The Killik river and the surroundings in the Gates Of The Arctic National Park are wide-open and largely devoid of any vegetation that’s higher than waist-high. This makes spotting wildlife mostly an easy affair. And some of the wildlife was just as curious to see what was going on as we were. We had a few animals come over to take a look at us…
Floating Down The Killik River
On the first evening after reaching camp we saw our first bear. She was gently ambling along some distance away picking berries. The area north of the Brooks Range in Alaska does not have salmon migration. This means that the grizzlies stay smaller as their diet consists more of berries and ground squirrels. Only in the southern part of Alaska where salmon runs are common do grizzlies grow to the massive size that we’ve commonly seen on TV. Of course, that doesn’t mean that they’re small. They’re still pretty much our size – just far stronger and stockier.
The first amazing wildlife we saw the next day. After we’d kayaked and set up camp we decided to climb the mountain next to the river. After climbing up for about two hours we reached a nice vantage point. All of a sudden a golden eagle came gliding by. And we were actually high enough for it to come by level with where we were. On our way back we actually managed to see the nest that the golden eagles had build. A good 1m2 wide build out of big sticks.
Close Encounters
Sometimes you spend a lot of time searching for wildlife. All of us were on the look-out in the kayak, scanning the surroundings for signs of bears, moose, reindeer or wolves. Some of our sightings were, of course, ‘rock-bears’. And sometimes we saw one in the distance – a speck on a mountainside.
Then again, sometimes you have to do absolutely nothing. As we were approaching a stretch of the river with a gravel bar, there she was! On the opposite side of the river to the gravel bar! A mother bear with three cubs. This couldn’t have been timed any better. A perfect distance to not be too close to get out. With a handy place to pull up the kayaks and get out. After we got out she slowly made her way along the opposite river bank. Eating berries whilst her cubs were playing with each other. Sometimes falling over their own feet whilst running after each other. Not that she seemed to mind… Strange how you can tell with an animal that you’ve never met before: but she was obviously relaxed.
After about 10 minutes she slowly walked away again. And a bit further down the river she swam across with her cubs and disappeared in some shrubs.
Checking Us Out
During the week-long trip down the Killik River we also discovered that we weren’t the only ones that were keen to see some new animals. One day we saw a grizzly bear probably about a mile away on a hill. We found a spot to stop and have a look. It looked like a young male – probably about three years old – who was spending his first summer apart from his mother. It was obvious he was just as curious as we were. He slowly made his way over to the stretch of the river where we were standing. And, whilst pretending to not see us, slowly coming close.
More Animal Pictures
Read about the arrival in the Gates Of The Arctic NP here
A map showing where the Killik River is