Alaskan Adventure: Day 59. Took a flight with several others in our group to see Alaskan Coastal Brown Bears and to see venting at the top of a volcano at nearby Mt. Iliamna.

We got suited up with hip waders and watched a quick video about Coastal Brown Bears and a safety talk before going out to the plane. The plane was a Cessna 206. Climbing up into the plane was a challange. Our Bear Viewing Tour included two planes with seven visitors and the two pilots as both pilot and guide. Our plane was me, Mike, and Doug (the 3 biggest guys). The plane had Cindy and 3 visitors from Spain (the 4 little folks).

They had this cool poster on the wall. I’ve been looking for a postcard or something but haven’t found it yet.

Homer is in the lower right corner of the map above. Lake Clark National Park is west of Homer. We flew across the Cook Inlet to the southern end of Lake Clark NP with great views of the snow capped mountains and Iliamna Volcano.

We flew to Chinitna Bay and landed on the sloped beach exposed at low tide. Landing area was just to the west of the black dot on the map.

Not our plane but this one just like ours flew over.

This is our plane after landing on the gravel beach. The tire is the only place put your foot to climb up into that little door and into the plane while ducking under the wing.

The sloping beach. That’s the pilot “Brian” and Mike walking slowly hoping I’ll quit taking pictures and catch up. We were supposed to stay together as a group…

The tidal bay at low tide had these beautiful swirls and braids of water. When we were on the ground walking out there it didn’t look anything like it did from the air.

This is the first place we went looking for bears. The bears eat the sedge grass so they are often here in this sedge meadow.

The next place they took us was shockingly close to this mama bear and her two adorable cubs. I took lots of pics. Here’s a few more of the cubs playing around.

A different mama bear and her 3 cubs. At one point we counted 24 bears and cubs in the meadow and the mud flats.

There were lots of bears and cubs grazing on sedge grass in this beautiful meadow. After watching the bears for awhile they took us for a walk out into the “mud flats” of the bay.

This is the whole group preparing to go out onto the mud flats. There are several bears out there digging up clams or trying to catch salmon. The pilots seemed unconcerned but keep in mind there is a whole field full of bears and cubs behind me in this picture. I am wearing clumsy rubber boots with hip waders that keep falling down and we are going to see how close we can get to bears out in the mud. There is no doubt in my mind that I am the slowest person in this group. They told us in the safety talk “Do Not Run”. I am feeling quite vulnerable. We are not just going out a little bit. The bears are so far out there you can barely see them. We are going for a long walk out into the middle of the bay to “see how close we can get to the bears”.

Lots of Gulls.

A Bald Eagle flew over.

Not sure, but that didn’t look like a “hi, happy to see you” face to me…

I didn’t have a banana for scale but that is a really big paw print in the mud.

Then we all followed the guides in single file (to look smaller and less intimidating) to see how close we could get to this bear. I kept thinking “this seems close enough” but we kept slowly getting closer and closer. Finally, when we were very uncomfortably close we stopped and watched this fluffy bear dig for clams.

This is a Coastal Brown Bear eating a clam. As we stood about 50 yards from this bear, with our feet sinking in the mud, they explained that a Coastal Brown Bear is the same thing as a GRIZZLY Bear!!! They just call them different names to differentiate where they live. Coastal Brown Bears live near the Coast, and Grizzly Bears live away from the Coast.

They went on to explain why we can get so close to these bears:
1. They have never been hunted because they live in Clark National Park & Preserve.
2. They have grown up with human visitors like us around almost every day for decades.
3. There is plenty of food so they are not very competitive and less territorial.
That all sounds good but after watching this enormous beast work diligently to get little clams out of their shells it seemed painfully obvious to me that a light bulb in it’s head could suddenly click on and there was nothing stopping it from getting a much more fulfilling meal out of the 9 helpless people standing a few lunges away. I should mention that we were not allowed to bring bear spray or fire arms. The pilots had one flare each that they assured us would deter the bear.

Panorama with iPhone for “context”. It was beautiful standing out in the middle of the bay on the tidal mud flat, surrounded by snow capped volcanoes, along the edge of the Pacific “Ring of Fire”. But just behind those people was a Bear eating clams. And in the meadow to the right (over by the airplanes) were 20+ Mama Bears with their cubs. This was exhilarating. I found myself considering the meaning of “faith”. I was trusting two guides but my head kept whispering everything I had ever heard about the dangers of being too close to a (grizzly) Bear eating and Mama Bears with their cubs.

Guide took this pic with my phone. I was there… with the bear…

The tide was rapidly coming back into the bay. This is looking back out toward the Cook Inlet. The planes are on the beach to the right of the rock outcropping. I’m thinking it would be a good idea to start walking quickly back toward the beach but the guides did not seem concerned.

Looking back at the bay quickly being inundated as the tide came in.

Walking back to the planes.

Cool looking rocks and wild flowers.

The pilot of our plane (Brian) stopped to talk with the park ranger. I have now officially visited Clark National Park and talked with a park ranger so this park stamp is legit.

As we got back to the plane the pilot asked if we would like to fly up to see if the Mt Iliamna volcano was venting before heading back to Homer? Well YES. The pics that follow are of that flight back. The peak of Mt. Iliamna is 10,000′ so we spent awhile climbing up to 9,500′ for the flyby of the peak.

Beautiful coastline.

Mike enjoyed riding co-pilot seat.

Iliamna volcano vent.

This is taken as we were descending from Mt. Iliamna and heading back across the Cook Inlet toward Homer.

Our campsite at Homer KOA is in the cul-de-sac at the top of this pic as we flew over.

Favorite Bible verse of the day: John 13:34-35.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.