In this pursuit of wildlife, we end up closer to home. Only a few hours flying to Kodiak and then a float plane out to Camp Island on Karluk Lake. We spend 5 days staying at Kodiak Brown Bear Center and Lodge and daily taking treks to the river to photograph Kodiak brown bears fishing and raising their young. A lovely lodge with great people, great cabins and wonderful food! I highly recommend them for unspoiled bear viewing while staying in comfort. You also don’t have the crowds like you do over in Katmai as there are only 8 guests at any one time.
Kodiak is a rugged place! Man is definitely the guest here. You can see some of this from the float plane flyover.
The lodge also has a resident fox Morticia who loves company and will even gently nibble on your finger.
Twice daily from the lodge we would load up on the comfortable, heated catamaran for a short ride across the lake and a short hike to the river between two lakes. Over the course of the 5 days, we saw 11 cubs of various ages along with their mothers. They fish on this section of river often times getting quite close to us, sometimes uncomfortably close. The lodge even brings small camp stools for us to use on the riverbank giving us some nice eye level bear photography as they fish.
