Fishes & Mooses & Bears . . . Oh My! Welcome to Alaska! (Part I)

We flew into Anchorage Sunday night, July 2nd, arriving at 11:00 pm. It was overcast and raining. Just like the weatherman said it would be.

The following morning, Don went down to the hotel lobby for coffee. I was still in bed when it hit. A 4.7 magnitude earthquake!

Did I feel it? Heck yeah, I felt it! I was out of bed in a flash . . . once I figured out what the heck was happening. My first day in Alaska wasn't going to be my last, so I headed toward the doorway to the bathroom. The shaking and swaying stopped as quickly as it began and, strangely enough, it didn't appear to have bothered anyone but me.

According to the information online, it was a pretty big one . . . by the looks of the red dot below.

I did a little more searching online and discovered it was the largest earthquake they had had for about 30 days. Seems earthquakes happen all day long, every day. You just don't usually feel them.

I texted Don downstairs . . . but he hadn't taken his phone. When he eventually returned to our room, I asked him if he had felt it and he said barely and briefly. I guess being on the 17th floor of the hotel made a big difference.

The view of Anchorage from our room that morning.

After breakfast, we went for a hike along the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail, starting at Elderberry Park which was within walking distance of the Captain Cook Hotel. It was a cloudy day, but the rain had quit and it was a beautiful place to walk.

Check out the seagulls sitting on top of the dead trees.

We watched a tern have breakfast -

(Terns are seabirds that have a worldwide distribution and are normally found near the sea, rivers and wetlands.)

We had a delicious dinner at Simon & Seafort's. I ordered an Exotic Mojito with white rum, passion fruit puree, mango puree, mint, lime and soda. It was very refreshing. For dinner, we ordered the asiago panko crusted pan seared Alaskan halibut cheeks for starters. They were amazing! Then, Don had the fire roasted Baja salmon with seared shrimp, avocado corn salsa and Yukon Gold mashed potatoes while I enjoyed the almond crusted sea scallops, pan seared with an asiago and almond crust, mashed potatoes with caramelized onions, asparagus, fire roasted red peppers and beurre blanc. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

The following afternoon, we re-packed our suitcases and headed to the Katmai Air Terminal for our 1-hour flight to the Katmai Peninsula where our "hotel", Kulik Lodge, is situated on the 17-mile long Nonvianuk Lake.

Our plane to Kulik Lodge -

The Lodge -

Don, at our place, Cabin #6.

Heading into the Lodge to meet the staff, the other guests and to have our first dinner.

The next morning, we received a wake-up knock at 5:30 am and a pot of coffee was placed on our deck. We got dressed and headed back to the Lodge for made--to-order breakfasts, which were hot & delicious! Then after a quick stop at Cabin #6 to change and layer up (the weatherman called for overcast skies, temperatures in the 50's with wind), we headed down to the beach to catch our floatplane to see the bears!

Brooks Falls is an approximately 25-minute flight from Kulik Lodge. Our ride to get us there -

Along the way . . .

Approaching Brooks Camp -

If you look closely on the trail in about the middle of the photo, you'll see a bear!

The lay of the land -

There were raised viewing platforms at the Falls, Riffles (just down stream from the Falls) and the Lower River area on your way to the Lodge. There was a wait to get on and a time restriction once you got on the Falls Platform, because so many people wanted to linger there.

Just off of the beach, once we landed and climbed out of the floatplane -

As soon as we disembarked from our floatplane, we were required to attend "Bear School", where we were instructed on the proper etiquette at Brooks Camp. Ranger Kevin made the presentation and told us if we encountered a bear on the trail, we were to step off of the trail and behind a tree, if possible. The bear would walk on by. (What??? We'd just come from the Grand Teton National Park , where you have to stay at least 100 yards away from the grizzlies or they'd eat you. "Just step off of the trail and let them pass"? Was this guy crazy???!!! You could be within feet of these guys and they would just walk on by? Yeah, sure . . . ) Then, we were instructed to surrender any food items, candy, gum and even chapstick. All of these things were attractants, and we certainly didn't want to attract a big brown bear! They locked up our things and we made our way to the Falls with great anticipation!

Brooks Falls . . .

It was beautiful. It was magnificent. It was bearless! No bears at the Falls? How could this possibly be? We had come so far to photograph the bears standing at the top of the Falls, catching salmon as they made their way upstream to spawn. What sinister force was keeping the bears away from the Falls? No fish. The winter had been so long and harsh, by the first week of July, the water temperature was still too cold for the salmon to swim upstream. And, without salmon, there weren't any bears.

We consulted with the small group that had flown over with us from Kulik and decided to head to the Lodge to warm up and have a cup of coffee. It hadn't reached 50 degrees, yet and it was cold! We followed the trails, watching for bears, since Ranger Kevin made it clear that they use the same trails. No bears there, either. We made our way onto an elevated section of walkway leading to the Lodge when we caught sight of a mama merganser with chicks. It wasn't a bear, but it WAS something to photograph!

Nice hair!

With lots of kids!

She definitely had her wings fulll. 15 babies!

And, then we saw something we'd never seen before. It was so strange, in fact, that it was hard to believe our eyes. A seagull hovering over the tall grasses was preying on the baby mergansers. Flying above the floating flock, the seagull was targeting the babies and diving for them. I was stunned. I had no idea seagulls would eat chicks. I thought they only ate french fries. (Sure enough! I Googled it when we returned to civilization, and it's actually not that uncommon. Well . . . my opinion of these birds of prey has certainly taken a nosedive.)

Fortunately, this mama merganser was prepared and she corralled her chicks into the tall grass before disaster struck. The sorry seagull had to look elsewhere for it's breakfast!

Mergansers - 1 / Seagull - 0.

We stopped at the gift shop (naturally) and bought some souvenirs and a stick of raspberry-vanilla scented lip balm. Yep. You got it. They said we couldn't have plain old non-flavored chapstick in our possession, but it was OK to have scented/flavored lip balm? Hmmmm. Were they trying to get rid of us? Or, was it a ploy to sell more lip balm? You gotta watch those Park Rangers!

Next stop was the Lodge at Brooks Camp, where we warmed up by the fire. We enjoyed a hot drink and visited with our new friends until a huge buffet lunch was served. We were first in line, since we'd been there a while, and it was delicious . . . down to the platter of chocolate chip cookies for dessert, of which I may have had more than one. But that's another story.

Following lunch, we headed back out in search of bears. On the same walkway where we had encountered the vile seagull, we spotted our first brown bear, walking through the tall grass.

We had heard that these bears were larger than the grizzlies we have in Wyoming, and they weren't kidding. These guys are HUGE! They looked a little thinner than our bears, but then again, they were waiting for their breakfast, lunch & dinner to swim up the river . . . and they were late! In the meantime, they were grazing on grass. (Not a very substantial alternative to fresh salmon, but they made do.)

Encouraged by one bear, we continued along the trails and elevated walkways, until we were once again at the Falls. And, there, at the base of the Falls was a bear . . . looking for fish! (Literally . . . looking for fish!)

And, either it was practicing for the big event - when the fish made their grand debut, or it was actually fishing! Unfortunately, it wasn't catching . . . yet.

But, it sure gave it everything it had!

Looks like it struck out. We didn't care! There was a bear at the Falls. We all hoped it would be the first of many.

Then another, younger bear showed up. None of these bears are tagged, but they are known by the National Park Service by their appearance and personality. And, a number of them are just as famous as our GTNP bears 399, 610, Blondie & Bruno. Unfortunately, I didn't know any of them, but I did manage to catch a few names that were thrown about by the crowd.

There were bears on the land . . .

. . . and bears in the river.

Bears were coming from every direction. It must have been lunchtime!

Too bad there weren't any fish, yet.

Got Fish?

I'm not sure who this is, but he was following a female around at the base of the Falls. She was trying to catch fish . . . he was looking for love.

She didn't appear to be interested in what he had in mind.

I think this expression put him in his place, and he wandered off, out of the river . . .

. . . and stripped some bark off of a tree . . .

. . . then, scent marked the trees to make sure no other suitors got any ideas about his girl.

Across the Falls, another bear wandered in -

Not certain, but I think this is a 15 year old female named Grazer.

Female harlequin ducks -

Then, the biggest and baddest bear on the block arrived. Cleared for landing, 747 made his first appearance at the Falls that day. He was first identified in 2004 as a subadult male and he has been awarded Fat Bear Champion 2020 and 2022. Until recently, he was large and in charge at the Falls. Don talked to a Park Ranger while we were watching 747, and the Ranger said the bear currently weighed approximately 800 pounds and stands about 9 feet tall when standing on his hind legs.) But, by the fall (if the fish showed up) he would be weighing in at 1,100 to 1,200 pounds. Now THAT'S a bear!!! (For comparison, grizzly bear 399 in the Grand Teton National Park weighs approximately 400 pounds and stands 7 feet tall.)

Then he sat down and waited . . .

. . . and waited . . .

. . . and waited.

All too soon, our time was up on the platform and we needed to head back to the beach to catch our plane. As we were leaving the area, we spotted a bunny. With all of those bears wandering around, I can't help but wonder how does this little guy manages to stay alive? Must be a wreally smart wrabbit.

Leaving Brooks Camp and heading back to Kulik Lodge -

Approaching Kulik Lodge -

A license plate on one of the vans at Kulik Lodge -

Thursday morning, after our 5:30 knock on the door, coffee delivery and breakfast in the Lodge, we were ready for our first big fishing adventure!

Leaving Kulik Lodge for American Creek -

Our pilot, Chris, landed the floatplane on the river and we disembarked and unloaded our gear and coolers, then stepped into our fishing boat. After cruising up the river to one of his favorite fishing spots, Drew rigged up Don's rod.

Fish On!

Nice Arctic Char!

Don's first catch was a beast! 24 -1/2" x 14 -1/2"!

Another beast! Even longer than the first!!! 25" x 14"!

Our new friends at Kulik, Bridget and her husband Doug, cruised by fishing with their guide Conner.

While I watched Don fish, the skies cleared and it became a beautiful day.

The water was crystal clear!

I spotted a mama merganser with some chicks.

That's quite a family!!!

I Googled them to find out about average size families and discovered that female mergansers only lay about 12 eggs at a time. So it's safe to say that not all of the babies are offspring of that mama. In fact, ducks often lay their eggs in the nests of other ducks - sometimes even depositing eggs with different duck species. One theory is that the ducks are trying to increase their babies' odds of survival by spreading them across different nests. In Minnesota, a wildlife manager has seen a mama merganser with up to 70 ducklings following closely by her side.

Don & Drew at "The Rock" on American Creek -

A yellow legs. There are lesser and greater yellow legs. We weren't there long enough for me to figure out the difference or even which one these were!