We had yet another early morning packing everything up, driving down to the Spit and getting breakfast and a lunch to go. We arrived at 8:45, right on time, to Steller Air and checked in for the flight over to Katmai. Our pilot was Stephanie and she was awesome. She looked pretty young but said she’d been flying for fifteen years and bought this plane a couple of years ago. So we guessed she was in her early to mid thirties. There were five of us total in that little floatplane. That in itself was a really cool experience. I wasn’t sure what to expect but I’d do it again in a heartbeat. I was hoping to see some whales but we didn’t. The scenery was incredible. The flight was about 1.5 hrs with half of it over the Cook Inlet and half over the changing terrain of Katmai. My photos are amazing.

Landing on a lake with a floatplane was a piece of cake. Either that or Stephanie made it look really easy. We had to go through a safety class at the ranger station before heading out to view the bears. After listening to a short lecture and watching a video we received our pin and were allowed to start walking towards the viewing platform. However, that didn’t last long. There was a bear in the woods near the path so they closed it until he moved. After waiting 10-15 precious minutes (we only had a couple of hours as it was) we were allowed to continue. Then right before we got to the bridge another bear was spotted moving in our direction so they closed that, too, until he was “out of range” so to speak. There is a 50’ rule when dealing with the bears. You always try to keep a minimum of 50’ away from them. Finally, the bridge was opened and our little group was allowed to proceed across. There were several bears out in the water just swimming around. It was pretty cool. There were salmon all over the place too and they were jumping out of the water like crazy. Bears just kept popping up left and right around us. It truly is their territory and we were just observers, which is how it’s supposed to be.

It was an honor to watch them in their own space just being bears, doing what bears do. They were cruising around, fishing, swimming, eating and just enjoying the beautiful day. As one would come out of the woods and approach close to the platform we’d all scurry to the best vantage point, clicking away with our cameras. At times it sounded like machine guns firing. And my poor little zoom was extremely puny compared with most of the others. Some of those lenses were mac daddies.

All too soon it was time to leave (the bridge was closed again) and fly back. We still had to drive back to Anchorage so even though we thoroughly enjoyed watching the bears in their natural habitat, we were ready. The flight back was just as enjoyable. Stephanie pointed out all the landmarks as we passed them, telling us trivia about each one. As nasty as yesterday was, today was beautiful. We flew below the clouds and the scenery was breath taking.

Our drive back to Anchorage was uneventful and we made good time, turning the car back into Avis at 7:50 – we left at 3:40. We got a taxi to the hotel and walked to a recommended restaurant (Orso) for dinner. It was wonderful! Another late dinner had us preparing for tomorrow well into the night. It was after midnight before the lights went out. I didn’t really feel I had a choice. The train left at 6:45 and we were supposed to be at the station an hour early. That calls for a really early morning … again.