2026-07-18 Wrangell/Anan Creek Trip

I had made reservations at a tour company in Wrangell to go on an Anan Creek bear viewing trip last summer, but I was unable to get up there due to the weather. The tour operator, Alaska Vistas out of Wrangell, said they could hold the reservations, and I could use them this summer. Our excursion date was to be Monday July 20th.

But Wrangell is approximately 85 nm away and you have to transit some exposed areas that could potentially be very rough.

This summer the marine weather Gods smiled upon us and the weather on 07/18/2026 looked to be calm enough for us to make the trip up to Wrangell in my slow boat.

My crew for this adventure was initially my daughter Jennifer and my grandson Hayden, age 11. My fishin' buddy Terry Pyles was going to fly up there and meet us on Sunday, the day before the excursion.

We had a bit of drama at the boat on Saturday morning when I attempted to start the engines. The Glendinning electronic engine controls were not lighting up, i.e. they had no power. We also noticed that the Starlink WiFi was not working.

I checked one of the big breaker panels in the engine room and noticed some confusing status lights there. After a brief consultation by phone with the electrician that recently worked on that panel, I discovered the several breakers on the panel had been turned off. It was an easy fix.

We pulled out of the slip with no issues at about 7 AM under grey and overcast skies. There was little to no wind in the harbor, which was a good sign.

Here is a map snippet from my Garmin InReach that shows our roundtrip up to Wrangell and return. In this photo Ketchikan is down at the bottom and Wrangell is up at the top.

Since the weather for Sunday was also supposed to be good, I decided to stop in the little village of Meyers Chuck for Saturday afternoon and overnight before proceeding up to Wrangell on Sunday.

Meyers Chuck is in the area circled in blue.

Here is a more detailed map snippet showing the area around Meyers Chuck.

Meyers Chuck is very small, but it does have some full-time residents, but not many.

The dock at Meyer Chuck is open to transient boats. It is owned and operated by the City of Wrangell. The dock was just replaced late last summer, and I had not been in there since they put in the new dock. I was eager to see it.

We arrived at Meyers Chuck at about 11 AM after logging 32.8 nm from Ketchikan. The ride up was mostly smooth with no dangerous seas to deal with.

Here are the obligatory photos of Faraway at the dock in Meyers Chuck.

We had arrived fairly early in the day and a couple boats that were tied up when we came in left almost immediately. I chose the spot way out on the end in anticipation of many other boats coming in before dark, and that's exactly what happened.

After a good lunch on board we took a short walk up on the "path."

I say "path" because there are no roads nor any vehicles here in Meyers Chuck.

There is just a path that connects the houses together. There are also other areas that can only be accessed by using a skiff.

One of the coolest attractions here is the large man-made spider web that has been constructed in the woods along the path.

Someone even took the time to weld a spider for the center of the web.

I am not particularly knowledgeable about plants and flowers but I do know the Foxglove. There are a lot of them around here!

There is a sawmill here. The owner/operator apparently gathers up drift logs and pulls them in for his mill. Then he saws them up into lumber that can be used for building projects. He was actually running the saw for a time when we were there.

As you walk along the path you get the feeling that you're walking through peoples' front yards, and in some cases that is literally the case.

Many of the people who live here have an artistic nature and that is evident as you walk the path by the various residences.

I was told that his building used to be the school, but it has been closed and apparently abandoned for many years.

More evidence of local art...

The remains of a once well-equipped playground for kids are still somewhat useable back in the woods near the end of the path. Hayden wanted to try out the slide.

There used to be several more playground items for the kids here, but the forest has now reclaimed them.

Down on the dock the tongue in cheek attitude was still in evidence.

Note the max occupancy in the VIP Lounge, 2 people. I guess that's all that can fit on the bench!

Here are some scenic shots of the area.

One of the things that makes Meyers Chuck unique is that transient boaters such as ourselves can order homemade cinnamon rolls, which of course we did. These are delivered via skiff at 7 AM in the morning by Cassy who runs across in her skiff from her cabin over to the transient dock to deliver them.

They were still warm from her oven when they were delivered. Yummy!

Hayden has become quite the dock fisherman. He spent most of his waking hours when we were here either dock fishing or running around in the raft.

Sadly, our time here in Meyers Chuck was limited as we needed to get up to Wrangell so we could be ready for the bear viewing excursion on Monday morning. It's about 50 nm from Meyers Chuck to Wrangell. In my slow boat it takes about 6 hours in mostly very protected waters.

We arrived at the Wrangell area just before 1 PM. They have 2 harbors, the older one being Reliance Harbor and the newer one which is Heritage Harbor. Heritage Harbor is the nicer of the two since it is newer, however it is much farther from town. I decided to go into Reliance Harbor for this visit since it is much closer to town.

My buddy Terry had arrived in town by plane a few hours before we got there. He was watching the harbor entrance when we arrived and got this neat video of Faraway approaching the harbor.

And here's the obligatory photo of Faraway moored at Reliance Harbor in Wrangell.

The other downside of mooring in Reliance Harbor is that the shore power system there only supports 15-amp power while my boat "prefers" 30-amp power. This was an inconvenience but not a show-stopper. I just ran the generator when we needed more power to run appliances on board.

Hayden continued his dock fishing until very late in the evening. He was fishing from the pier up by the harbormasters office, dropping his line down among the pilings. I told him he'd never catch anything down there. About a half-hour later...

Terry & I put our collective heads together and decided that this was a Steelhead.

He caught some other fish too, but the Steelhead was the most impressive.

We had to ask Google or ChatGPT what this next fish was. The consensus seemed to be that it was a "Snake Prickleback."

In the evening I set up my Coleman stove on the dock and cooked the spaghetti noodles out there. The weather was perfect and the propane Coleman stove heats up the water much faster than the electric cooktop in the galley.

Moored near us were some of the boats used by Alaska Vistas, the tour company with which we booked the Anan Creek bear viewing excursion.

Here's a screenshot taken from the Alaska Vistas web page about the Anan Creek bear viewing excursion.

On Monday moring we were up early eagerly anticipating the trip to Anan Creek.

The boat picked us up right there at the harbor and we motored over to town to pick up the other people that would be going with us that day.

Anan Bay is about 30 miles south of Wrangell and for these boats that takes about an hour. They run much faster than my boat!

Here is a map snippet that shows the route down the "backside" of Wrangell Island to get from the town of Wrangell to Anan Bay where Anan Creek is located.

Wrangell is located up near the top, circled in blue. Anan Bay is located near the bottom, also circled in blue.

These boats are fast and the pilot sits in the middle. There is no steering wheel. The boat is controlled by a lever which is pushed forward or pulled back to turn left or right.

Hayden was lucky enough to score one of the seats right next to the pilot.

Later, as we were being run over to Reliance Harbor after the excursion was over, he sat out on the back for the short trip.

When we got down to Anan Bay the boat pulls right up to the beach. A small ladder is lowered in front and they magically produce hand rails, so deboarding onto the beach is an easy process.

The first stop is at a small shelter where a USFS representative gave us an orientation on what to expect on the trail and guidance on what to do if we did encounter any bears on the trail.

The hike up to the observatory is easy. There was a guide from Alaska Vistas that led the way and provided commentary along the way. She was also carrying a shotgun and some bear spray.

The observatory itself has been completely rebuilt since I was last here in 2013.

Terry & Hayden up at the observatory.

The observatory has 3 sections. There is the main deck up at the top. It is quite far above the creek, but there is good visibility from there and you can see quite far up and down the creek. Then there is a winding staircase that goes down to what they call the photo blind. You can sign up for 10-minute segments down there and only 7 people can be down there at any time. There are 2 levels for the photo blind with the lower level being the closest to the creek. You get 10 minutes at each level. The honor system is in effect.

The rest room used to be detached from the deck which created problems when bears came between the rest room and the deck and people got trapped out in the rest room. Now the rest room is integrated into the observation deck.

And now for the main event - photos & videos of the bears!

I have to say up front that most of these were taken by Terry Pyles, who was gracious enough to share them with me.

At first, we only saw black bears. There were very few fish in the creek, so these bears were just exploring, and we actually saw no fish caught while we were there. I'm sure as time goes by this summer there will be more fish in the creek each day and eventually the bears will be more successful in their fishing efforts.

And then as if by magic, a brown bear appeared. When a brown bear shows up the black bears leave the area quite quickly. Apparently the brown bear that appeared was well known to the regulars there as "Scuba Sue." Apparently she was named this due to her habit of spending a lot of time under water looking for fish. Today was no exception and Terry got some great videos of her under water activity.

This next one shows her with her butt sticking up while her head and most of the front of her body are under water.

It would have been a better experience if there had been more fish in the creek so the bears would be more successful with their fishing, but we were very happy with the excursion overall.

We got back to the boat at about 1:30 PM. Terry & I looked at the marine weather in Clarence Strait and together made the decision that it made sense to depart Wrangell ASAP. The winds in Clarence Strait on Tuesday and on Wednesday looked pretty strong, so we thought it made sense to just put our heads down and head for home right away.

We pulled out of Reliance Harbor at about 2:30 PM. It took about 6 hours to get to Meyers Chuck, so that was about 8:30 PM. Sunset that night was at 9:15 PM but we were able to see logs and debris in the water until about 10:15 PM. After that we slowed down significantly and ran on radar and GPS until we got into the Ketchikan area.

We had a little bit of drama right near the Alaska Marine Line ferry terminal as 2 tugs with barges in tow were coming out of town heading directly for us. We managed to avoid them and made it safely into my slip at just about midnight.

Total mileage for the trip was 167 nm.