After spending several days above the Arctic Circle exploring the upper National Parks of Alaska, it was time to explore two of the lower national parks. We flew from Fairbanks to Anchorage. It was a 2 mile walk from our hotel to Lake Hood. This is a large float plane “airport”, with over 1000 float planes based here. It averages just under 200 takeoffs per day.

At the Rusts Flying Service office, Jim found a friend in the office dog….she actually just wanted his crackers…lol

The plane was distributed by weight. Jim was in front, Cindy sat in the middle. We had a military couple in our plane as well, Amanda who sat in the other middle seat and Brian who sat in the back.

The lake has several hundred sea planes tied to the shoreline, with each having a small maintenance shed. The shore looks like a city of tiny houses. In the winter, the lake freezes over and planes with skis can land on the ice.

 The float plane experience was a abit different during takeoff.

It was a deary morning crossing the tidal flats west of Anchorage

Cook Inlet is home to 19 off-shore oil platforms. Each has ice breaking blades around the legs for winter conditions. One of the platforms has a single support that is 300 feet in diameter.

Our route took us through Lake Clark Pass. The pass tops out at 1600 feet.

We had a close-up view of incredible glaciers

The pass’s watershed was impressive, with water coming from every side of the canyon

Lake Clark is fed mostly by glacial runoff, giving it a greenish hue. The brown water is from the spring runoff.

The area was designated a national park in 1980 and currently covers 4 million acres. It has around 20,000 visitors each year.

We made a fuel stop inside Lake Clark National Park at Port Alsworth. It was founded in 1950 by Babe and Mary Alsworth. A small resort and gift shop are still owned and operated by the family. As a bonus, the gift shop acted as a park visitor center and had the national park stamps!!

Jim was excited that they had JuJu Fruit snacks…

We were delayed taking off from, to allow geese to land on the “runway”. 

The diverse topography of Alaska is amazing. The area between Lake Clark and Katmai National Parks was formed through volcanic and glacial conditions. There are two active volcanoes in Lake Clark NP.

The numerous lakes are HUGE and the calm winds made for beautiful pictures.

The lake surrounding Katmai National Park is called Natnek. It covers 150,000 acres and is the largest lake located entirely within a national park boundary.

Our pilot Dave was very knowledgeable and a very skilled pilot. This is his retirement job.

Katmai NP was established in September of 1918. It covers just over 4 million acres and receives 40,000 visitors each year, mostly by float plane.

The big attraction at Katmai is brown bears. The park has the largest concentration in the world, so you have to attend a short Bear Aware school. At the end of bear school, you receive a pin. We said that Yellowstone needs to up their game as we never get a pin there…lol.

Due to the bear activity, we ate lunch inside an electric fence picnic area.

The marks on the cabin are from the bears chewing the wood.

There is an elevated walkway over the Brooks River, which has the most bear activity, due to the salmon migration. The walkway has heavy bear gates.

We had been told the salmon run was late this year, so we might not see bears, but the scenery was beautiful.

We decided to take the Brooks Falls Trail. 

Brooks Falls is famous for it’s pictures of bears catching salmon. In July and August, the salmon come up the river to spawn and have to jump the falls. The bears sit at the falls and catch the salmon as they jump. During Bear School, we were told not to applaud when a bear caught a fish…haha

There is an elevated walkway to the viewing platform. During peak bear watching time, the platform can become very congested.

The falls is approximately 6 feet tall.

There were no bears, but there were lots of fisherman…

We waited at the falls for over an hour with no bear sightings, so started back to our float plane. Jim said that we needed to grab a picture of at lease one bear at Katmai.

We also saw a squirrel on the hike out.

We stopped at the outhouse at the end of the trail and while Jim was inside, Cindy bent down to tie her shoe. As she stood up, she turned around and a bear was walking down the road. She said Jim…Jim…Jim…there is a bear. She quickly moved to the outhouse, when Jim opened the door.

We were about 10-12 feet from the bear, much closer than the suggested 50 yards. Can you imagine what he looks like in August after eating salmon for two months.

We watched through a half-open door as he stood up next to a tree…7.5 to 8 feet tall.

He walked down the road toward the visitor center. We followed at a safe distance until he disappeared into the forest

We walked toward the visitor center and on the elevated walkway we encountered Bear #2. He eventually ambled off.

From the elevated walkway, Bear #3, a second year cub, appeared and swam across the mouth of the river.

He was soon joined by Bear #4, his Mama. Wow what an intense last hour at Katmai NP.

Unfortunately our time at Brooks Camp had come to an end and it was time to get back on the float plane. They are not the easiest plane to get out of or into….lol

On our return flight we re-traced our route, but the scenery was still amazing

We made a short fuel stop at Port Alsworth

We were again delayed on taking off from Port Alsworth, this time due to a moose swimming across the “runway”…lol

We flew over the upper section of Lake Clark. You could definitely see where the muddy runoff entered the lake.

The colors of the upper lake were amazing.

A glacier with striping due to movement. We even spotted a black bear below the glacier.

The flats along Cook Inlet were so green. We saw Beluga whales right along the coast and lots of moose.

Coming back into Anchorage, we flew along the downtown area.

Landing at Lake Hood….What an unforgettable day with Dave and Rusts Flying Service.