Silver Salmon Creek Lodge

Today we are on a bear safari with Silver Salmon Creek Lodge in the Lake Clark National Park.  I contacted Silver Salmon Creek Lodge on 16 June last year and they were already full for our dates (so book early!). Luckily I could change around our other arrangements to go on a different day hence breaking up the Seward days.  This was yet again another superb / fantastic/ beautiful/ aweinspiring day

We left from Soldotna airport at 9am.  Also on the plane were a family from Toowoomba with 2 boys in year 7 and 9.  This would be our group for the rest of our stay.  The flight over in an 8 seater plane took 35 mins with wonderful scenery of the Cook Inlet looking over to Mt Redoubt.  We landed on a slightly sloping beach to be greeted by the Silver Salmon Creek Lodge ATV.  We were quickly shuttled to our room where we dropped off our luggage, fitted with wellies, and met our guide Cody.  We set off crossing creeks to find a mother and two cubs down at the beach. 

Crossing the creeks

The bears in Lake Clark National Park have never been hunted by humans and have become habituated to their presence.  The Coray family have been in this area for 30 years and were grandfathered their plot of land when it was declared a National Park.  After taking many photos the tide came in and we had to move – onto the next bear.  The morning session saw us ticking off 6 different bears.  

Well - just out side the woods!

Compared to James size 8 footprint

Back for lunch at 1pm – a delicious smoked sockeye salmon with potato hash and banana bread, followed by chocolate biscuits.  We set off again at 2pm, this time the bear count was about 7.  

Our lodge on the far side of the bear; our cabin is on the left of the main building near the white door.

Peek a Boo

We drove up the beach and went for a hike around the meadows and converging conifers where we stumbled across more bears.

 They kept coming out of the forest onto the meadow.  There was a large male bear and several females that went running when they realised he was there. 
 Can you see the blond bear in the distance?

The bears tend to scratch their backs on trees – breaking the smaller ones.  

This plant saved Captain Cook and crew from scurvy

Throughout the day we got within 15m of the bears at various times with out us feeling threatened nor the bears being bothered.  

There was one point when a bear was spooked by something and high tailed it out – they can move pretty quickly when they want to.  Six pm saw us back at the lodge ready for a pre-dinner drink and dinner of macadamia crusted halibut with a soy drizzle followed by a baked chocolate pie.  We declined an evening bear watch as the rain had started again (we had been lucky all day with just high cloud and some sunshine) but we will be out in the morning after breakfast for a last ditch effort for more bears.  It seems we may have been lucky as this high a bear count this early in the season is unusual.

Our accommodations are comfortable - we are in a lodge cabin with a queen and single bed with bathroom.  There is a lounge and dining room in the main building for get togethers.