Silver Salmon Creek Lodge and Lake Clark National Park–Coastal Brown Bears and Salmon

The trip from Anchorage to Silver Salmon Creek Lodge http://www.silversalmoncreek.com/ started out in the office of the plane company that was to fly us up there. It was raining in Anchorage and the reports from the Salmon Creek Lodge were there was very low visibility, so we were placed on hold. The problem was, if we were not able to leave by 2 o'clock, we would not be able to go at all because of the tides; the planes must land on the beach at the Lodge. Finally, around noon time a pilot that had a DE Havilland Beaver felt that it would be safe to fly and we loaded up the plane with 450 pounds of baggage and the 5 participants. We flew from Anchorage to Silver Salmon Creek Lodge, probably at 500 feet, keeping below the clouds and follow the coastline. As we grew closer to the Lodge area, which is in Lake Clark National Park and Preserve the rain stopped, and we landed without any incident.scenes of the Mountains behind the Lodge We were taken to the Lodge, into which you cannot wear shoes, assigned rooms, unpacked, and went to lunch.  Our guide Rick gave us safety instruction on how to position ourselves so that we would not be in any danger from the bears.

As the tide came in it came right up to the lawn of the lodge. This evening was the highest tide of the year at 22.3 feet. After the tide started receding , we got our camera gear together and went out and started to photograph the bears. Our transportation was an ATV to which carts were attached which we were seated in and carried our gear.and photographed until around 10 PM. Everyone went to bed tired. So ended day one