Chocloate Lilies

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Lake Clark, Photos, Travel 5 Comments

Chocolate lilies, Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.

Chocolate lilies, Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.

I was amazed at the thick fields of Chocolate Lilies I found during my recent bear photo tour – I have never seen anything close to it!

Now I must admit, the rest of the group did not share my enthusiasm for this wildflower – especially in light of the other bountiful subject matter, namely wonderful brown bears!  So I received a fair amount of well deserved ribbing.  🙂  But I did manage to break away for a couple of minutes to grab a few images of these interesting wildflowers.

Brown Bears Mating

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Lake Clark, Photos, Travel 6 Comments

Brown bears mating, Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.

Brown bears mating, Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.

We were able to see some unique behaviors during my bear trip a few weeks ago.  I have seen mating behavior in the past in Denali from over a mile away!

These two were interrupted by a much larger, scarred up boar.  There were some intense moments as the two males interacted – we were really thinking we were going to see the creation of new scars as these two battled, I didn’t hold a lot of hope for this pretty boy we nick named Casanova.  But, once things settled down, the big boar finally left and these two resumed their cub making activities.

Ice Shapes

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Chugach, Photos, Travel 2 Comments

Fascinating ice shapes, Spencer Glacier, Chugach National Forest, Alaska.

Fascinating ice shapes, Spencer Glacier, Chugach National Forest, Alaska.

After my bear photo tour, I had a really fun day on a private tour in which we went dog sledding, helicopter flying with the doors off, and even landing and walking around on Spencer Glacier!  We found these fascinating ice shapes and other icicles in one of the numerous holes on the surface of the glacier.

Bear Hug!

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Lake Clark, Photos, Travel 8 Comments

Brown bear cubs, Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.

Brown bear cubs, Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.

This is the third summer I have photographed these very playful cubs!  Next summer they will probably be own their own.

Bing

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Photos, Travel 13 Comments

If you go to Bing.com today you will see my time-lapse video as the back ground.  Cool!  It is great to see some of my video efforts paying off.  This is a screen shot – I’m thinking it will only be on there for one day.