by Carl Johnson, Owner, Alaska Photo Treks
If you have been planning a trip to see brown bears in Alaska, you have probably heard of Chinitna Bay. Nestled within Lake Clark National Park & Preserve along the Cook Inlet coast, it is a dramatic landscape that also provides high concentrations of brown bears fishing on several salmon-bearing streams.
We paid a visit to Brown Bear Bay Lodge to explore it for setting up trips for brown bear photography opportunities. Other lodges in the Chinitna Bay area are all on public lands of Lake Clark National Park & Preserve. If you take a day trip out on a boat or a small plane, that is where you are going. When flying over those shores of Chinitna Bay, you can often see three or four planes on the ground. So many people visit one of the lodges that they take guests out in a school bus. But at Brown Bear Bay Lodge, the viewing areas are entirely on a private land inholding within the park. No other groups are allowed to go anywhere above mean high water.
Our journey started in Homer, Alaska, basecamp to many Alaskan adventures, including flights out to the Cook Inlet coast of both Lake Clark and Katmai National Park & Preserve for brown bear viewing. We flew with Northwind Aviation on a de Havilland Canada DHC-2T Turbo Beaver. Unlike the regular radial engine Beaver, this plane can carry more passengers and weight, as well as utilize a shorter distance for take-offs and landings. The flight out from Homer to Chinitna Bay was stunning.
We were greeted on a gravel spit in between two river mouths by our guides Justin and Andy (also lead naturalist). We and our gear were transported by ATV to our comfortable and spacious rooms at the Suites building. The Suites consist of a bottom floor with lounge and brown bear viewing blinds and two upper floors of guest suites. Each level of guest rooms is surrounded by a balcony. The view from inside the room is the stuff of Alaskan dreams …
Over our five-night stay, I photographed several animals and stunning landscapes just from the balcony view.
It is hard to beat the quality, diversity, and abundance of wildlife viewing opportunities at Brown Bear Bay Lodge. I have stayed at remote wilderness lodges in Katmai and Lake Clark like Katmai Wilderness Lodge and Silver Salmon Creek Lodge. I have spent time in Denali and Gates of the Arctic, where wildlife and landscape opportunities abound. But there is something special about Brown Bear Bay Lodge. Part of its quality is the exclusiveness of the experience. While we did encounter the occasional day trip group while out bear viewing, those groups had to stay below the mean high water mark. Since we were on private land, they were restricted to that area because it is state land. One location we went to for bear viewing was completely inaccessible to them, as well as another location near a wolf den. Each meal was fantastic, served in the Chalet building, an older, traditional Alaskan lodge structure that served as a common room for all of the guests.
We saw bears fishing for coho salmon every single day, with the numbers ranging from 12-18 bears visible at a time. The BBBL practice is to take guests out to a location where bears are active, then to sit on 5-gallon buckets and wait. This presents a profile that is less threatening to the bears and allows them to be comfortable coming close to you. Each time a bear was near us, one of the guides, Andy, would take a measurement and record the distance to the bear. They are collecting data to hopefully develop uniform standards for bear guiding and viewing. From what I could tell, their system works. On several occasions, we had bears come rather close to us – even as close as about 12 feet.
We encountered several migratory bird groups passing through the area, from whimbrels and black turnstones to least sandpipers. One afternoon, a pair of Peregrine falcons were circling and chatting overhead.
The bonus wildlife surprise was the wolves. The staff has determined that there is a wolf den near the property that is accessible by a social (game) trail only a short distance away. Every day we saw and heard wolves. We saw several adults as well as this year’s pups, from trotting in the distance to go fishing to playing on the grounds right in front of the Chalet. Listening to a large chorus of wolves howl together in the distance one morning was absolutely breathtaking; it made me want to purchase high-end digital recording equipment. All-in-all, we had a total of 28 wolf sightings during our visit (some were repeat counts).
We cannot say enough about the quality of service, the uniqueness of the property and the experience, and just how special this place is. That is why we will be developing trips to go out to BBBL. We will start with an August 2027 trip, then expand to an earlier summer trip for fluffy bears (still in winter coats) and wildflowers, then hopefully a September trip for autumn colors, northern lights, and maybe wolves. Make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to get the alerts and keep an eye out on our Experience Alaska page for listings.
