Exploring Wide Bay in the Ugashik Wildlife Refuge, Alaska
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...