Monday, August 25, 2008

Bears at Silver Salmon Creek Lodge

We have had an amazing several days photographing bears in Clark National Park. We are staying at Silver Salmon Creek lodge with a great group taking care of us, and have already seen a bunch of bears, some that passed by us within 20 or 30 feet. The bears are mostly fishing for salmon and today we were treated to a fine fishing display by a mother bear, watched closely by her cub.






To get here we rode in a Cessna 207, a small six seat plane. Our first flight in Alaska was what we consider to be very sporty, we had to drop off one passenger at another location, and little did we know that we were going to land on a narrow beach next to a cliff, with one wheel in the water and one on the beach. Our landing at the lodge was not quite as exciting, but still on a beach. Yesterday we went to Duck Island and spent several hours photographing Horned Puffins, which are rather colorful exotic birds; it was a very special opportunity. The weather yesterday was beautiful, sunny all day and very pleasant. We've had cloud and rain on and off the rest of the time, but it hasn't slowed us down at all.

The operation here is outstanding, the food is phenomenal. They generate all their own electricity here with a diesel generator and battery system, with additional help from a solar panel. We are staying in the Dolly Den, a nice little cabin with minimal amenities. It was 48F in the cabin the first night, good snuggling weather.

Tomorrow is our last day at Silver Salmon Creek Lodge, and we plan to make the most of it and see as much bear behavior as we can. we have limited Internet access here so will upload more pictures later. John & Sara 

Ps We have had a few questions about subscribing to the google group we created. You don't need to do anything, you will be emailed when we post an update, or you can go directly to the blog at johnandsarastanford.blogspot.com to view everything together.

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