Early this morning a mother Spruce Hen and her three chicks were taking a dust bath in the ashes of our fire pit. Last evening we also saw a small weasel running around under the Elantra. We drove to Seward today so that we could look around the area with cars which we won’t have on the train ride Saturday. It was fairly clear in the morning to get a good view of the mountains for about the first time in this area but that all changed later in the afternoon when it rained, at times hard, all afternoon and into the night. In fact it has rained so much in the last week that the road to Exit Glacier just north of Seward has been closed due to flooding so we were disappointed that we could not see it. Other than clear views of the mountains early on, the definite highlight of that day was a stop near the Trail Lake Fish Hatchery for a short walk to a viewing platform on Trail Creek where hundreds of mature Sockeye Salmon were at their spawning beds. The creek was clear and quite shallow so we could easily see all the fish and their movements. At maturity these fish turn a bright red with dark green heads. The males grow a large hump on the back and form a distinct hooked jaw. We were so enthralled that we stayed for a long time taking in the significance of what we were witnessing.
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