Best of Alaska Photos Summer 2009

Whew! What a summer of amazing travel and vacations - mostly to Alaska - 3 full weeks in that beautiful state this summer! As I finalize all the photo editing, I thought I would share my very favorite photos of the Alaska trips. As a photographic summary....







This last one is a favorite - 9 year old Tyler swinging outside the lodge, and a grizzly meandering away from him in the background - neither one really oblivious of the other!

The photos from our June 2009 trip here....

And photos from our July 2009 trip here....

And our favorite place on earth is Lake Clark National Park which is 135 airmiles southwest of Alaska and an amazing wilderness where the best photos were taken!

Thanks to Sheila and James of Alaska Homestead Lodge for two wonderful stays there. And to Scott and Sage for being great guides and keeping us safe around the bears!

Thanks to Dale Franz for opening my eyes to this place and scheduling a photo workshop there. Thanks to David and Joanne at the Silver Salmon Lodge for letting me be a tag along participant on Dale's workshop when I was balancing family time and my time!

More information about Lake Clark can be found at these links:

National Park Service
Tripadvisor
Away.com

What an amazing beautiful place to visit and we are feeling truly blessed to have spent time this summer in Alaska - we will be back soon!

Bears, Fish, and RAIN in Alaska......

Wow... we have had three amazing days of nothing but fish, bears, and rain here at Lake Clark National Park and staying at the Alaska Homestead Lodge. We love this place. Our flight is scheduled back to Soldotna in two hours - but with the rain & visibility - we're hoping we are forced to stay longer!

Yesterday's bear watching was absolutely amazing - a grizzly sow with three first year cubs - we watched and photographed them for HOURS! At one point we all laid down in the grass and took a nap when the cubs and sow took a nap! Now that's being relaxed! (And our guide Scott was there to protect us!)






This was a pretty unusual scene we are told - a first year grizzly cub riding on Mom's back. It seems to be his mode of operation - our group is thinking he may have some deformity or trouble walking, and it's easier for the family if he just hops ups on mom's back. Cute, interesting scene, but also pretty sad for a cub like that - the chances of surving in the wilderness without full physical capability puts him at a big risk. Oh, the life of a grizzly bear!

Back to Alaska and Lake Clark National Park - Day 1

Well, Day 1 of our return trip to Lake Clark National Park has been absolutely amazing. The salmon are in and the Alaskan Coastal Brown Bears (same as grizzlies but Alaska's brown bears) are eating them up! It has been a blast to watch the bears fishing. So much more action than the clamming and grass eating shots we took in our June Trip.

We are staying again at the Alaska Homestead Lodge and can't recommend it highly enough - we love this place! We want to make it home!








Although the dog barked this morning and there had been a bear right on the front porch, who left a couple scratch marks by the front door of the lodge. And this male grizzly keeps wandering around in the yard.... it might make me a little nervous