Donna Bourdon and I had booked a private trip to St. Paul Island Alaska. Unfortunately, we had numerous days of fogged in conditions forecasted. After flying 771 miles (one way) on a prop plane we were turned around at the St. Paul runway due to poor visibility. We were so close to landing…. although we enjoyed our 1500-mile joy ride it was time to look for other entertainment <grin>.
Since Alaska is brimming with wildlife and photo opportunities our options were limitless. However, we both decided we wanted to photograph bears. Where better than Katmai National Park. Thanks to Donna’s resourcefulness we hooked up (last minute) with a great outfitter that set us up with some sweet cabins and used their float planes to taxi us around to several locations. First, we hit Lake Clark, then Hallo Bay and even a day at Brooks Falls.
The scenic flights gave us a birds-eye views of the unspoiled wilderness that Alaska is so famous for. Our pilot weaved around majestic mountains and glaciers. The lakes were varied in color, with some an almost unbelievable blue. We even saw a pod of Beluga whales along the way. We topped off the day with an adventurous bear trail hike. I almost forgot how much I love Alaska.
Bear sightings at Hallo Bay were off the chart. There were not as many sows as there were boars because it was a bit late in the season. Still, we saw several with cubs. One of which had four tiny spring cubs. We pretty much had the place to ourselves. Yippee!
Brooks Falls was also fantastic. Because there were still a lot of bears fishing and fewer salmon there were lots of fights. Fights equal action- whoohoo! So much fun to photograph because they were not hurting each other.
I think Donna and I ate our way through Alaska. I know I sure did enjoy the halibut tacos. I also photographed some world class peonies! Plans are underway to recreate and expand on this amazing Alaskan adventure for next year. If you’re interested in joining this trip, I’ll be posting more about it soon.
Spring cub climbing a tree to get away from another bear.
Sandhill crane in the marsh.
We had some bright light in the afternoon on this day but this grab shot was cool because of the four cubs.