Anan Wildlife Viewing Area, Tongass National Forest

7/24/2024 Today we visited the Anan wildlife viewing area in the Tongass National Forest.

Bears, eagles, and salmon were plentiful at the Anan Wildlife Viewing Area in Tongass National Forest

We booked this trip in February knowing that they only issue 60 permits per day and July is highly desirable due to the large amount of salmon in the river. We decided on a tour boat as the park rules required one person to stay aboard any boat anchored in the cove and that would have meant half of us would have missed the viewing. We got on the tour boat in Wrangell and enjoyed the hour-long ride to the park.

Tour boat departed from downtown Wrangell

We passed the Haida, an amazing private yacht with a family on board doing an around the world trip

We arrived at low tide which made for an easy beach landing

So happy it wasn’t raining!

Evidence that the bears are everywhere. A bear had chewed on the bathroom doorknob.

Bruce, our lead guide was ready for any bear encounters. Robert, our rear guide was armed as well.

We were ordered to keep tight ranks on the half mile walk from the boat to the viewing platform

Large amounts of fresh bear scat on the trail confirmed that the bears use this trail also

Looking down river from the viewing area. The spiral staircase leads down to two blind viewing platforms.

The multi-level blind allowed for some amazing perspectives

We had to sign up for ten minute viewing times for the lower blind areas

Even the staircase is covered/shielded to minimize the bears distraction with our proximity

Phil and Annette talk with the head ranger at Anan. She does not normally hang out in the observation area but her mom was visiting for the day as part of our tour group.

An old fish ladder is still in place but not currently in use

There was a lot of coming and going from the fishing areas

This one was changing fishing spots

This one is clearly a successful fisher based on size. Might also be a bit of a fighter based on the scars on its face.

The bear at the bottom of this shot was being very successful until mama bear decided she wanted to fish in that spot

We watched mama bear catch and discard two salmon before keeping the third one. We were told they prefer to eat the female fish. Not sure how they can tell what they have.

This is the guy who got chased out of his fishing spot by mama bear with two cubs. He felt safe just under the main viewing platform.

You could almost touch him he was so close

Bill and Sally watch one of the cubs that decided to climb a tree nearby

The eagles stayed close (here one adult and one juvenile). We were told that they can’t pick up these six pound salmon so they take scraps.

We are standing on the main platform. The bears just walk right by.

Our crew (Phil, Annette, Brad, Marya, Bill, and Sally) pose on the main platform

Boarding at high tide was a little bouncier but still a piece of cake

What an amazing place. What an amazing day. It is good to know that places like this exist to protect and study the wildlife. The head ranger tells me this area has 40 to 60 black bears who are permanent residents, and about a dozen brown (grizzly) bears that only come in for salmon season. The park has a new project using game cameras to better count and track the bears. The viewing area was completely rebuilt about three years ago and now includes a toilet in the controlled area. In the past you had to leave the controlled are and walk across the bear paths to get to the outhouse. They take safety seriously here with rangers monitoring the trail and communicating when it is safe to move about. Our tour guides were armed with rifles and bear spray but luckily used neither. They tell us they have never used the rifles but definitely have used the bear spray in the past. Between the six of us we took probably a thousand pictures and I don’t have the space or the time to post them. I have tried to give you a few that communicate some of the behaviors I observed. There was competition for the good spots. The younger bears had to work a lot harder to catch fish in the less desirable spots. The techniques were very different. Some sat in the water, some sat out of the water, but everyone was eating. All in all, a great day!

Route from Wrangell to Anan Bay