We booked a private tour with Wild Wolf Tours to take us to Herring Cove, on a rainforest hike, and to Totem Bight State Park. Our tour guide Natalie met us at the end of the dock and we loaded up into the van and headed to our first stop, Herring Cove.
We were really hoping to see bears in Ketchikan (although we had already gotten lucky and seen one in Skagway so it took some of the pressure off). We knew that a floatplane to a remote area was the best chance to spot bears but had decided against a floatplane tour for various reasons. It turned out to be a fortuitous decision because our day in Ketchikan was super foggy and all floatplane excursions were cancelled.
Our tour was taking us to the only “accessible by vehicle” bear-viewing location in Ketchikan. Just outside of town, Herring Cove attracts wildlife like bears, seals, and eagles, thanks in part to the Whitman Lake Fish Hatchery that sits on its waters. The salmon run here between mid-June and early September and black bears are known to come to the creek to fish during those months.
The “viewing area” for Herring Cove is just the end of a dead-end street. I didn’t really know what to expect from our visit to Herring Cove, but I definitely didn’t envision just standing behind a guard rail at the end of a road, looking down over an empty creek. I guess I assumed it would involve more trails and a feeling of being out in nature.
On that note, directly across the creek we could see an elevated boardwalk. This belongs to the Alaska Rainforest Sanctuary. A 40 acre nature reserve, the Sanctuary offers guided nature walks through the temperate rainforest. Outside tour companies are not allowed to bring groups to the sanctuary. You must book directly through them. I had considered that option but read some pretty mixed reviews, including lots of complaints that it was over-commercialized and crowded. (Based on the empty boardwalk, I’m not sure crowds would have been an issue.)
But our side of the creek felt a little forced as a key stop on a tour. It definitely felt like a plan B for those who couldn’t access the boardwalk and trails at the sanctuary.
But regardless of which side of the creek you were on, there was little action while we were there. Apparently, the best time to spot bears here is an hour before and after low tide, which occurs around 7 pm. Since we were there around noon, the odds weren’t in our favor. We did see some salmon in the creek, although not the masses I expected (and would see later on Creek Street). Other than that, the most exciting wildlife we saw was seagulls.
I understand that we were searching for animals in the wild and not at a zoo and that wild animals are completely unpredictable. Still, this was an underwhelming experience. I suppose it would have been completely different if a bear had wandered up to the creek below and we could have watched him catching the salmon swimming by. But that didn’t happen, and in the absence of literally anything else to do there, standing at the end of a road above the creek for 20 minutes felt like a waste of time.
So… before long it was on to our next stop, a hike in the rainforest.
