Bear watching in Alaska
In July 2007 we visited the Alaska for one reason: bears. We wanted to go in 2006, but when we inquired in late February, they were already booked so we reserved a year and a half in advance.
The six hour flight from Chicago to Anchorage did not provide a meal or snack, but the views of the Canadian Rockies kept us distracted from the hunger. We landed in Anchorage on schedule, gathered our bags, passed hundreds of cruise ship passengers, and headed for the Hertz counter. The “no dead animals allowed in vehicles” sign made me chuckle, until I realized that they probably had to put the sign up for a reason.
15 minutes later we were in downtown Anchorage and checked into the Hilton (we used frequent stay points). We had a nice corner room with a panoramic view, and as luck would have it we checked in right BEFORE three huge buses unloaded a boisterous bunch of cruise ship passengers. We walked over to the Snow Goose/Sleeping Lady Brewery, which had two entire pages of Salmon and Halibut entrees, a nice view, horrible service, and very good berry cobbler. It was still quite light out when we got back to the room at 10:30pm, so we made the room as dark as possible and popped some Ambien.
To Homer
The next morning we grabbed a coffee in the lobby and checked out before 9am. The lobby coffee turned out to be unnecessary as there were drive-through coffee/espresso places on just about every corner. As soon as we were on the Seward Highway we saw a GIANT mountain soaring above the horizon to the right, and in our disoriented state we convinced ourselves that it was the elusive Mt McKinley (which although it is 120 miles from Anchorage, is visible on a clear day because it is over 20,000 feet tall). A few hours later we remembered that we were driving south so this mountain could not possibly be McKinley which is NORTH of Anchorage. 20 hours of daylight messes with your brain.
We spotted out first eagle near Girdwood, where I hoped to stop for something to eat but nothing looked enticing. Once on the Kenai Peninsula (pronounced KEY-nai), we stopped for a very late (and much needed) breakfast in Cooper Landing at the Sunrise Cafe. The patio had baskets full of blooming flowers and it had to be in the low 70’s. The menu featured reindeer sausage and something called a “pig vomit omelet”, but we both stuck with traditional breakfast fare and it was superb.
Back on the road, we passed many roadside fishing spots packed with fisherman in hip-waders. We almost hit a wild turkey, and once we passed Clam Gulch the views of the Cook Inlet, Mt. Redbout, and Mt. Iliamna were simply jaw dropping. All of the businesses seemed to have either salmon or a moose for a logo, and there were still plenty of drive through coffee places 🙂
We arrived in Homer around 2pm and the weather could not have been nicer. We checked in to the Ocean House, a lovely inn overlooking the Cook Inlet. From the porch we watched eagles soaring over the beach and a romp of otters floating in the current, then we dumped our bags in our room (named the “Sea Otter”) and took off to explore.
We first drove out to the Homer Spit, a unique peninsula of land that jets out into the inlet, and then up to Skyline Drive for a panoramic view of our surroundings.
We had dinner at Captain Patty’s (on the spit) and it was a good thing we had reservations because it was quite crowded. We wandered around the wharf a bit trying to decide how to spend our free day in Homer. The whale watching trips were 9 hours, and sighting reports were “I think they saw a few” so we decided to go hiking instead and made arrangements for a water taxi ($65) to meet us at 8am. Back at the inn, the tide was out so we climbed down to the beach and went for a long walk on the tidal flats, watching and listening to a very vocal pair of eagles. Quite strange to be on the beach at 10:30pm taking pictures of eagles with more than enough light.
The next morning (Sunday), we went to breakfast at the Fresh Sourdough Express. We were there when it opened at 7am and it was already jam packed, but it was GOOD. Our water taxi arrived as scheduled and took us across the bay to Kachemak State Park where the captain deposited us on the beach and said, “follow the trail, I’ll meet you on the other side of that hill at 2.” O…K… We walked down the beach about 10 minutes and found the trail head and then it was about a one and a half hour hike to Grewingk Glacier Lake. The trail was lush and green, and covered with purple lupin flowers, but it was too darn buggy to stop! Andy fetched a chunk of glacial ice from the lake and it was CRYSTAL clear, and we were also fortunate to see the iceberg calve, launching an almost iridescent blue chunk of ice into the lake.
The hike down took about an hour, on a different, buggier route. The water taxi met us right on schedule and we got a quick tour of Halibut Cove on the return trip (including oyster farms, a greenhouse with full size fruit trees, and a boat-through espresso place!). We had dinner that night at the Homestead Restaurant, which was EXCELLENT. I actually ordered halibut for the first time in my life (I’m not a fish eater) and it was delicious – lightly breaded with panko breadcrumbs and served with a fresh basil sauce. Especially funny was another diner taking pictures of something out the window only to have the waitress explain, “no sir, that isn’t a moose, that is a horse.)
To Hallo Bay
We were up early (which is difficult to avoid with the perma-daylight – even with eye shades and Ambien), packed our stuff, and hoped that we were still under the 500 pound weight limit. With the small planes, they give each couple a budget of 500 pounds (which includes you and your bags – at O’Hare we were at 499!). It’s difficult with the hiking boots, rubber rain boots, cold weather stuff, oh, and all the camera gear. We can do Africa with 23 pounds each, but Alaska is a much more luggage intensive trip.
We had breakfast at the Duncan House (another good meal), dropped off our rental car at the main terminal, and took a cab over to Homer Air. Our flight was delayed about three hours due to weather (somewhere), but the bags were weighed as a group so at least THAT wasn’t an issue. Our luggage didn’t make it on the plane with us, but they said there was another plane five minutes behind us (and we had the camera bags). The one hour flight was scenic to say the least – Andy even saw whales! It was low tide when we landed on the beach, and there was a sow (“Ursula”) with her cub right there on the beach to greet us. Very reminiscent of giraffes on the runway in the Serengeti.
We met Herb, who would be our guide, and Tony (the camp manager/chef) who gave us a brief orientation that included thing like “don’t leave camp”, “shut the toilet seat”, and something about using red bags for waste while on long hikes. Luckily we followed the first two mandates and never had to deal with the third one. The shower/toilet system was WAY better than expected, and this technology has come a long way since girl scout camp in the 6th grade. The camp consisted of 6 guest tents, a dining tent, and two showers/toilets. We were assigned tent #3 which had two cots, a desk, a sink area with a jug of non drinking water (that drained into a bucket), and a stove-looking thing that was used for heat. They started them at night and we kept it on low with the window flaps open for some ventilation and the temperature was perfect.
If you’ve seen “Big Bear Diary” on Animal Planet, a lot of the Katmai parts were filmed here. The hikes at Hallo Bay vary depending on the time of year. Our hikes were very easy and never more than a mile and a half in each direction. Depending on the time of day, the bears were consistently either in the meadow or the tidal flats. There is a 30 foot tidal range here, so the first night there was a large bay adjacent to the meadow and the next morning we walked across it – bizarre!
We came upon bears once on the trail (where we had to go into the bushes and wait it out), and we had another inquisitive bear start to approach our group, but other than that they were fairly ambivalent about our presence (they barely looked up from munching on grass or digging for clams). In the meadow we sat on logs and watched them and in the tidal flats we sat in the wet sand and watched them (hence the requirement for good rain gear). We usually went out from 9am-2pm, then again after dinner from around 6pm-9pm. Hallo Bay was all about bears, but on every hike we also saw eagles, red fox, and a lone seal swimming in the bay (he was always there watching us!).
We spent two nights at Hallo Bay before moving on to our next destination.
To King Salmon
Well, not so fast….
Tony arrived at our cabin at 7am with “good news and bad news”. To avoid backtracking through Homer, we had chartered a plane to take us from Hallo Bay directly to King Salmon. But King Salmon had weather, so they were taking us to Homer with another couple instead. We had a charter, so I assumed the plane should just wait with us until the weather cleared, but it didn’t quite work that way as there were new guests arriving that needed our cabin. We had an extra day in the schedule for buffer in case of weather, and we bought travel insurance specifically for the situation, so no worries and off to Homer we went.
A bear wandered through camp just as we were about to depart, so we had to hang out in the dining tent before walking down to the beach to meet our plane. I got to fly in the copilot seat on the one hour twenty minute flight back to Homer, all the while strategising about how to get to King Salmon. “You can wait here and see if the weather lifts,” the pilot said, “but we might not have a plane then.” He didn’t sound too positive, so we booked a commercial flight back to Anchorage and then on to King Salmon (and insurance reimbursed us within 2 weeks of returning home).
We finally arrived in King Salmon at 3pm (original schedule was 8:45am) and called the lodge (King Salmon Inn) using the airport courtesy phone. I should mention that I had a horrible time finding somewhere to stay in King Salmon – the main lodge burned down, and this is a fishing “town”, so no one wants to rent a room for one night to people who aren’t fishing. A few minutes later an old van pulled up labeled “Bristol Bay Contracting/Ponderosa Inn” (close enough?). The driver was from the Ukraine and explained that there were lots of police in town so we needed to buckle up and watch the speed (no idea). 15 minutes later we turned off the pavement near some above ground storage tanks and arrived at the Inn.
It was partially under construction, but there was a common lounge that had tv and a computer with internet so we were able to look at some of our pictures from Hallo Bay. It was pretty quiet because most of the people staying there worked nights doing something related to fish. We didn’t have a car (and I think there was one bar/restaurant in “downtown” King Salmon) so we had dinner in the Inn dining room, which was a cafeteria buffet for $27!
Thursday morning we were up early but decided to skip the $17 cafeteria breakfast and head into town. Katmai Air is a float plane base, and they have several planes ranging from a De Havilland Otter to a small Cessna. There was a slight weather delay so the plane before our had not yet taken off (only 30 minute delay this time). We were going on the small plane, which held six passengers but only our camera bags made it – the rest of the luggage would be on the next flight (sound familiar?).
To Brooks Lodge
Takeoff on the Naknek River was as smooth as could be and the clouds lifted partway through the 20 minute flight. The pilot banked the plane and pointed out the salmon-packed Naknek Lake. Arrival at the lodge was another classic – there was one bear on the beach and another two swimming in the lake.
When you arrive at Brooks, you must attend the park service’s “bear school” which consists of a short video on bear safety and a presentation by a ranger. Bottom line, make noise when you walk on the trails (which explains people randomly shouting “hey bear”) and stay at least 50 yards away from the bears (or 100 from a mom with cubs). You’re given a pin that indicates you’ve been through orientation, and you are supposed to wear the pin at all times.
After orientation, we checked in at the lodge office, but because our cabin wasn’t ready yet and the dining room didn’t open until 11:30 we decided to go for a quick hike to the falls thinking that when we returned for lunch our room would be ready and our luggage (and tripods) would have arrived. We crossed the bridge and walked about a mile to reach the upper falls platform, shouting out a random “hey bear” along the way. If you have ever seen pictures or video of bears in a river, standing at the falls waiting for the salmon swimming upstream, it was most likely Brooks.
The viewing platforms can get crowded, especially in the middle of the day. If there are too many people on the platforms, the rangers limit the amount of time you can stay. We saw rangers taking names, and it was definitely crowded, but no one was ever asked to leave. Around 11:30, we decided to head back to the lodge for lunch (and to fetch our tripods from our luggage), but the trail was closed because there was a bear in the area. We wondered 1) how long the sign had been there and if someone would come move it when the bear had moved, and 2) how the bear knew not to go past the sign and hoped that he was able to read English 🙂 We heard some rustling in the trees up ahead and decided to move back a bit. A mother bear had “treed” her cubs just to the right of the trail at the bottom of the lower platform. About ten minutes later a ranger appeared with a group of about 50 hikers and moved the sign, so we continued walking but we only got as far as the lower platform.
Another mother bear with her spring cubs (ones born in April) was camped out at the entrance to the bridge. When they would move, a bear would appear on the other side, and when it would move, a bear would appear on the trail.
This went on for almost SIX hours, and because bears were always within 50 yards of the bridge, we were stuck on the platform. From our vantage point, we had an absolutely perfect view of sometimes up to 14 bears at once and the river was literally bubbling with salmon. The people stuck on the other side of the bridge, some just visiting for the day, had a less than desirable view, and were continuously herded forward and back depending on bear activity. There were also a few people who were stuck on the bridge and their family was on the other side. At 4pm they began fetching people on the evening flights by boat, and we finally made it across around 6pm. Lessons learned: don’t cross the bridge without your significant other, get across the bridge as soon as possible because it might only be open a few times a day, and carry ample water.
We made it back to the lodge around 6:30 and were assigned to cabin #26, which is about the best cabin there – had a great view of the oxbow (a u-shaped bend in the river) where the bears would often congregate.
The interior of the cabin had a bathroom, desk area, and bunks beds from which we would watch the bears at night. We dropped our luggage, washed up, and headed to the dining room for a buffet dinner – we were famished. Meals at Brooks were cafeteria style – nothing to write home about, but better than the King Salmon Inn (although priced the same). Everyone at dinner was talking about the bridge being closed for hours and not being able to get across – we felt kind of guilty for being trapped out there all day and having the platform basically to ourselves.
Friday morning Andy went for a walk early and reported back that the bridge was closed due to bear activity, so we had a leisurely breakfast. Around 9, we headed for the bridge, and only had to wait about 20 minutes for the bears to move and the bridge to open. The rangers said that the bridge was closed more than usual because the water level was low, so there were more salmon in less water, so more bears fishing there. We spent the day moving between the various platforms, the absolute best being the upper falls around 5-6pm (no crowds, great light). And if you thought WE had a lot of camera gear, let’s just say that we had the small stuff. When we returned to the bridge that evening, it was again closed and there were dozens of people trapped on the platform. We were in the right place at the right time and wound up on the first boat across the lake.
That evening I heard snarfling outside, and when I looked out the cabin window I saw a sow with two yearling cubs within 3 feet of our cabin! They left when they heard me get the camera, and Andy went and alerted the rangers because they had dug up the grass and punctured some water pipes. The ranger asked if we could identify the bear, and other than saying “it looked like a bear” I didn’t quite know how to describe it so we showed them the pictures. They called the maintenance guy to fix the pipe, but he was out fishing 🙂
We stayed at Brooks for two nights. Our return trip was lengthy but well planned. We departed Brooks at 1:30pm and were in King Salmon by 2. We had about an hour at the King Salmon airport so we just sat outside in the sun – must’ve been 75! We arrived in Anchorage around 4pm and checked in for our United flight to snag the “economy plus” seats and check our bags. We picked up a rental car and headed downtown for some sightseeing, a stop at 10th and M seafood for some halibut-to-go, and then had an excellent dinner at Simon and Seafort. We were back at the airport at 9 (tip: the place to kill time is the museum upstairs – very quiet and pleasant), our flight departed at 11pm and we arrived back in Chicago at 8am Sunday.
In Summary:
- Would we go back? absolutely !
- Would we recommend this trip? definitely! I’m glad that we went to Hallo Bay first. I liked the personalized experience and the ability to be on the ground with the bears. Brooks, though more crowded, provided the opportunity to see bears fishing in the river and at the falls. Combine the two and you have a perfect week.
