Alaska Sportsman's Lodge Iliamna

... or more bears, which is quite common. In one incident, one of our clients hooked the rainbow trout of his dreams only to have the guide cut the line so we could get into the woods and hide. Some of the bears have learned to associate the bend of a fishing rod with a tasty salmon on the end. When a nearby bear took interest in the catch and started coming toward us, we had to free the fish and go ...

... north over Lake Clark at just 1000 feet of altitude and then followed the river valley between the mountains at 2000 feet. It was a little bumpy, but quite scenic. As we flew over Cook Inlet, almost back to Anchorage, we saw a pod of Beluga Whales.

We are already talking about plans to go back to Lake Clark and Farm Lodge. This was a very special place and, without any question, our best adventure yet!

... in Alaska, and the Alyeska Oil Pipeline.

We settled into our comfortable cabin looking out at the Farm Lodge fleet of floatplanes on Hardenburg Bay of Lake Clark. It was already 3:30 pm, so our first priority was to find our way to the national park visitor center for the all important passport stamp. The visitor center is located about halfway up the runway, while Farm Lodge is essentially at the end of the ...

... we're a bit confused as to what's happening until we see a big mother bear and her cub stroll towards the hut we're in, nibble on some grass a short distance away before walking right past us and down to the shoreline... just like that, we'd come within feet of a grizzly bear... thank god for the thick wooden wall and window between us or we would have been terrified. Of course, there are loads of experienced rangers at Katmai to take care of the tourists that come ...

... the edge of a lake and all of a sudden you hook one and start reeling it in before a bear in the vicinity recognises you've landed a meal and so decides to come over to challenge you for it... of course you snap the line and run for cover. Imagine... a set of three adorable 1-year-old cubs playing around with each other just metres in front of you while their mother lunges at salmon in the river. Imagine... another set of even MORE adorable spring cubs, only a few months old ...

Before leaving King Salmon and returning to Anchorage we flew over to Brooks Falls for the day. Brooks Falls is where all of the various advertisements are made when you see lots of bears standing around the falls looking stupid. Before ...

... part of the world, but to find them waiting to catch a plane is another dimension. Oh well the journey always throws something at us to learn about! Well the plane is a 30 seater with one spare seat, so a lot of people heading to a place called King Salmon. Uneventful trip with drinks and snacks on the way in the 1 hour 15 min flight, mainly in cloud with a brief glimpse of a view after we lifted off. The transfer from this plane to the Katmai air was in a small bus with ...

July 3, 2008 Do we ever have a fish tale!!! We got up at 5:30 am and were on the boat at 6:30 am. There were 4 customers, Captain Pete and deck hand, Troy, on the boat, once again I was the only female. When we took off it was gloomy and cool. The ride out of the bay and into the ocean took 1 ½ hours. One of the customers was a 91 year old Polish man who couldn't speak a word of English and at 6:30 in the morning he was drunk and ...

... bears use this method, but we saw a lot of different fishing techniques by the bears. The national park service has built platforms for people to use so we can watch without being in danger. We saw about 7 bears throughout the day. When we got there there were two bears - one huge, old one that looked like he was in a hot tub even though the water is 42 degrees. He ...

Today was an awesome day. We started our day off with breakfast at the Totem, then we went geocaching locally. After we came back to the hotel we took a brief rest time and then went on our cruise to the Columbia Glacier. I took the best pictures. We saw sea otters, sea lions, puffins, a humpback whale, ice floes, glaciers and an arctic jellyfish. I also got to see some incredible mountain and bay views. I can't believe how not-cold it was. The ...