoors, so vast and wild that we can only feel humble in front of them. We loved this boundless nature, the breathtaking landscapes, the Alaskan glaciers, the Yukon tundra to the Arctic Ocean and of course! the beautiful and unpredictable wildlife. Our travel around Americas has just begun but we already know that Yukon and Alaska will remain one of the most beautiful part of our trip.
3 commentaires
Magnifique ce reportage sur les ours. Vous avez eu beaucoup de chance de voir cette pêche aux saumons. Spectaculaire !!!
Bisous.
Mamie
Que c’est agréable de vous lire et de voir vos splendides photos et vidéos, nous sommes allés à Hyder où nous avons vu des ours partout sauf sur la passerelle 😂 mais nous n’avions pas eu votre patience. Le glacier était lui aussi une belle découverte. Prochaine étape Prince Rupert ?
Et non pas Prince Rupert, le prix du billet entre Prince Rupert et Vancouver Island était un peu trop élevé et pas de dispos avant plusieurs jours lorsque nous avons regardé. Mais cela nous a permis de faire un saut dans le parc Wells Gray que nous n’avions pas prévu au départ. Une belle découverte ! 🙂