I'm back from 12 days in Alaska and slowly trying to remember how to live life in the Lower 48, where I can't look out my window and see 7 bears in a meadow. But my gosh, my time in Alaska reminded me how special the state is and how much natural beauty is out there that hasn't been touched by overdevelopment and commercialization. If you haven't been before, I strongly recommend it.

6 Days at Brown Bear Bay Lodge

Let's chat about Brown Bear Bay Lodge and the incredible trip I just took to Alaska.

It's on the shores of Chinitna Bay in Lake Clark National Park, about a 40-minute flight from Homer, Alaska. Because of 19-foot tide changes, we could only access our landing area during low tide.

We were supposed to spend six nights and seven days here, but cruddy weather kept us in Homer for another day. Thankfully, our group made the best of it by searching for bald eagles on a nearby beach. But once we arrived at the lodge, it was immaculate. Immediately after landing, I counted six or more bears in the tidal flats.

It would only grow from there.

From that point on, it was bears, bears, bears! And no one was complaining. 30 bears were counted within eyesight one afternoon, an absolutely MASSIVE showing of how many you can see when you visit. As a nature lover, I was on cloud nine. Being in a remote corner of Alaska, with no crowds and surrounded by bears, kept a smile on my face the entire six days. It was truly an amazing time and opportunity to spend time with others who love animals and planet Earth, and learn more about bears and how we humans can safely coexist with them.

Every day, we spent 4-5 hours, twice a day, with the bears. Most days, we'd wake up by 5am, nap in the afternoon, and not go to sleep until midnight. This let us get incredible photos during golden hour and blue hour, without rushing the bear encounters. A lot of the time we'd set up and wait 20+ minutes for the bears to get comfortable and visit us. The best days were when the curious cubs came within 10 feet of our group. You'll never forget your first close encounter with a cub.

What is Brown Bear Bay Lodge?

It's a luxury wilderness lodge built for wildlife photographers (but not exclusively for photographers... non-camera spouses more than welcome!). You get three delicious, home-cooked meals per day, incredible accommodations (hot showers, bathrooms, Wi-Fi, and comfy beds), and a super hospitable staff. If you're looking for a bucket-list trip to see coastal brown bears in Alaska, you can't go wrong!

How did we get around?

There are no roads, but they do have two ATV's with wagons. We either walked or took the ATVs to get to our bear-viewing areas. If we walked, it was through streams and rivers, over muddy and slippery terrain, or through the grassy meadows.

What sets this place apart from other bear lodges?

The aspect that makes this place so special is that while it's technically in a national park, it's technically-technically on private land that no one else can access. So, this means you get to spend time with bears with no one else around. Another bear lodge is half a mile away inside the park's official boundaries, and they might have 5-20 planes on their shores, all watching the same small area.

Plus, the lodge caps at eight guests, so you will always have a small group for an intimate experience.

Another huge benefit is that you're guided by one of the OG bear guides in Alaska. Justin Gibson has been doing this for 26+ years. His wealth of knowledge, not only in keeping you safe, but also in bear behavior, was fascinating. (He runs his own guiding company as well if you're interested in other unique places like Nepal or Borneo.)

This trip was 10/10, and I couldn't have asked for better weather, people, or bear adventures.

​Read more about my time there.​

National Park Spotlight of the Week

Let's spotlight Lake Clark National Park while we're at it! This was my third time in Lake Clark National Park. Longtime readers will remember my 2024 trip to Lake Clark Resort in Port Alsworth. Jaimie and I also visited this same bay in 2021. It was my first bear-watching experience. Thankfully, all of them since have been far better than my intro.

• Around the size of Hawaii at 4M acres
• The third least-visited National Park. Only 19,778 people visited in 2025.
• Home to two active volcanoes: Mount Redoubt and Mount Iliamna (which we could see from Brown Bear Bay Lodge)
• During a December 1989 Redoubt eruption, ash caused all four engines of a KLM Boeing 747 to fail midair, though the plane landed safely back in Anchorage.
• The land sits on the ancestral homelands of the Dena'ina people, who have depended on it for roughly 10,000 years. The Dena'ina name Qizhjeh Vena translates to "a place where people gather."
• No roads reach the park, so the only way in is by small plane. Most visitors fly from Anchorage or Homer, often by float plane for a single day of fishing, flightseeing, or bear viewing.

New Photos Added to my Photo Site

If you are interested in purchasing any bear prints from my trip to Lake Clark, click here. These are limited. Once 20 of each are sold, I'll be removing them. Get them while they last!

As a photographer, this is one of my income streams, and I love helping decorate a person's home or office!

If you're a business owner and you want to outfit your office with big metal prints, I'm happy to work with you on a bulk deal. Just shoot me an email, and we can chat!

Important Environmental Issues - The Roadless Rule

If you're into hiking, travel, and nature, I'm going to assume you care about our planet. Well, things aren't going great. One troubling thing happening right now is the Trump Administration's attempt to rescind the 'Roadless Rule.'

So, what is it? In 2000, Congress and President Clinton passed a law prohibiting road construction through old-growth forests and pristine natural areas. This limited logging, kept wildlife habitats intact, ensured clean drinking water, and protected trees that absorb carbon and help fight global warming.

Here are easy-to-digest bullet points:

• The 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule bars new road construction and most commercial logging across roughly a third of the National Forest System, covering inventoried roadless areas in 38 states and Puerto Rico.
• Repeal would lift protection from about 45 million acres, an expanse near the size of Washington state, exposing it to roads, timber harvest, and energy leasing.
• Roadless tracts make up only about 2 percent of the land in the lower 48, yet they hold habitat for 57 percent of the region's imperiled terrestrial wildlife, among them elk, grizzlies, and spawning salmon.
• These undisturbed headwaters feed drinking-water supplies for millions of people downstream, and cutting roads through them accelerates erosion and sedimentation that foul streams and drive up treatment costs.
• Proponents pitch repeal as wildfire defense, but roads rank among the most frequent origin points for human-caused ignitions, and most inventoried roadless acreage sits far from the wildland-urban interface where fuel reduction actually shields homes.
• The Forest Service already carries a deferred road-maintenance backlog in the billions of dollars, so every new logging spur becomes an unfunded liability the agency can't keep up with.
• Public sentiment has stayed lopsided for a quarter century. The scoping period alone drew more than 625,000 comments, most of them opposed to opening these forests.
• The rescission sweeps in the Tongass, the largest national forest and the most extensive intact temperate rainforest on the planet, unwinding protections that Alaska Native Tribes, commercial fishermen, and tour operators worked to restore in 2023.
• Intact roadless watersheds underwrite fisheries worth more than the timber standing on them. Salmon runs across Southeast Alaska and Bristol Bay sustain fleets, guides, and lodges whose revenue returns every season rather than ending with a single harvest.
• The decision is not final. A proposed rule and draft environmental impact statement are open for public comment through September 21, 2026, with the final rule anticipated later in the year.

​Learn more about why the roadless rule is important and sign your name in support. ​

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