After we got off the ship, we got on a Greyhound style bus that took us to the rainforest. As you might imagine, it was raining, but by the time we started our hike, the rain had tapered off.
We had a group of about 15-20 people and our tour guide. She advised us to stick together, because we were in bear country. I was really hoping to see a bear!
As we hiked through the rainforest on a very easy trail (thankfully), our guide pointed out various flora and fauna. It looked a lot like the Hoh Rainforest on the Olympic Peninsula here in Washington. She pointed out this skunk cabbage. She added that bears eat it after they wake up from hibernation to, ah, clear out their system.
We also saw this abandoned bear den. Our guide said that a bear never goes back to the same place to hibernate, because it's not safe. I guess the female bears have to be especially careful, because the male bears will eat bear cubs (even their own bear cubs!)
As we left the dense rain forest, we came to a clearing and saw a salmon hatchery. The humpies (pink salmon) were coming back to the hatchery to spawn and were swimming upstream. The river was packed with salmon.
Just as we were leaving the hatchery to go see a sawmill, our guide yelled, "Bear!" We watched a black bear as he ambled down to the river, grabbed a salmon with his big paw, and trotted back up the hill into the trees. So cool!
After everyone took about a million pictures of the bear, we headed up to an old saw mill
and an animal sanctuary. We saw some reindeer (but not Santa, har har)
and an eagle and an owl that had been injured, but were nursed back to health. Although, they were not fit enough to be let back into the wild, so they were kept for educational purposes.
The owl was so cool!
At the end of the hike/tour, we stopped into the gift shop and then loaded back onto the bus. After Ketchikan, we had a day at sea and then sailed off to our last port of call: Victoria, BC.
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