Grizzly at Fish Creek

I did not take this video. We had gone to Hyder, Alaska, one evening, specifically hoping to see bears from the observation platform at Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Site. You have to want to be in Hyder, Alaska, because it is darn hard to get to. We had driven north and west from Bellingham for four days and camped at Meziadin Junction, BC, on the Cassiar Highway. Then we drove west 40 minutes more, stopping at Bear Glacier along the way, to Stewart, BC. We drove a few miles across the border, into the US to get to Hyder. That's the only way in. After stopping for amazing seafood at the Seafood Express food truck, we got out to Fish Creek about 7 pm.

We wanted to see what every other tourist hopes to see: wildlife, especially bears. Fish Creek was overwhelmed with chum salmon spawning, which attracts bears. The water was churning with salmon going through their end of life ritual. The eagles were all around us. We had been watching the chum salmon spawning in Fish Creek for so long that I had gone back to the car to relax, when this grizzly bear showed up. Lynne shot this video.

Turn up your sound when you play this video. At 11 seconds, you can hear the bear whimper when it misses a fish it was after. Also hear the eagles screaming overhead, and notice the water churn as the salmon frantically swim away from the grizzly. The bear finally catches a salmon about 59 seconds into the video. Watch as it eats only the salmon's eggs, then tosses the fish, still alive, back into the stream, and goes in search of its next delicacy. What a sight!
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Here's Bear Glacier: