Alaska Grizzly Bear Trip Report
Alaska Grizzly Bear Photo Adventure Trip Report Natures Photo Adventures July 2015
Our trip to Lake Clark National Park began this year like it does every other year. Arrival a day early in Anchorage, overnight and then an early breakfast before we head off to the air base to load up the plane for our 40 minute flight into our lodge.
We were greeted in Anchorage by beautiful, sunny warm weather with lots of it in the forecast for the next week. We did keep in mind that the forecast for Anchorage is usually very different from the weather inside of Lake Clark NP. Last year we had rain every day, but this year things were quite a bit better as we had sun with a mix of overcast skies the whole 5 d
ays with almost no precipitation. This made for some great light for photographing the bears.
And photograph the bears we did! We were happily surprised this trip to have 3 sets of mother and cub grizzly bears in the immediate area. One mom had first year cubs and the other two moms had second year cubs. What fun and what photo opportunities. It seemed as though every time we ventured out we found one of the three mom and cubs doing something in different settings. I have been doing this trip for 8 straight years and for the first time we found ourselves on the beach of Cook Inlet photographing a mom and her second year cubs frolicking on the beach and playing in the waves. They were chasing each other, running into the surf and wrestling on the hard sandy beach. It was something to see and even better to photograph!
The other times we found the moms and cubs munching grasses happily in the fields and finding time to nurse and lay down and go to sleep right in front of us. As this mom and her two second year cubs went to sleep in the grass, all of us just put our cameras aside and sat peacefully watching the bears snooze, hardly able to believe that we were sharing this moment with them.
At other times we witnessed and photographed the bears clamming in the tidal flats and watched the first year cubs as they used a huge piece of driftwood as their own private jungle gym. Put all of this together with a wonderful location with mountain backdrops, great food and people, and you have the trip of a lifetime, one of the best we have had since travelling to this amazing location. Be sure to join us next year, 2016 or 2017 as we travel here every summer. Read more about the Alaska Coastal Bears Tour
