Lake Clark National Park and Preserve

If anyone’s an expert at photographing bears in Alaska, it’s Michelle Theall, the executive editor and photographer at Alaska Magazine for more than a decade. She leads this iconic trip and says August is the perfect month to get those famous “fishing bear” photos, along with cubs sparring and playing among the last of the bright pink fireweed. As bears try to fatten up before hibernation, get ready for non-stop action! Plus, we take a special trip out to “puffin island” to view hundreds of puffins (horned and tufted) flying with silvery lances in their beaks to their nests to feed chicks. Other animals out and about include moose, fox, wolves, and bald eagles. While the bears are fishing, you can too. Hook a silver salmon on a fly rod! BONUS: August sometimes provides us opportunities to photograph the stunning northern lights!

Trip Level

When you think of Alaska, you think of bears. On this trip, we guarantee you’ll see them or we’ll credit your deposit toward a future trip! While this trip is perfect for shutterbugs, others who enjoy wildlife viewing and fishing will get a true Alaska adventure. To join this trip, you must be able to walk up and down stairs, and ride comfortably in planes, small boats, and shuttles. The activity level is rated 2 / relatively easy.

The Trip at a Glance

• 6 days and 6 nights, including fully guided, safe bear viewing in the heart of bear country.
• Comfortable accomodations with modern ammenities and gourmet meals.
• Small group size: 5 tour participants
• 1-hour+, round-trip flightseeing tour to and from Lake Clark and Anchorage.
• Daily photography instruction, along with educational dialogue about bear behavior and the flora and fauna of Alaska, while shadowing Michelle Theall, Alaska Magazine’s executive editor and award-winning photographer for the title.
• 4xs per day+ bear-viewing excursions along the coast and rivers, depending on tides.
• 1x boat trip out to puffin island to photograph horned and tufted puffins, kittiwakes, sea otters, and bald eagles.
• Northern lights viewing on clear evenings, away from light pollution of cities.

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Itinerary

8/13: ARRIVAL: Guests arrive in Anchorage, Alaska before 6pm. If you’re looking for things to do in and around Anchorage that afternoon, we recommend taking a hotel shuttle downtown (Lakefront, our hotel, has a regular shuttle) where you can grab lunch at Snow City Café (www.snowcitycafe) and walk the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail (www.anchoragecoastaltrail.com). Early arrival will also allow you to purchase souvenirs downtown.

6pm: Tonight, we’ll feast on locally caught salmon and halibut or other items from an extensive menu, while we enjoy the expansive view of Lake Spenard and the Chugach mountains from our table—or, weather providing, we may opt for a table outside on the deck (bring a jacket). Watch seaplanes take off and land from one of the largest floatplane bases in the country. Sip a frosty Alaskan Amber. Photograph the reflections of planes and bright fireweed blooms off the surface of the water. Dress code here is casual, as it will be for our entire trip. Leave those fancy-pants clothes at home.

8/14: LAKE CLARK: After an early breakfast, we’ll take a shuttle from the hotel at 8:30am for our 9am Lake Hood charter flights to Lake Clark National Park.

9am: Bring your camera on board our charter flight, which you will want for aerial shots if the weather is clear. Don your headphones to ask questions of our pilot and learn about various points of interest. This one-hour+ tour crosses the Cook Inlet, where seal haulouts and beluga whale pods can often be spotted and photographed. Along the shores of the Alaska Peninsula, we skirt waterfalls and lush marshes, prime habitat for moose, and pass Blockade Glacier, Double Glacier, and two, 10,000-foot, snow-capped, active volcanoes—Mt. Redoubt and Iliamna. Lake Clark National Park, our destination, is roughly twice the size of Yellowstone, embodying more than 4 million acres of wilderness accessible only by small boat or plane. We touch down around 10am, landing on the beach “runway” at our destination on Silver Salmon Creek, where bears may already be in view.

8/14-8/18: DAILY ACTIVITIES

The lodge staff will greet our planes with ATV carts to transport us and our gear to our house. After a short orientation, we’ll head out on our first bear-viewing excursion. If bears aren’t your thing, or you get tired of hanging out with them, the lodge also offers guided salmon fishing (you can ship home your catch), canoeing, short hikes, blueberry picking, and clamming. Just ask! Lodge guides will be happy to let you know the best weather days for each activity so you can plan accordingly.

At some point during the week (based on tides and weather), we’ll take a boat trip to “Puffin Island,” which is not-to-be-missed, especially if you’re a bird-lover. The boats have enclosed, heated cabins, as well as ample outdoor deck space for photographers.

On the boat tour, we may see horned and tufted puffins, kittiwakes, murres, oystercatchers, parakeet auklets, eiders, and bald eagles. On a clear day, the 10,000-foot, snow-capped volcano, Mt. Redoubt serves as a backdrop for flocks of the brightly colored beaks of flying puffins. We disembark to spend some time on Puffin Island, surrounded by the birds as they jump from cliffs and other perches among the rocks. We’ll practice getting images of puffins flying back to their chicks with silver fish draping from their beaks, as well as running on the water for take-off and perching on the cliffs. We hope to see otters as well, drifting along the shoreline. The boat trip typically encompasses ½ day.

MEALS

Breakfast is typically served at 8am in the main lodge. Lunch is around 1pm. Dinner is at 7pm. Despite our remote location, we will be eating gourmet, fresh cuisine, with locally sourced Alaskan salmon and halibut, as well as a variety of other dishes. Salad greens come from the garden on property, and all entrees, soups, bread, desserts, and baked goods are prepared on site by an executive chef and baker. Meals are served family style in the dining room of the main lodge overlooking the lower Cook Inlet and sometimes—meandering bears and a resident fox. Wolves and moose have also been seen in the area.

BEAR VIEWING AND OTHER ACTIVITIES

Bear-viewing opportunities and other activities take place in between meals. An early-morning, sunrise bear-viewing trip prior to breakfast gives us the opportunity to see bears in the glow of morning light, with sun starbursts through the tall grasses, sunrise color, and silhouettes. After breakfast, we go out again, crossing various inlets based on tides, in our search for moms with cubs and fishing bears up and down the beautiful stretch of beach. Two more opportunities are available for bear viewing: after lunch and after dinner. Sunset bears provide different light. There’s so much to do and see, you might have to carve out time to just chill on one of the decks for a while. You can also fish for silver salmon with a guide to try your luck! After dark (which starts happening late in the month), we’ll be alert for any chance of northern lights and wake guests accordingly.

PHOTOGRAPHY INSTRUCTION AND IMAGE REVIEW

Throughout the tour professional photographer from Alaska Magazine, Michelle Theall, will help with equipment and give hands-on instruction regarding technique, composition, and post-editing. In between activities and meals, we’ll schedule time to review images, have presentations, and discuss relevant information to help you hone your craft. That said, at any time during the trip, feel free to ask for tips, guidance, settings, etc. The best instruction happens if you shadow her in the field for in-the-moment tips and instruction.

INCLUSIONS: Lodging, meals, beverages, guided excursions, charter flight to and from Anchorage and Lake Clark, room tax and park fees, some equipment (mud boots, hip waders).

EXCLUSIONS: Fishing licenses, flights to and from Anchorage and your home destination, taxis, baggage fees, travel insurance, tips for lodge staff and guides, halibut fishing charters.

8/18: LODGE DEPARTURE DAY

After one last bear-viewing trip before 8am breakfast (depending on tides), it’s time to pack up our things and say goodbye to our lodge staff. Our plane departs around 10am, allowing us one more chance to perfect our aerial photography along the Cook Inlet, while spotting seal haulouts and belugas below. Upon arrival at Lake Hood in Anchorage or at Merrill Field, we will catch a shuttle back to the Millennium Lakefront Hotel, where guests may retrieve any items they checked/stored, and depart for the airport to catch flights home or check in for the night to catch morning departures.

5pm: Goodbye dinner as a group at the Millennium Lakefront. We’ll share stories and images from our adventure.

8/19: All guests depart or go on to other adventures in Alaska!

*Please note that items on this itinerary may shift due to weather, tides, wildlife sightings, or transportation cancelations, etc. You will be notified should this occur. We highly recommend travel insurance. Also, while we guarantee a bear sighting on this trip (see terms and conditions paperwork for details) in general, we cannot guarantee other wildlife or bird sightings or the weather—but we’ll try our best to put you in the right place at the right time for the best opportunities. We recommend that you be prepared to go bear viewing in all types of weather—rain won’t keep the bears from showing up to catch salmon in the rivers. A bear’s got to eat, after all.

Airfare to and from Anchorage and your home, trip insurance, and gratuities, not included. Full terms and conditions available with deposit.

For more information or to secure a spot on the trip, please contact info@wilddepartures.com ASAP or book immediately by submitting your deposit below. Or, call: 720-635-1380 for additional details.