So what did you do on your summer vacation? My adventure actually started out in mid December of last year, with an e-mail from my Father asking if I wanted to join him in Alaska for a week or so in August. It took me a good, solid 6 seconds to send out an "Absolutely" response in a return e-mail.

Dad has been to Alaska several times, and has made a point of going to Kodiak Island in an effort to see the Kodiak Grizzly bears. Especially in the early fall when the salmon are running.

This year, Dad had booked a De Havilland Beaver Float Plane to take us over to the Katmai area with a guide, hopes that the salmon, bears and most importantly the weather would all cooperate.

Joining our little expedition would be Dylan, my Grand Nephew. I flew into Seattle from La Paz, Mexico. He and Dad flew into Seattle where we all met up at the boarding gate for our flight to Anchorage Alaska. We then caught a connection flight on Ravn (yes it is spelled that way) Air to Kodiak. We arrived late afternoon on Monday and were booked to fly out to see the bears on Tuesday morning.

As had happened in several of Dad's other attempts to do this, Mother Nature had other plans for us. The pilot called and there were 5o-60 knot winds blowing where we wanted to go......not my idea of great flight conditions.

Wednesday morning dawned in a beautiful sunny, wind free day!! We were going flying!! The flight service picked us up promptly at 7AM and 45 minutes later we were airborne. This was my first float plane flight, and what a thrill that was....we got to see whales from the air, glaciers, and some of the most incredible scenery ever!

We landed in Geographic Harbor, and before we were even out of the plane we spotted a female and two cubs!!

By the time the day was over we saw 27 bears, some as close as 15-17 feet away, got to fly in a float plane, spend some quality time with my Dad, and get reacquainted with Dylan. It was a great day!

And Dad got to see the bears!!

Below is a few shots that I pulled out form the nearly 900 photos I took that day. I will follow up as soon as possible with some more of my birds and other animal shots that I took while on Kodiak Island, but bear with me, there are a lot for me to sort thru!!

I hope you enjoy these as much as I did taking them and finally getting to visit Alaska!

Great weather, beautiful scenery....and bears!!



These are three year old cubs......just practicing for later!



I took this shot over my Dad's should just so you get some reference as to how closer we got to these huge animals!!



One of my favorite shots...35 feet away, running straight at me and I did not even flinch....all he cared about was that big fat salmon in front of him!!



Speaking of salmon, here are few shots of these beautiful animals chasing them round the creek right in front of us...






Here is a nice shot of the bear.....as well a the Mew's Gull!!



And just so you don't think it was all chasing and no catching.....here are some dinner time shots!










This shot was of the bear that got the closest to me....I was shooting an 80-400MM Nikon Lens, and this was pulled back to 80....He wasn't much more than a couple of car lengths away




Same bear as he stopped right in front of me and looked us over....."hum, larger than a salmon, probably easier to catch, but pretty sure they wont taste as good...I'll stick with the fish"







Geographic Bay has a narrow deep water channel that comes up into the bay, that allow larger expedition boats like the ones used for National Geographic tours and the occasional sailboat to stop by if they are in the area. Just don't leave the boarding ladder down.....





After I took this shot, we got on the plane and I realized that I needed to put down a dollar or something to size perspective! Take my word for it...they are huge!