A trip to the Eagle River Nature Center

So Josh had the day off (yippeee) and we decided to take advantage of it! We headed about 30 minutes from the house, northeast to the Eagle River Nature Center to do a little hiking. A few of the hikes were closed because the bears are out to feed on the rivers!! Maybe we'll see one??...

So they're kinda hard to see... but these are the Sockeye salmon! They swim upstream this time of year to spawn... and boy are they ugly! They grow these humps on there backs, gnarly teeth and turn that famous 'salmon' color -- which basically means they're just about to die! They make this final trek upstream, spawn, and then die. It's hard to get a good picture... so this was the best I could do - but trust me, these fellas are UGLY!

We trekked on, kinda through the woods and the brush - just amazed at the dense forest bed beneath the trees. It was just beautiful! The trees themselves were quite amazing! Shown here - large, pregnant woman who was able to get IN the tree = large tree :o) So here I am, 23 weeks pregnant! In my 6th month according to the charts!

You could see the beavers' work in all the water areas... dams and such - but we didn't see any beavers :o( Check out the lovely background though! WHEW...

And this picture of Josh is my favorite...

Anywho - so we finally made it to our destination! The rapids...

We tried out the video option on the camera - just to give you a look at the scenery. Let us know if this is any fun?!

So we hiked back in... no more wildlife to be seen today! Josh has passed a few moose on his bike rides and I had the pleasure of letting one cross before me on a busy road in traffic - they really are funny creatures! And, as much fun as it seems - I suppose it's good we didn't see any bears either! We did get to see a paw-print in the nature center just to get the idea...