We are off to see the bears - up close and personal. The flight to view the bears is with Kbay Air out of Homer. Our trip to Homer, again, provided more excellent views of Cook Inlet, the volcanoes and mountains on the other side, and the Homer Spit area. I think if I were to move to Alaska, I would want to move here. I love the mountains and the water.
Our intended destination was KatMai National Park in the Aleutian Range. However, as we were flying over KatMai, we found it to be socked in with weather, and we couldn’t land. So, we flew on to Clark National Park. It is the newest of the National Parks and is North of Mount Redoubt on the Cook Inlet. We saw lots of beautiful scenery from the air, and were able to view bears fishing from the air. We landed on the beach (no runway). It felt like driving to fast in a dune buggy.
We walked along the beach to an area where the bears fish as the tide is going out. They like to fish in a few inches of water. The water is so shallow that you can often see the top of the fish out of water. The water was filled with Chum – a type of Salmon. We affectionately named the bears we saw. It was such fun to watch them romp through the water like a cat chasing a moving object or a dog chasing after a ball when you throw it. We thought they reminded us of our dog Toby. We were surprised that we could get so close to the bears. One juvenile, that was running away from a bigger bear, after the juvenile’s latest catch ran right towards us and was turned back by the guide when he was about 5 feet away. The bears weren’t interested in us. They were interested in fishing and chasing the fish in the water, trying to catch them. We stayed as a tight knit group. Apparently, the size of our group makes the bears see the group as a single blog bigger than they are and not to be bothered. Be sure to look at the two videos of the bears chasing fish that I am posting. They looked like big teddy bears and never seemed intimidating at all.
We are off toward Valdez tomorrow.
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Wow, what cool adventures you are having! Loved the bears romping around like large dogs.
ReplyDeleteWhere do you head next?
Sending our love and hugs,
Carol for Rob too
The scenery is breathtaking! I enjoyed seeing all the pictures of the bears. Looks like each one has their own personality. Glad to see that you folks are having a wonderful time. I notice you are wearing jackets/sweatshirts. Must be chilly up in your neck of the woods. Hugs to all and looking forward to your return.
ReplyDeleteThe West Family