Juneau, Haines, and the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve

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Stephen Fischer Photography

I am starting the write-up for this travelogue sitting on the interior foredeck of the ferry MV Taku, returning via a 4 hour passage to Juneau back from the small town of Haines, Alaska. Five days ago I took this ferry to Haines to photograph bald eagles at the Chilkat river bald eagle preserve, plus allocation of some additional time for landscape photography of the surrounding area. I came away extremely impressed and mesmerized by the experience. The eagles here number in the hundreds, gathering every year on a specific stretch of the Chilkat river toward the end of fall to feed on a relatively late seasonal salmon run. This creates an ideal opportunity for viewing and photographing these majestic birds in a natural and beautiful setting. The bald eagles that come here have become accustomed to the presence of humans, allowing for very up-close high quality photographic opportunities.

In this five page article, I will describe my experience for this trip up to the northern end of the inside passage of southeast Alaska. You can also view various different images I captured along the way as shown below. The images are displayed in chronological order of my trip, spending the first afternoon at arrival into Juneau at the Mendenhall glacier, followed by the 5 days in Haines, and then another 1 1/2 days back in Juneau exploring the glacier again under morning light, the picturesque Saint Therese Monastary further north along the coast, and some other surrounding areas such as the Mendenhall wetlands and the Fish Creek basin on Douglas Island.

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