Another great wildlife day on the South Klondike Highway
Cathy and I had to make a quick trip to Skagway this morning, and while we fully expected to see some wildlife, we didn’t expect to see as much as we did.
The first great sighting was this beautiful big cinnamon bear along Tutshi Lake (yes, “the usual place”). We spent a few minutes with him and he wasn’t the least bit concerned about us. Often mistaken for a grizzly, a cinnamon is a brown black bear.
About 5 miles further south, this smaller bear was much shyer.
But he was a bit curious about us – perhaps checking to see if we were gone yet so he could get back to his grass, so we didn’t stay.
It was very quiet in Skagway, both because it was early and because the Island Princess was the only ship in port.
We dropped the Subaru at the ferry terminal, and headed north again. Along the Tutshi River we caught a quick glimpse of a black bear but a bus was blocking the good views. A few hundred yards further, this old-timer was standing beside the road, so we pulled over.
He wandered across to our side of the road and then back across. My impression was that he’s somewhat familiar with getting treats from cars. 🙁
The dandelion crop right now is incredibly good, and we had high hopes for this spot along Tutshi Lake, but no luck.
At the BC/Yukon border there were about 30 Dall sheep and mountain goats on the slope above. In this photo the 4 animals at the upper left are mountain goats, the 2 on the right are Dall sheep, a ewew above and a ram below.
Not many people seemed to be interested in the sheep and goats.
At Pooley Canyon there were 10 more mountain goats, including this one below the historic aerial tramway support tower.
We were back home 4½ hours after we left. The reason we dropped the car is that early tomorrow morning we’re flying to Vancouver to start a 14-day Vancouver-Alaska cruise and and tour, and as well as a Skagway port stop during the cruise, we fly home from Anchorage to Juneau to Skagway, so the car will also be our final transport home. That story will start here on the blog tomorrow night.
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