Saturday, July 2, 2011

Brown Bears- Day One. North to Alaska

Day One- North to Alaska
Today was just a travel day. No travel challenges really which was nice. The flight from Vancouver to Anchorage was almost full and I think I was one of the few people on the flight that didn't have blue or grey hair:) Seriously, I think most of the people on the flight were going to Anchorage to get on a cruise ship. Young people go on cruises in the Caribbean, while the older generations choose Alaska cruises I suppose. 


The Anchorage airport is nothing like I expected. It is beautiful. I pictured the typical small old airport. I surprised and completely wrong. I met another photographer in Anchorage and we went out to lunch then hit the markets. Fourth Avenue is a string of souvenir shops and behind it is a farmers market type set up with 50 or 60 tents of souvenirs. I am not a shopper, but had fun checking out the exhibits for a couple hours anyway.


Tomorrow we take a small plane from Anchorage to Kenai. That will take about 30 minutes, then  we will drive to Soldotna and take another small plane across the ocean north to Lake Clark National Park. With any luck we will be able to start photographing brown bears by noon or so if all goes well. My fellow nature photographer doesn't know about my small "stomach problems" on little planes in Tanzania. Oh well, what he doesn't know shouldn't hurt him and now I know where the leak proof bags are so I should be okay. :)


Photographing black bears in Minnesota and Canada has been fun. In 2010 and 2011, I photographed polar bear moms and cubs and really learned a lot, but up until now, the only grizzly bears that I have photographed have been in Canada, so I am excited to see what the bigger Alaskan Brown Bears look like. 


I can't wait to get pictures of brown bears tomorrow. I heard that there are three moms with brown bear cubs in the area we are going to be in, so hopefully we will find them.


Till tomorrow...

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