Valdez, AK = Bears, and lots of them!

Bridal Veil Falls, on the way to Valdez

Our trip to Valdez, AK was my favorite trip yet in Alaska! We haven't been to Seward yet, (which I hear I will probably like more) or a lot of other places, but for now, Valdez takes the cake. What do you think of when you think of Alaska? Wildlife, and lots of it. Namely bears and Salmon. Beautiful scenery, ocean life, rain (haha) and adventure. Valdez has it all! We saw 10 bears (black bears and grizzly's), Sea Lions, Seals, Sea Otters, Eagles, More seagulls than you could ever care to see, Breathtaking waterfalls, Ocean views, Beautiful Mountains, cool-looking fog, and the list goes on and on! A big thanks to our friends Jeff and Tricia Harris for letting us tag along. We stayed in their fun pop up camper trailer and loved every minute. We played Uno like pros and were able to keep from getting too competitive (a real accomplishment for Mac and I).

Another pretty waterfall. Obviously.

Our new buddies K.O. and Chewy. These little dogs belong to the Harris' and they have so much energy and we want them for our own! They are so much fun and we loved having them sleep with us in the trailer. They are so snuggly!

The first black bear we spotted. At first you could just see brush moving and then all of a sudden there was a bear. It was crazy to think how many bears could be just inside the brush and we would never know. YIKES!

Enjoying our 30 minutes of sun shining through the clouds. It rained pretty much the whole weekend, but since it was mostly just drizzling we were still able to fish and play.

These boys are just funny. It cracks me up how much alike Tricia and I are, and how much alike Mac and Jeff are. We sure have a lot of fun and they were great fishermen!

Trying to catch a Fis' (come on...say it like Gus!)

Broken reel=no bueno.

Beautiful Ocean scenery

I loved this waterfall. It was just breathtaking with the fog up at the top. Actually, it was all just breathtaking! (except for all the dead Salmon...haha...but for reals, they were gross.)

Sea Lion snatching up Salmon and attacking the Seagulls who were trying to steal his fish!

This picture does not do the view justice. We drove to where the old town of Valdez was. Basically it just has marked where the town used to be before it was wiped out by the Tsunami back in the day. There was fog just covering the Ocean and it was sooo pretty.

Mama Black Bear teaching her cubs how to fish. I could have watched these cubs for hours. They were so cute! I've never seen bear cubs in the wild so this was an awesome experience for me.

My first wild Grizzly!! This poor guy had an injured foot and kept running away on three legs. We saw him this day and then the next morning Mac and Jeff were fishing on the bank and who did they see walking toward them? THIS GUY!! Needless to say they gave the Grizz plenty of space and then went back to their fishing.

Like I said. Dead salmon. Everywhere. A lot of the salmon had already spawned so they were just dying. We caught A LOT of dead fish. :(

Jeff teaching Mac to fillet a fish. Mac LOVED it....Not.

One of the Silver Salmon that Mac caught

Our last day it finally stopped raining and we did a photo shoot around town! It was great fun, right Jeff!? (haha, well at least Tricia will get that joke!)

A giant Indian Totem thing-a-ma-jig. This thing was HUGE! It was actually kinda cool and I really like this picture.

Another waterfall

Our last night we went driving looking for more bears. I spotted this huge Grizzly fishing.

It is so crazy to think that the leaves are already changing here! It was Labor Day weekend when I took this picture. The colors are just so vibrant. I can't believe winter is right around the corner! I guess I'll have to come back and read these posts during winter so I can be reminded that summer is fun and hopefully just around the corner!