The Bears of Katmai

For those who are visiting my journal via the National Geographic Antarctica Expedition site, please continue on to previous posts to share my travels to Antarctica, South Georgia, and the Falkland Islands. I hope, however, you will take a moment to enjoy my photographs from my recent trip to Alaska and the Katmai Peninsula . For friends and family- Yes, I did it again. Venturing off on my own to experience the  wonders of wildlife and the chance to turn my camera lens onto all creatures- great and small. And these were definitely not small creatures!

While we enjoyed many experiences on our trip to Alaska, I knew I would leave disappointed and disheartened had I not seen the bears of Katmai. No one else in my group, however, shared this desire, so off I went. Having done my assigned reading on " How to Behave when Meeting a Bear" as well as having been weighed in for the flight ( more scary to me than facing a bear), I left early one morning, toilet paper and plastic baggie in backpack ( what one takes to Katmai- one brings back from Katmai) intent on spending the day with the brown bears.