Our Alaska Trip, Part 7; Silver Salmon Creek Lodge, Bears!

[labmansid]

Silver Salmon Creek Lodge, on the edge of Lake Clark NP in Alaska, is a very special place on the planet. The relationship between humans and bears there has been carefully groomed for many years. The tour operators in the area have a very close relationship with the park rangers, as well. The ranger station is just down the beach from SSCL, and they check in with each other pretty often. The main "rule" that is followed is that human interaction and contact must be as neutral towards the bears as possible. There is no deliberate approaching the bears, the guides try to position the guests so the bears eventually come in their direction on their own. There is, of course, absolutely no feeding of the bears, nor hinting that there might be food available for them. No food is taken out into the field, it all stays at the lodge, and leftovers disposed of properly.
I don't want to give the impression that I had a false sense of security while we were there, at least I hope I didn't have one. But there were only a few instances during our three days at SSCL, where I felt as though the bears even paid us any mind at all, and in only one of those did a bear actually intentionally approach us with what we felt was more than casual curiosity. In that one instance our guide, Eric, did his job and basically called his bluff, yelling briefly and taking a step forward. The bear backed off, and went on his merry way. There was definitely a bit of an adrenaline rush then, but we all survived! I guess there can be safety in numbers.

Here is a shot giving an overview of the front of the lodge property. The boat belongs to them as well. To the right is the main lodge, where meals are served and the office is located. The other buildings are the guest cabins.




That said, it's time to get to the bears. During the summer months, the bears eat mostly grasses, sedges, and other vegetation. A lot of vegetation, approximately 25-30 pounds of it a day. Seems kind of weird, one of the largest and most feared predators in North America eating mostly grass! Well, that's just fine by me, when we are getting as close to them as we were. And one can get quite close to them.


Taken with a 300mm f/4 plus 1.4xTC for 420mm total.








This guy came waltzing through the lodge compound our first evening there. He smelled something on the ground that intrigued him, and had to investigate further.













This is the incident referenced to above, where the bear actually approached us a little too closely for our comfort zone. These were taken as he backed away. Fortunately none of us needed a change of underwear afterwards, at least I can speak for myself.









As always, thanks for looking!!

[gll]

Nice images! when we were there they were fishing for salmon and one caught a fish the real trouble began, trying to keep it! the younger bear with a fish was running at us while looking back at a bigger bear and did not see us, the guide stepped in and hollers "Hey watch where your going" the look on that bears face reminded me of a dog afraid you were going to kick it, we guessed it was 10 to 12 ft when it turned.

[preames]

Beautiful bear shots Sid! Must have been an amazing experience to get that close.

[sheribeari]

great shots!!

[lhdvies]

What a beautiful place-great shots !!

[dmcantrell]

Good lord that's close to an animal that could easily be higher on the food chain than you.

Nice images though.

[Orogeny]

You are killing me Sid!!! I have to make that trip, but I better not show this to my wife or there is no way she will let me!

[houtex01]

Wow Sid...I'm just going to sit here and drink my morning cup of coffee and daydream of being at SSCL...

Ron

[DigitalScape]

Great series, Sid. Amazing images and looks like a great trip.

[Simplycandid]

Wow! Great shots Sid!

[wapiti]

Sid,
Is Drew and his wife still guiding at SSCL?

[labmansid]

Bill, I don't believe any of the guides there were named Drew. Our guide was Eric, and there was Doug and Bryan also, but no husband/wife that I recall.

[MichaelW]

Great shots Sid. PS, having a great time with the 300mm.

[parrotmomma]

Amazing photos! But, I just can not imagine being that close to bears! We were in Yellowstone just a week or two after a man was killed on a well traveled path by a grizzly, and it was all the talk at the park. I was a little bit uneasy sleeping in a pop-up camper. We saw grizzlies on 2 occasions, but nowhere near as close as that.

[Tim T]

Another amazing series Sid. Thanks again for sharing. That had to be quite and experience.