Katmai and Lake Clark National Parks

After getting turned around yesterday midflight due to zero visibility, Sunday we made it into both parks and they definitely did NOT dissapoint! We were able to watch 9-10 Alaskan Brown Coastal Grizzlies in their natural environment for nearly four hours and we got to see some incredible behaviors up close. They have so much food in this park they are not too concerned with other bears, or us humans, in close proximity. I'll let the photos say the rest...

Right after we left the planes we were greeted to this big boy snoozing on the beach after gorging on sedge grass which is their primary source of food at this time of year. On average they are eating 100 pounds of it a day. They eat as much as they can, then they scoop out a hole in the sand for their bellies so they can lay flat, sleep, get up, poop and then do it all over again.

We got to watch these two wrestle and play, then mate, then wrestle and play again for over half an hour.

"Hey, what are you looking at?"

A bedroom with a view...

Most of the bears we were watching ranged from roughly 600 pounds for the youngsters to 800 pounds for the adults. This magnificent male is estimated to be about 1,000 pounds and this is their leanest time of year after emerging from hibernation. Their "goal" is to put on between 400 to 500 pounds before the next winter sets in. Yep, he'll be roughly 1,500 pounds at that point.

The largest grizzlies in Alaska live on Kodiak Island. Their diet there is so rich that the largest one ever recorded weighed approximately 2,500 pounds and stood 11' feet tall when standing on his hind legs. I can't even imagine what that would look like! All the bears in Alaska are genetically the same species of grizzlies and the only difference is their diet. Grizzlies in the Arctic or Denali top out around 600-700 lbs, in Katmai roughly 1,500 lbs and on Kodiak 2,000 to 2,500lbs.

This is the skeletal remains of a large Humpback Whale that got beached on Katmai about three years ago. As you might imagine, the bears gorged on it for days they said. In these situations, just like at Brooks Falls, they establish a social hierarchy for feeding. And yes, size does matter.

One of the jaw bones.

On our way back to the planes we got to see this enormous sun dog.

Both Katmai and Lake Clark were so lush, along with the steep volcanic topography, they reminded me of Kuai.

So, who's watching who?

The river we landed on in Katmai.

While we didn't see bears in Lake Clark, the scenery certainly didn't dissapoint.

We landed on Hendrickson Lake, one of the most serene places I have see yet here in Alaska.

One of the glacial lakes on the way into Lake Clark.

The flight into Hendrickson Lake in Lake Clark.