Travel, Photography, Nature, Alaska
Fortress of the Bear
A refuge in Sitka, Alaska, for orphaned bears.
Bears have always held a particular fascination, and a certain amount of fear, for me. When my husband and I found ourselves in Sitka, Alaska, for a few days last month, after cruising around the Inland Passage in a catamaran for a week, we heard about The Fortress of the Bear, a refuge for orphaned bears, and we knew we had to visit.
A little outside of town, the sanctuary backs up to the Tongass National Forest. So, while the bears are contained, they live in an open-aired environment and regularly get to see Bald Eagles cruising just overhead.
There is no bear rehabilitation program in Alaska, so these bears will live out their lives at the Fortress. But they are lucky bears because if they had not been rescued, they would not have survived in the wild.
Smokey and her sister, Tuli, live in the back enclosure, along with their adopted brother, Bandit. The three black bears are all just about the same age, but Smokey was the first of them to arrive at the Fortress of the Bear.
