Anytime I am photographing bears I am happy! Leading my photo tour to Lake Clark NP is always a good time! I had another great group of clients this year, and the bears gave us many great opportunities! It is really cool when we fly in and there are bears scattered across the tidal flats digging for clams. It gets the group real excited seeing bears immediately and the excitement continues to grow from there.

            We had good opportunities with bears clamming for most days of the trip, and it’s always fun getting to photograph bears on the tidal flats. On day two, while photographing bears clamming, we saw in the distance a mother bear with a small cub. Cubs always get the group very excited, and this was a spring cub, or a first-year cub. They are so small at first and lots of fun to photograph. Getting to spend some time with the cub was great, and then later that evening we saw a mother with 3 spring cubs! Each day we kept seeing more and more bears!

            On the third morning, we woke to the mother and 3 cubs being right out in front of the lodge. What a great way to wake up! They were across a river from us, but after we had been there a while, they decided to swim and come to us! Then the cubs ran around and played and really put on a show for us. In the afternoon it looked like it could be a long day because all the bears we could see were taking a nap. One bear when it woke up, got up and went to a different bear and started to play. They played and played and played for the longest time, and looked to be having so much fun! My group certainly enjoyed getting to spend so much time watching them play, and then one slept on a log in exhaustion. My group almost always gets the chance to photograph a bear sleeping on a log!

            The next couple of days we got to see the mom and 1 cub a number of times, and each time it seemed like the cub was getting more comfortable in its new world. The cub started to show its personality, and it was such a joy to get to watch him run around and entertain us! It liked to run our direction, do a jump and spin, and then run back to mom. It also enjoyed chewing on its paws, which was super cute. Each day of the trip, the photography just got better and better! Spending time in the field around bears is what I look forward to most each year, and Lake Clark never disappoints.