Category Archive

Brown bear cub standing on his hind legs, Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.

Yesterday (Sunday) afternoon I began my Alaska bear and puffin photo tour and in just the first afternoon it has already been an awesome trip!  Great group of people and lots of bears!  Sow with cubs, males – all real close, we even hand a sow nurse a young cub right in front of us!  Gotta keep it short, hopefully I will have time for another quick post while I’m over here this week, otherwise we I get back to Seward later this week.

Nursing brown bear cub, Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.

Brown Bear Cub, Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.

Unfortunately we have had some unexpected cancellations for our all inclusive Alaska Bear and Puffin Photo Tour.  Because we are now getting late into the winter and I want to be sure to fill the tour and return deposits, we have decided to make a fairly substantial reduction to the price for this amazing photo tour.

If you haven’t spent time up close to large number of Grizzly / Brown Bears and or puffin, you are in for a real treat – this is truly a peak experience.  I could go on and on, but I already have here, so take a look:  Alaska Bear and Puffin Photo Tour.

A brown bear cub watches and learns how to dig for clams from its mom.

This is the second of three Alaska photo tours we will be offering next summer.

Spending time watching and photographing brown bears up close is an absolute thrill!   This is going to be a small group (limited to 4) tour where we will live and breath brown bears pretty much day and night thanks to Alaska’s long summer days.  We will be staying in a wonderful lodge in a beautiful setting along the coast.  We are near a clear flowing salmon stream with a wonderful snow capped mountain backdrop.  Thanks to the wide variety of food sources – salmon, clams and sedges, this area sees a large gathering of coastal brown bears, from huge bores and sows to cute, playful cubs.

I say we will live and breath bears, but actually we will take a portion of one day to travel by boat to a nearby island where we will go to shore for a wonderful opportunity to photograph horned and tufted puffin up close.  Our timing should be perfect since the puffin will be actively traveling back and fourth to their burrows with mouths full of fish.

To learn more, check out our page on the bear and puffin photo tour.

The Milepost Travel Guide

I’m really excited to have the cover of the The Milepost for the third consecutive year!  As I have written before – I grew up in the small town of Glennallen Alaska, and it seemed like evey visitor through town was carrying this guide, so for me, this is like the ultimate cover!  We really appreciate the relationship we have with all the folks at the Milepost over the last decade or so – thanks!

I captured this photo last summer at Lake Clark National Park – here were my Lake Clark blog posts from that awesome trip.

Bears aren’t the only ones to hit Silver Salmon Creek for fish – its just that the bears have the right of way!  When the bears approach, the fishermen back out of the river and bunch up for safety.  If you hook a fish and a bear shows up, you have to cut it loose. 

This little cub seemed as intrigued by the people, as the people in the bear.

We now new sections on our website for Lake Clark National Park, And Halibut Cove, Alaska.

Brown Bears, Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.

I didn’t get a chance to finish writing about our Lake Clark trip, so I thought I would follow up today. 

To be honest, we have always traveled on our own in Alaska, with either our camper or tent, so I had mixed feelings on visiting a lodge geared just towards bear viewing, working with guides, etc.  My other reservation was the cost – an all inclusive trip that includes flights, lodging, meals, boats and guides isn’t going to be cheap, especially given our short summer season.  I do get that, but what I struggled with –  for what a four day bear viewing trip cost, we could do a two month trip to the Lower 48 and probably come away with far more marketable material.  But hey, having fun is more important than return on investment!  Plus, if I could photograph puffins without the considerable expensive of flying to St. Paul, that would be a huge bonus.  So now the question, where to go.Read More