Capturing the Moment

  A swimming Katmai bear, heading our way! It was another spectacular visit to Katmai National Park in Alaska. Known for its bears, it did not disappoint. We had many close bear encounters, and we even got to see a number of swimming bears. One swam all the way across Kukak Bay. I couldn't blame him, as it was one of the hottest days of the summer for this part of Alaska. We had another playful bear that rolled over in the shallows, giving us a good view. We explored Kukak Bay in the morning. This is one of the more famous bays on the outer coast of Katmai National Park. People will fly in on float planes to come watch bears here. Early in the morning, Christian and I paddled our kayaks out for a recon of the shallow bay at the back of the bay. It was a beautiful morning with calm water, but no bears. Then, after breakfast, I took out a shorewalking group. The tide was going out, so the landing was tough. No one topped their boots, and everyone walked slowly so they didn't slip...

  On our afternoon hike, this bear family came running across the tundra. They crossed our path down in this marshy valley, gave us a hard look, then continued up the far side of the valley. I loved how they looked like soldiers in this photo, checking and protecting from all sides. Wide Bay is a huge bay along the Alaskan Peninsula west of Katmai National Park. It is part of the Alaska Peninsula Ugashik Refuge. There are very few visitors here, as it is a remote, hard to get to part of Alaska. I am quite lucky to be aboard the Safari Explorer, an expedition ship built for traveling to these far off wild places in search of adventure. We had all day to explore the area after traveling through the night from Katmai National Park. We arrived to beautiful windless conditions, so kayaking was first and foremost on my mind. We also sent out a couple of skiff tours to show guests around, look for wildlife, and scout the outer bay portion of the area for good afternoon hiking options. Our...

  A huge Katmai brown bear walks out of the meadow in front of us. We stood there watching him eat grass for nearly an hour, getting closer and closer to our group. Finally he made this turn onto the mud flats, walked a ways, then lied down for a nap. Today we explored an entirely new part of Alaska, the coast of Katmai National Park. We started off at Kukak Bay, which is a known brown bear hot spot. We had flat calm conditions, so Christian and I jumped in a skiff early in the morning to scout out possible landings, walks, and bear meadows. We found a few good possibilities, and we found a big brown bear ambling down the shoreline, close to our boat. After snapping a few photos of the bear, he disappeared into the alder bushes, only to reappear later right behind the boat during breakfast. After breakfast we sent out a guided kayak group, into beautiful flat calm conditions. Then everyone else jumped into our two skiffs and went out to find some of Katmai's famous brown bears. We ...