Blue Fish Lodge: North to Alaska

Portage Glacier, near the head of Turnagain Arm

To celebrate our fortieth anniversary (coming this November), we joined a dozen friends, from Lake County, Florida, and from Atlanta, for a two-week adventure safari through Alaska.

We flew into Anchorage, and spent two nights and a day seeing the city. Even at the peak of tourist season, Anchorage was uncrowded. We toured the city on a trolley, seeing Earthquake Park, where the elevation changes from the '64 earthquake were amazing.

Long hours of daylight and a cool climate makes Anchorage ideal for flower displays, which are everywhere.

The Great Alaska Lodge picked us up the next day, for the ride to the Kenai Peninsula. We rode all the way up the Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet, so named by Captain Cook when he had to turn again, in his fruitless quest for the Northwest Passage. After several hours, we arrived at the lodge in Sterling, AK, situated at the confluence of the Kenai River and the Moose River.

Perched eagle, across the Kenai River from our lodge.

After our first night at the lodge, we headed off to Bear Camp. This was about an hour's flight from nearby Soldatna, across the Cook Inlet to Chinitna Bay on the Aleutian Peninsula. All 14 of us crowded into a couple of twin-engine planes with "tundra-tires" to enable landing on a gravelly beach. The flight took us over two spectacular volcanoes, Mounts Redoubt and Iliamna, part of Lake Clark National Park, which is accessible only by plane or boat.

"Zee plane, boss, zee plane!"

Mount Iliamna, from the plane, heading to Bear Camp.

Before landing, the plane buzzed the beach to check it out for landing; we saw bears out on the tidal flats, digging clams. Then, a hard-right-turn around a huge rock formation jutting out into the water, and we quickly landed on the beach.

Our accomodations at Bear Camp; dining tent at the end of our deck,
with five more tents beyond the left side of the picture.

The crew at Bear Camp was delightful, with Caprice, the manager and "Mama Bear" running things amazingly well. The two principal bear-viewing areas were a double-platform just north of the camp, and the beach area west of the camp at the end of the spit. We saw lots of bears at both places, and also explored the adjacent homestead of Wayne Byers, from whose estate the Great Alaska lodge purchased the bear camp property a few years back.

Bear hot-tub.

Fishing.

Bears out clamming. "Hey, mom, where're you going? Wait for us!"

Happy bear, walking the beach.

We returned to the lodge after two days and a night at Bear Camp. Eight of us went salmon-fishing upstream from the lodge on the Kenai, trolling the foot of Skilak Lake, where the Kenai flowed out. It was chilly and foggy when we set out at zero-dark-hundred, but turned into a nice day. We caught ten good salmon, which gave us 23 lbs of fillets when cleaned.

Still early, and quite cold!

Sun trying to burn through the fog, as we start to troll.

George and the first salmon of the day.

Another big 'un!

Cheryl, Ann, Robert, George, and (in front) Mark, our guide.

The next day, we motored to Seward, AK, for a wildlife-viewing cruise through Kenai Fjords National Park, along the southeast side of the Kenai Peninsula.

Growing moose antlers is a sure sign you've been to Alaska!

Sea otters spend their entire lives at sea, feeding on
bottom-dwellers and floating on their backs to eat.

We spotted a couple of pods of Orca's.

These seals were hauled out onto the ice near the Aialik Glacier.

Kayakers at the edge of Aialik Glacier

Sea lions lounging on the rocks.

A float trip on the Kenai was next. We set off from Coopers Landing, and spent several hours floating down to the head of Skilak Lake. Along the way, we saw a large number of eagles, a few bears, and lots of spawning salmon.

Fashion Report: It's what everyone is wearing on the Kenai, this year!

Bear chilling in the river, enjoying the salmon he's caught.

Bald eagle. We also had one swoop down to the water, close to the raft, grab a fish,
and fly back to a perch to eat it. But no pix of that one.

We drove down to Homer the next day. On the way, we saw an old Russian Orthodox Church, and spent some time at the gallery of Norman Lowell,

Russian Orthodox Church, at Ninilcik (on the way to Homer).

Original homestead cabin built by Norman Lowell, Alaska artist in Homer area.

Crown of the Chugach, Normal Lowell, 2007; Norman Lowell Gallery, Anchor Point, AK

Then, it was off to Denali, the last big outing of our trip. We made it about halfway back to Anchorage, and our van broke down (threw the serpentine belt: dead!) Pete, our guide, arranged a replacement van from the lodge, and we continued on our way, a bit behind. We stopped at Alyeska, a ski mountain at the head of Turnagain Arm, then continued on through Anchorage, up to Talkeetna. There, after supper, we boarded planes for a flight-seeing tour of Denali. Spectacular!