Day 26: Chilkoot River - a big bear show & photoshoot with 'Lulu'

August 7, 2024

We are taking it easy today and have breakfast around 10 a.m. outside at our lovely panoramic site with a lake view. No bear in sight! What luck 😅

After breakfast, we look over our plans for the next few days. Yesterday and today are the days for which we can't reserve a campground here in Alaska - so we can be flexible for once. Since tomorrow's route can also work without a stop and we have come to love our Site 17 by the lake with bear viewing at Chilkoot River, the decision isn't hard: we extend!

I walk to the parking ticket machine (everything works electronically here with a credit card!) and try to get a parking ticket for today. At least I try....

Yesterday it worked perfectly, but today the machine just doesn't want to spit out a parking ticket after I've obediently paid $20 with my card 😱😤

I just manage to take a picture of the display before it switches back to the start mode. Damn! And now???

On my way to the campsite, I meet the host and explain my problem. He just laughs. It happens all the time with the ticket here. He tells me to simply handwrite the date on the current ticket at the site. It’s fine!

Oh.... well then....🙄

We walk around noon armed with chairs and drinks (even here in the woods, it’s already 25 degrees with a blue sky and sunshine) the nearly 2 km along the road to the dam and the viewpoint, set up our chairs, and wait.

In the next hour, we see various birds, bald eagles, and many anglers trying their luck fishing in the river (including with very strange tools).

The seal hasn't made it back through the dam to the sea yet and is circling in front of the dam.

Then we only hear the two 'salmon counters' on the dam yelling and making noise:

A bear is trying to get onto the bridge. The two men on the dam chase it away. The bear strolls along the river for a while, then disappears into the brush and doesn’t come back. What a shame.... it was the wrong side of the river and also above the dam, so my zoom couldn’t reach that far.

We continue to wait, but nothing happens in the next 2 hours. After we are sweating (2 hours in the sun is just too hot) and hungry, we walk back to the RV to have lunch. We want to try our luck again in the late afternoon/evening.

The husband stops at the Day Use Area. He would love to go kayaking, but the tour operators tell us that the boats are exclusively for booked tours of cruise tourists. Although the next tour isn’t for over 2 hours, they don’t want/dare to rent a boat to us. What a shame...

At around 5:00 p.m. we drive the RV the road to the dam and are lucky to find free parking spaces along the roadside.

While we wait, a tour group passes by. I engage in conversation with the tour guide, a sprightly older lady. She asks if we have seen any bears today. I show her the picture from this morning (unfortunately very 'small'), but she immediately comments:

'Ah, that’s Lulu! She’s always here!'

She explains that Lulu can be recognized by the two yellow marks/buttons in her ear. Wow, I have to keep an eye out for that!

Shortly after she disappears with her tour group, the men on the dam become active. One has a stick in his hand and shouts loudly. We see a bear behind the dam, but it immediately vanishes into the brush. Grumble.

When the men leave the dam shortly after and drive away in their pickup - they seem to have counted enough salmon for today - it becomes the bear's opportunity: with two leaps, it is on the dam and tries to catch a salmon from above. It doesn’t work, so it jumps straight into the river. There it sits for a while in the water and then tries to catch salmon at the dam. Unfortunately, it is not successful. At least it’s now freshly bathed 😜

She seems very clumsy while fishing, but then manages to snag a (probably dead) salmon out of the water from above the dam.

But Lulu puts on a real bear show afterwards.

She splashes in the river, jumps back and forth, swims downstream, and then returns - to our side of the river - to catch salmon.

In the end, she only manages to snag the fish scraps that she sniffs out in the calm waters. But then she actually catches a live salmon. Quite disgusting how it twitches as Lulu already starts skinning it 🤢🤮

After she has eaten her fill, she climbs over the dam to the other side and disappears into the woods. Wow!!! THAT was a show!

We wait a while but don’t see any more bear activity. With the RV, we drive to the road toward the sea / Lutak Inlet, where according to our campsite neighbors, bears are often spotted. Just after a few hundred meters, I already see a bear sitting in the grass from afar. We park the RV and walk to a group of older Canadian gentlemen who have also noticed the bear.

A 'youngster' is sitting a few meters in front of us in the grass and munching. We also learned that bears eat grass or some kind of reed back in Stewart. There, we saw the grizzly bear with two cubs also munching on greens right next to the road.

After a while, the youngster is full and calmly walks right beside us along the road, crosses it, and struts into the large open double garage of the house across the street 🤭😂

Oh dear, but it seems no one is home because he then walks through the front yard and finally disappears into the woods. Well, I guess it can happen that a bear makes a visit in this part!

We drive back to the river. Now in the evening it has gotten noticeably cooler since the sun has hidden. Although it is bright, without a fleece jacket, it’s too cold for me now. The thermometer had climbed back up to a remarkable +27 degrees this afternoon. Unbelievable!

We wait a while in the RV and look at the river. The workers at the dam are back and seem to be doing repair work. Suddenly there's shouting again:

'Go Lulu! Go!!! Lulu, go!!'

A worker waves a stick around on the dam where bear Lulu is standing and calmly fishing for a salmon, before she seeks safety with the fish. We sprint outside, but Lulu has disappeared into the brush on the other side.

Further down the river, we see two additional bears, but they are too far away for my zoom.

Then Lulu comes back and puts on exactly the same show as this afternoon: jump into the river, swim downstream, walk back up on our side, catch salmon, and then stop right in front of the viewing platform. Photogenic bear! A real reality star 🤭😂

Unfortunately, it’s getting too dark now for good photos. I’m sitting with other onlookers on the wall of the viewpoint when Lulu climbs out of the water right next to us and crosses the road less than 2 m from me and disappears into the woods!!! Crazy!!!!

That was indeed the best bear encounter ever! 🥰🥰🥰

We drive back to our site in the RV, have dinner, and enjoy a campfire with a lake view. Sooooo nice here!!!

Favorite spot 💓

For the statistics:

Campground: Chilkoot Lake State Park 

(20 $ ~18 €); Site 17 (nix) 

Distance driven: 5 km 

Distance walked: 8.5 km 

Photos: 866 

Weather: Blue sky & sunshine, +27 degrees