Haines–a wonderful town to visit

I found the town of Haines to be a great town to visit and walk around as well as tour around. Our first afternoon we went to the river and the State Park. Lots of bear activity. The State Park is really quite lovely. There are no services and that is the only negative thing, but then none of the State Parks have services. So here is our tour.

Bear at the bear spot.

Aren’t you glad you don’t have nails like that?

Or this?

Merganser, swimming with bears!

Local tribesman made this and displays on his little patch on the river.

We took a drive out to the Bald Eagle Refuge. No eagles but other things!
Yep they are there!

Fresh snow on the mountain.

There is one!

Nice vista and there was fresh snow up there, too! This was the 27th of August.

Information about the Moose machine. They eat 50 lbs. of material every single day and more in times of stress and less when it isn’t available. They are everywhere and are really very large animals.

The refuge has very nice walking paths, but you never know what is around the corner, so you need to be heads up all the time. See next pic – it has the berries that our furry friends, the bear, like to eat.

 

Now we are back to the bay area between the campground and the bear viewing area. This is a fisherman throw out his net. The net is connected to the yellow ‘rope’ and it floats for a period of time and then he comes back around and pulls it in with the catch.

Hillside or mountain side above the fishing area. Yep it has sheep on it.

There they are!!

Moon is up! Scene out my front window! Great!

More that night.

And more! They are different. This is the little one!

On a drive down the road. Look up!

He is looking for someone to play with. Good ID photo. wings, tail, tail to wingspan, head to beak – Common Raven.

There was a slight curve in the road that just showed this part of Haines. Made you think, that might be why Fort Seward was built right there!

Back down Bear Road we found some Stellar Jay’s playing around. Here is a young (HY – hatch year) bird.

We know who created this print! Ms. Grizzly – okay so it could be Mr.

There were a lot of Merganser’s in this area. We counted about 24. Looked like a gathering pre-flight group. Probably headed south about the same time we did.

Waiting for bear left overs! Big bird! Probably a Herring Gull.

Preening with the bear! Probably a young Herring Gull.

A Kingfisher atop the mast.

Back to the fishing crew. Here is a closer look at the rope, net and things to hold up the net. It rolls out and in.

I have yet to show you the fish cannery and that drive. Next up, keep viewing. What a sight behind the town of Haines.

A boat in the cannery harbor.

The cannery from across the harbor.

Looking back down the drive way from the maintenance work building. Yep that is Liz touring the back streets.

Loved this sign. A sign of the old tymes.

There was a lot to the cannery. They have informative signs and viewing windows so if they are at work you can watch them. The informative signs tells you that every part of the fish is used for something. The something is, of course, for human consumption, to make cat/dog food, for the local eagle habitat program, fertilizer and fish bait. Well probably some I forgot, but I didn’t want to put the signs in here as they take a lot of space.

A visitor to the cannery. We later saw this car at another cannery downtown. Gets around, I’d say. Quite remarkable. We saw several interesting cars on the way back to town. Couldn’t say it was planned that way, just happened that way.

On the road…..yep it is a Jeep!

In town.

So while on old things, we did this too. It shoulda been Pink!

We dropped our food from the cannery off at our rigs…freezer with King Crab! Doesn’t get any better. We ate a long time on those legs.

We went to the Bald Eagle Foundation where they had several birds that had been rehabbed but were unable to be released in the wild. They couldn’t fly, couldn’t see very well, or had some other life altering disability.

This is Scotty a mature male Bald Eagle who is unable to fly more than a few feet do to a wing that had been damaged (probably shot). They know he is at least 10 years and possibly or probably older.  There is no way to age a live bird like him accurately. He was really beautiful.

I asked about the beak because it looked extraordinarily long. She said he was set for grooming the next day. He is unable to keep his beak and toe nails at a ‘normal’ level because he cannot fly, capture his prey, or even walk very well. Poor Scotty! He does make a great educational bird and gives you an idea of the size of these birds and a bit of information on their requirements in the wild. Majestic!!!

They also had an Owl, Sarah! She was a bit warm and was panting.

My friend Liz, didn’t quite make the measurement on the comparison chart!

We made a tour out to the old town square that has been used in movies and it located near the fairgrounds. This was interesting and fun. There was a knitting shop open, the brewery, a restaurant getting ready to serve in another hour and of course the requisite ATM machine.

As you can see, it wasn’t really a tailoring shop.

A shot outside my front window. It is a bevy of Surf Scoters, how nice to see them just right there.