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And get ready to embark on a new adventure with us around the globe.

Hello fellow travelers.

Hey, squaddies.

Welcome to this week’s episode of the Travel Squad podcast.

Today we are taking you to Lake Clark National Park in Alaska.

0:52

And previously, we’ve mentioned in past episodes that we have a bucket list school of visiting all 63 national parks in the United States and Lake Clark National Park mark number 56 for us.

Really excited to be talking about Lake Clark National Park in Alaska because it is a park that you can only get to by boat or plane.

1:12

And so logistically, there’s a lot more going on to get here and plan this trip.

And we’re going to talk about all of the different ways that you can get there.

And so this episode can pretty much be used as a guide.

And Lake Clark, what draws us to it is the coastal brown bear viewing.

1:29

It’s one of the places in Alaska like you’re pretty much guaranteed to see coastal brown bears during summer.

Yeah, and the brown bear viewing was an absolute highlight for us, something that we really, really wanted to do.

They are abundant here.

But before we get into tips giving you all the options of ways to get to Lake Clark and what to do, and then of course, recapping what we did, I want to tell you guys a little bit about Lake Clark, a little bit more information than Brittany already shared.

1:58

So Lake Clark National Park and Preserve is one of Alaska’s most remote and least visited national parks, but it’s home to one of the state’s most unforgettable wildlife experiences, which is what you said, Brittany, watching the brown bears in their natural habitat.

2:14

So visitors come from around the world to see these massive brown bears roaming the beaches, digging for clams, grazing on the zedge grass meadows, catching salmon in the rivers, all with the dramatic backdrop of snow capped mountains and glaciers.

2:30

And beyond the bear viewing, Lake Clark offers pristine lakes.

Of course, Lake Clark, it’s in the name.

There’s tons of them.

But Lake Clark is one of the largest ones in there.

Active volcanoes and endless wilderness that could only be reached by Bush plane or boat.

So in this episode, we’re sharing everything that you need to know to plan your visit to Lake Clark and why this hidden gem deserves a spot on your Alaska itinerary and must do’s.

2:55

Yeah, I’m so excited to get into this episode because it truly was a bucket list experience.

And as I’m going to say in in the episode, there was a point in time while we were there that I was like, wow, this is such a core memory and I’m going to always remember it.

3:11

It was just so surreal.

And I hope if you guys go, you have the same experience.

But first, before we get into the episode, we’re going to go into some tips.

And our first tip is to fly into Anchorage.

Lake Clark is about 100 miles from Anchorage and so making Anchorage a great home base to get into the park.

3:30

Yeah.

And the best time to visit is mid June to early September.

But if you plan to stay at any of the accommodations in the park, be sure to check their exact schedule and availability because there are some lodges, cabins that you can rent from the National Park Service as well.

3:47

So do look into that.

Also, you may want to leave yourself a buffer day or two because weather can be unpredictable in Alaska.

We’ll get into it more, but just a quick synopsis is when we actually arrived in Anchorage to do our tour, when we got to the office of the company we were going with, it was raining in Anchorage and weather wasn’t great in the flight path.

4:10

Too late.

Clark was kind of cloudy and foggy and they weren’t sure that we were going to make it.

They could see in Lake Clark that the weather there was nice, but it was getting too, because you’re taking little Bush planes or Cessnas.

And we actually did have to delay by an hour.

4:25

And we were actually afraid that it was going to get cancelled.

And someone who was on her tour was actually scheduled for a different day and had been cancelled and she was rebooked for that.

So just you may want to leave a buffer day or two if you have the opportunity.

I think that’s a good general tip for anything in Alaska or national parks where you have to fly Bush plane.

4:44

Because when we arrived in Alaska, and again, if you listen to our previous episode, this is National Park #2 on this trip, when we went to Rangel St.

Elias beforehand and at the airport, other people were supposed to go to Katmai National Park.

The weather wasn’t good for them to fly in there, and so they told us they had to pivot to Lake Clark.

5:02

So that’s just one thing to keep in mind about Alaska in general.

That weather buffer for whatever plans you have can come in handy because things can be cancelled because of just the unpredictability of Alaskan weather even during the summer.

Next tip is to wear bug spray.

5:20

You wouldn’t really think it like up in the colder areas of Alaska.

Of course Alaska during summer can be warm, but weather is still temperate.

Definitely lots of bugs out there.

You don’t want to get bit, so wear bug spray.

Another tip for you guys is to pack a waterproof rain jacket in layers.

5:36

It can be cold and windy on the ground, and also while you’re flying in the little Bush plains, it gets cold flying up in the air.

So just having layers is super nice and helpful.

And it can rain any day in Alaska.

Next tip is to book tours in advance so you don’t want to arrive during peak season.

5:55

Try to go in last minute.

You may not be able to be sat on anything.

So book tours, accommodations, anything well in advance for this trip?

Well, we were in the office of the company we went with to do the bear viewing.

I actually heard her get a call, the receptionist get a call, and someone was asking to book for I don’t know which tour exactly.

6:17

It could have been to Cat My ’cause they do fly to Cat My or to Lake Clark.

But she asked them what date and she was like, oh I’m sorry, we’re fully booked up so don’t wait until the last minute to book.

And the last tip that we have for you of Alaska and Lake Clark in general is bring binoculars.

6:32

You are going wildlife viewing.

You want to see the bears.

Now, they are known to be close to you potentially in this area.

And of course, we’ll discuss more as we get into this episode, talk about our experience.

We were lucky they were very close to us, but that is not always the case.

6:48

Sometimes you can see them, but they’re off in the distance.

And if it’s not the bears, other wildlife that’s in the park.

So do bring binoculars with you.

Before we get further into the episode Squaddies, I was just going to remind you that if you’re thinking about taking a trip to Alaska, one of the best ways to save money is by finding a great flight deal before you book.

7:07

Alaska is an expensive destination, so any tips or tricks to make your trip a little bit more affordable is super helpful.

We use Thrifty Traveler Premium to help find discounted flights, mistake fares, and limited time deals sent straight to our inbox.

7:23

And so if you’re planning an Alaskan adventure or even just your next big trip trip, go to thriftytraveler.com/premium and you can use our promo code TSP to get $20 off your first year subscription.

Now, if you listen to last week’s episode and what I already alluded to just a little bit ago, we did go to Rangel St.

7:43

Elias National Park as well on this trip first.

So if you happen to miss last week’s episode, go back and listen to it.

Great episode talking about our time in that park as well.

But just to give a brief little recap of that, we did fly into Anchorage, then we drove to Ringle St.

7:59

Elias, spent a couple nights in the park, and then drove back to Anchorage to have our next day experience here in Lake Clark National Park.

And if you haven’t been able to tell already, squaddies.

And again, if you didn’t listen to last week’s episode, Kim was not on that as well.

8:15

She does unfortunately have a scheduling conflict and is not able to record with us, nor is she on this episode.

Kind of sad because she’s planning an Alaska trip coming for next year.

I know it is just a cruise, she’s been a couple times before because she has family, but we all love Alaska in general.

8:31

It would have been fun to have her on this one, but unfortunately just not available at this time.

Well, it’s because we completely booked out our summer with summer travel.

Like you’re like, oh, she’s not available, but like we are.

We’re all so busy this summer that to make this episode to happen at this time, we just had to split up at this point.

8:48

Absolutely.

So again, drove back from Rangel St.

Elias.

After arriving in Anchorage, we went out to dinner again, talked about this in the last episode.

We want to mention it because this is a great spot to go, a local favorite and it’s not just to a place with a local favorite and then it’s not really good.

9:06

Tourists alike really rave about this place and we had other squaddies who have been to Anchorage eaten here and this came highly recommended.

Go to Moose’s Tooth Pizza, it’s open until 12:00 AM.

They have a really good selection of specialty pizzas, other type pub food, really good beer selection as well.

9:24

So a great place to go in Anchorage and that we did our night before Lake Clark National Park.

Yeah, I ended up getting a Raspberry wheat beer and Jamal got a root beer, which they make on site was super good.

And then we ordered chicken wings, the Korean style with sweet and spicy sauce.

9:41

And then you can get any pizza, half and half, any size, any 2 flavors.

So we ended up getting a half Classic which was like pepperoni, sausage, mushroom, marsharella, provolone and marinara and the Garlic Lovers which was like a garlic sauce pizza with chicken, garlic, bacon, broccoli, Roma tomatoes, mozzarella, provolone and parmesan and that combination was delicious.

10:03

Yeah, really good.

So do check out Moose’s Tooth Pizza during your time in Anchorage.

And then for overnight, we stayed at the Springhill Suites, which is part of the Marriott collection.

We originally booked this and it was free for us using 2 of Brittany’s sign up bonus nights that she got for the Marriott Bonvoy card.

10:25

Now originally the promo was five nights once you hit the minimum spend up to 50,000 points per night.

So we used two of those nights here at this location, which saved us collectively about 500, six, $100.

And again, in Alaska that goes a long way ’cause it can be expensive.

10:41

So if you can travel hack or do anything or use any of those sign up perks and points, you definitely should on an expensive place like Alaska.

We did have to pay a little bit of points out of pocket ’cause it’ll give you up to 50,000 per night and I think they were about 50, 3000 per night.

So I did pay 6000 points out of pocket.

10:59

But which is not bad because we saved so much money, especially during peak season on hotels.

We stayed here another night the first night that we got to Alaska before we went to Ringle St.

Elias.

So collectively, we saved almost about $1000 in hotel stays.

11:16

So if you’re interested in getting this particular card, the Marriott Bonvoy card, send me Adm and I’d love to send you a referral link.

Yeah, and I’m really excited, like I mentioned earlier, to talk about what we did in Lake Clark National Park.

But Brittany, you are the planner of our trips, whether they be full squad trips, you and me.

11:34

Obviously you ask me questions and I give some input and we are going to talk about what we did.

But since you did the research, you know of all of the options of what Lake Clark has to offer if you don’t want to just do the solo day trip in and view in like we did if you want to stay within the park.

11:50

So why don’t you talk a little bit about that so our squaddies know what options they actually have if they want to do something different?

OK.

So Leigh Clark, I mentioned this earlier, is not accessible by Rd.

The only way to access it is by flying small Bush plane or by boat across the Cook Inlet.

12:08

So most people are going to access the park from hubs like Anchorage, which is what we did Kenai or Homer and flight from these areas to Lake Clark take approximately about an hour.

Brown bear viewing is a premier attraction in Lake Clark National Park.

12:23

It’s what it’s known for.

But there are other ways to see the park like Jamal mentioned.

One way is if you are just super short on time is to do a flight scene tour.

This means you might never touchdown but you just do a flight scene tour above the landscape.

I saw one that was like a 2 1/2 hour flight that went out of Homer and it covered both Lake Clark and Catmi national parks.

12:45

But you’ll see volcanoes, glaciers and mountains from the air.

I’m just going to go out and say it, no disrespect to anybody.

If they’re just going to do the flyovers.

And I understand certain people have certain capabilities, comfort factors too, maybe not wanting to be on the ground potentially next to the bears or other types of animals, but I don’t know.

13:04

I don’t count just flying over it and not touching the ground as being in the park.

What if you’re?

That’s like.

Saying I’m flying from California to New York and I can’t count all the states I flew over it just ’cause I saw below.

I don’t think so.

You know, no disrespect to anybody.

If that’s all you can do and if that’s all you can do to see it, then great.

13:22

But if you are able bodied, I say don’t take this route.

I don’t think so.

Yeah, I feel like if you’re already investing like 1/2 day, you might as well just do a full day.

So another way to go to the park is to do a day trip to the park.

Most of these day trips last 6 to 10 hours, depending on where you’re going, where you’re coming from, what company you book with.

13:40

And if you’re going, you’re most likely going to be doing like peak bear viewing season, which occurs from like July to September.

So there are different areas because the park is quite large to fly into.

You can fly into Port Aylesworth and this destination is great for hiking and kayaking.

13:57

There is a waterfall trail that you can hike to or you can rent a kayak and title on Lake Clark.

There’s also Lake Clark National Parks and visitor Center here.

And so this was actually like a high contender for us to fly into.

Like I really wanted the bears.

14:12

And so this would have added an extra day.

And I was like, can I really justify flying 2 separate days into the National Park?

And Jamal was like, no.

So we focused on the bear viewing, which is what I’ll talk about next.

Another option is to do a day trip into the park for bear viewing.

14:32

We flew into Chinetna Bay or you can fly into Silver Salmon Creek.

These two areas are really great for bear viewing.

You will touchdown in both of these coastal spots as they are prime territory for watching the Grizzlies forage, dig clams and catch salmon.

You said Chinetna Bay or Silver Salmon Creek?

14:50

Our tour did both.

Depending on what tour and what company you do it could be an AND OR situation.

That’s true.

I would recommend doing the and put them together, increase your chances seeing the bears or seeing more bears, right?

Because depending on when you go and begin, when we talk about our experience, we’ll get more into it.

15:09

Obviously, the tides play a major part because these forests and mountains and meadows with sage grass are all along the Bay and ocean area.

So depending on tides is also when you’ll see the bears out on the salt and mudflats like digging for clams, right?

15:24

So you want to try to time them for both.

So I would say do both.

Crescent Lake is also another option.

This sounds really cool as well.

What you do is you fly in and then you actually get on a pontoon and you watch the bears along the shoreline from the pontoon.

15:41

So what a cool unique experience as well.

Another option that’s popular is to go into the Twin Lake area.

There is a cabin that’s known in this area and there’s Redoubt Bay as well.

So those are also places to potentially visit depending on what you’re looking to get out of the lake.

15:58

Clark.

Experience, right.

And again, just to recap all of those that you just mentioned, Brittany wore one day trips within the park and tours with multiple tourist companies and flight scene vendors.

Right.

One day, 6 to 10 hours You fly in, you do what you want to do on the ground, you fly back out to your hub base.

16:17

Another option for you guys is to stay multi days in the park.

You can go backpacking.

This will save you a ton of money on lodging.

Your main cost will be getting to and from the park, but you don’t have any permits or fees for like camping or backpacking within the parks.

16:33

Yeah.

So again, this is a completely backpacking yourself.

So you are on your own and needing to bring in your own supplies if you are going to do something like this.

And like you said just main cost is the flights in, but you can do a multi day thing on your own if you’d like.

If you don’t want to be as rugged or remote, the National Park Service does have some public use cabins that you can reserve with the National Park Service and they’re pretty affordable.

16:57

So if you want an actual shelter to stay in versus a tent, you can rent these per night.

And you would get that on recreation.gov?

Yes, is where you would order those.

That could be a really cool option.

I feel like Lake Clark is a park that I do want to go back to.

17:12

And I think that would be really, really fun to do because if we want to go hiking ourselves, we can do it.

I don’t know if I really want to sleep in a tent and bear country, let alone with so many bears.

I don’t mind a tent and bear country, but like, they are in high concentration amounts over here, right?

I think a nice little cabin and wooden shelter would be good for us and we can go do whatever we want during the day and then come back and be indoors.

17:35

But keep in mind that these are just like shelters.

They’re not going to have like a lot of amenities or anything.

Oh yeah, I think lots of them have shared outhouses in that area, right?

So I mean it is very rustic, but again, still indoors.

Right, you have a shelter.

Another option is to do like a guided backpacking, hiking or kayaking trip.

17:52

There’s a lot of options that are around 4 to 7 days and usually they include meals, gear, and professional guides because it’s a guided trip.

Yeah, so if you don’t feel comfortable doing the backpacking on your own, at least you have a wilderness guide, an expert with you, which I do think would be fun, but these tours are very, very expensive.

18:11

And then another option for you guys are to stay in some lodges within the National Park.

The lodges are usually luxury accommodations that cover all meals, private flights.

Some of them cover daily guided excursions like boat tours and bear seeing.

18:27

And if you stay at the Lake Clark Resort, I think there’s also an option to go and see the bears in Katmai.

I looked at a stay that included Lake Clark and Katmai and it was a seven day trip, but it was over 10,000 a person and so we did not book that.

Like we said, Alaska is expensive.

18:44

I mean, that is Africa’s safari prices.

Now, I get that you’re getting wildlife like you would have in Africa, but that is just outrageous.

Now, if you have the money to burn and that’s something you want to do, by all means, because I think that sounds absolutely amazing.

But for US, one, out of budget for what we want to do and two, just way too pricey.

19:03

And before we get into what we actually did, I want to tell you Squatty’s I put together a Lake Clark guide, a little different than our normal itinerary because we don’t give you a set number of days.

But I breakdown all of the options you have from the flight scene tours to the multi day trips or the day trips.

19:20

And I have everything hyperlinked.

So if you download at the itinerary, if you click on link, it’ll send you to a website with the correct information or a tour guide company that we recommend that you book with.

So it’s a very comprehensive guide.

I did hours and hours of research and so putting this into a guide for you guys is going to be super helpful if you are planning a late clerk trip.

19:44

Yeah, Brittany put it all together.

I edited it by that, just checking spelling, making sure all the links work.

So all the hours of research that you did.

Brittany, I really like when you asked me what I thought about it since it was different than our normal ones.

I was truly impressed because instead of you doing all your research, finding this Tour Company, what tours do they do?

20:03

You literally put all the links there and all the links to information from the National Park about their backpack and the links to the cabins on site for using recreation.gov to get those little huts and all that stuff all right there in one location.

So you can plan the perfect Lake Clark itinerary for yourself without having to go to 100 different websites.

20:24

So you can find that guy or any of our itineraries on shoptravelsquad.com.

All right, so let’s talk about the exciting trip that we had and exactly what we did.

So this was day five of our trip to Alaska again, having done Wrangle St.

20:43

Elias before.

So we went on a Monday.

We woke up and the first thing we did was go back to Snow City Cafe, which is a very famous breakfast and brunch spot in Anchorage.

It’s known to be their best breakfast spot.

20:59

We had eaten there before before we went to Rangel St.

Elias.

We loved it so much that we came back here because we knew to ourselves we need a Full breakfast in our stomachs because we won’t be eating later to the day when we have lunch on our tour.

Yeah, so it was going to be a long day.

21:14

We knew that.

So we wanted to get something hearty in our system beforehand.

But we ended up going back here.

Like Jamal said, we had eaten there before.

I ended up getting the Ship Creek again, which was poached eggs made with Alaskan salmon cakes, grilled English muffins, hollandaise sauce, red onions.

21:29

We had this the last time we were there and we loved it so much we ordered it again.

Yeah, and we also got an omelet.

It was a mushroom omelet with caramelized onions, goat cheese, roasted garlic, fresh spinach.

Absolutely delicious and we chose to add bacon in it as well.

21:45

Again, everything at Snow City Cafe delicious.

If you’re in Anchorage, check it out.

Great breakfast spot.

And then we booked our flight scene tour with Regal Air.

Our flight was booked for 10 AM.

And in the e-mail, they said get there an hour early.

So we checked in at 9:00.

22:02

It was raining in Anchorage.

We were a little iffy about the weather, but she said, you know, we anticipated clearing later today, so just sit tight.

We’ll check in with you guys like every 30 minutes or so and we’ll go from there.

Yeah, they did keep delaying it a little bit because of course they were checking the weather.

22:19

They actually have camps to see the visuals of the weather in the flight path towards Lake Clark National Park.

So they kept pushing it a little bit.

But in the meantime, you do need to watch a required video that the National Park makes you watch in terms of bear safety.

22:34

So we did that, but it was a little bit of sitting around.

And as you had mentioned, Brittany, with one of the options that there is to do for the day tours, it is one of them is Chinna Bay and Silver Salmon Creek areas, which is what we did.

And with Regal Air, it was about $1100 per person to go ahead and do this tour.

22:56

At the time we booked, I don’t know if they’ll change their prices at all.

So just base of what we did for this year.

Yeah, love that little disclaimer breaking, right.

Prices always change.

So whenever you listen to this, of course, don’t hold this to it, but we’re telling you about our experience here.

But I will say pricey yes experience once completed, well worth it.

23:16

Yes, definitely.

Another thing that we had to do before we got on the plane and while we were waiting things out was to get boots.

And if you don’t have rubber boots, one person in our group did but Jamal and I did not.

We didn’t bring any and nor do we have any.

23:33

They will let you borrow some boots for free.

It’s included in the price.

They have like a little boot bar and you tell them their size.

You put the boots on and this is because you are going through some mud flats and on the beach and so it helps protect your other shoes.

Yeah, absolutely.

If you think you have hiking shoes and you’re good, potentially you can be.

23:50

But this is for when you’re in those Beachy and muddy areas so that you don’t sink and have them get wet.

One thing too that we did not mention in the tips, but I guess it’s great to actually mention here is of course on these small little Bush planes, there are no bathrooms, right?

24:06

So before you go, make sure you have used the bathroom because otherwise you’re at an hour before you have the opportunity to do that.

Now we’re all adults here, things sometimes happen.

Luckily no one had any emergencies.

But what was really cool is during our wait time, what I really liked about Regal Air is they had coffee available for you.

24:26

I’m a coffee fiend.

I would have drank a lot if I knew there was a bathroom, but there wasn’t.

So take part in your coffee and the complimentary things that they give you while you’re waiting.

But also keep in mind there is no bathroom on the plane and you will have to wait until you land an hour away.

And then that’s if you can get there an hour because we kind of went on a roundabout way.

24:46

So it took a little, I think it took us about an hour and a half to get there because of the weather.

It did.

So eventually we finally took off.

Our pilot was basically saying, look, it’s supposed to clear.

It could look like the way it looks in the cameras right now and it could just be missed and we can see through it when we’re actually there.

25:04

So I rather instead of just sitting and waiting, going and checking it out and seeing what we can do.

So yes, the weather was rainy and Anchorage, but it was actually clear because the cloud cover was actually pretty high.

We’re flying in a little Cessna plane, which are those smaller planes.

25:20

They could only go up so high in altitude, right?

And they told us here it should be fine.

It’s midway along the way, we’re expecting to encounter the clouds.

We did.

We got to a point where we’re flying at like 12113 hundred feet because I can see the altitude or the altimeter if I believe that’s the official term for it from the cockpit.

25:42

But at some point he’s like, no, this is just too much.

We can’t see through it.

He circled around and turned around.

He didn’t call it and saying, hey, we’re going to have to go back.

And he did give us the disclaimer depending on we may have to.

But when he turned around, I didn’t say it.

I was like, all right, he’s going to try to find another route.

25:58

He couldn’t really see one after circling for a little bit.

So instead of flying at a higher altitude, he lowered the altitude because the cloud layer and fog was a little bit higher.

So for a good portion, we flew at like 3, 100 feet of altitude right along the shore and the water, which is actually pretty cool to do on a small plane.

26:16

But our pilot here with Regal Air was safe and definitely wanted to make sure we got to experience it, which I really appreciate it.

So that added a little bit of time for us to get to where we needed to go just ’cause he had to do a little circling and maneuvering around to make sure that we had a safe path through.

26:32

Like Jamal said, these are small plane, 6 people.

I was sitting in the very, very back.

Jamal was sitting in the middle along with someone else, and then there was our pilot and another person in the front.

So there was our pilot plus the four of us on this tour.

There’s a maximum number of five people that can go at one time.

26:49

Our flight itself is pretty smooth.

It was really, really beautiful.

They don’t advertise this as a flight same tour because you are going on the ground, but you really do see so much from the air.

It was so beautiful.

You can see the ocean, the beaches, the valleys, glaciers, rivers, forests, mountains.

27:08

We even saw a few bears from the plane, which was absolutely incredible.

And Jamal’s pretty sure that he saw a beluga whale.

I’m positive of the fact that I saw one, which I know I’m pretty positive I saw one.

It was not flying to, it was when we were flying back.

27:26

Now in this area of Cook Inlet during this time of year, it is known for belugas to go up into these channels.

And so we’re flying so close to the coast.

And of course, you’re in a smaller plane, so you could really only travel at so high of an altitude.

And what I saw was definitely a whale or a dolphin.

27:44

I don’t want to say it was a dolphin unless it was an albino 1.

And it definitely wasn’t a humpback whale because I’ve seen humpback whales in Alaska.

I know what they look like.

This was actually white and it made made a dive and I wanted to point it out to Brittany, but we weren’t sitting by each other because of course they divvy you up on these smaller planes based off of weight.

28:02

So I couldn’t really point it out to her for her to see it.

But I am positive I saw a beluga whale from the air.

But like you said, Brittany, just such a beautiful flight.

Like even when we started, yes, rainy and Anchorage overcast Gray even though we are not in the clouds.

Then we flew under the clouds and it’s kind of like that Gray, not so good weather, but like we said earlier, it was Honey and Lake Clark.

28:24

And once we got out of that little weather storm that they had and you can actually see the sun, so to speak.

Wow, just the way the sun shines on these mountains, the greenery, the ocean, the volcanoes, the glaciers that you see as you’re flying through.

28:40

It’s so beautiful.

Like breathtakingly beautiful.

It really, really is.

Jamal and I were both sitting on the right side of the plane and so I think that was the better side of the plane to sit on personally.

Flying to Lake Clark.

Flying to Lake Clark from Anchorage, I don’t know if you’re flying from Homer or Kenai or something like that, but from Anchorage I thought the right side of the plane was the better side to sit on because you’re like flying on the shoreline so you can see all the glaciers and mountains and rivers on the right side.

29:11

If you’re looking out of the left, you’re mostly just seeing ocean and potentially some beach.

So when I did see the bears originally, it was looking out of the left side of the plane.

There was no one sitting next to me in the back.

So I did get to look out of both sides, but overall the right side is.

29:27

Better.

Well, that and also when you were finally looking out of the left side to see the bears, we were landing and flying over the beach in that area.

So it’s not like you’re going to see bears out on a beach on an island off in the distance.

That’s true.

Do keep that in mind.

So our first landing was in Chinetina Bay.

29:45

We landed directly on the beach.

There is no runway.

The runway is the beach.

And we got out of the plane and then he was like, we didn’t see any bears on the beach at this point so well.

We didn’t see bears on this beach when we landed, but they were flight path over, not the one that you were talking about a little bit earlier where you saw him because that was like approach.

30:06

But we did a final turn around.

We saw those two that were galloping off in the distance at a beach, but where we actually landed the plane on the beach a little bit further down.

And so we didn’t see him at this point on the beach.

That’s true, yes.

So our pilot, his name was Ben, he walked us through some little like a little grass path into this forested area and within 5 minutes of walking we had our first bear sighting and it was actually a Mama with her three Cubs and they were actually pretty close to us.

30:37

Yeah, they were really close.

So again, what an interesting landscape here at Lake Clark.

We landed on a beach.

OK, then you have the ocean.

Then we’re going through a forested area to where there’s a tiny little overlook, so to speak.

So we’re it within the trees, but that overlook is now looking into a Meadow of grass where the bears are in little rivers and creeks that are running through that.

31:01

And then after the Meadow, you have the backdrop of the mountain.

So you have just such unique, really cool, different landscapes.

And this bear was so close to us.

We were all like really excited because again, within 5 minutes, like you said, Brittany here is a bear.

31:16

It’s super close to us, minding its own business just eating some grass because bears eat grass, right?

You think meat and roots and other stuff, but they do eat grass.

And then very shortly after that we realized, Oh my gosh, there’s a little cub with it.

And then soon after that, Oh my gosh, a second cub and we got like really excited and then finally decides to cross Little Creek.

31:37

Then we see there is 1/3 cub with it.

And keep in mind this bear is really close to us.

Yet within our view, we saw at least six other bears in this Meadow.

So they are all highly congregated in one area.

Yeah, our pilot was telling us that these bears eat up to a 150 lbs of grass a day.

31:56

That is a lot of grass.

The Cubs that we saw were just born this past season, so they’re about six to seven months old.

They were super, super cute.

Obviously, bears are very defensive, especially Mama bears, so you do have to keep your distance.

You want to be respectful of the space.

32:12

And if they are showing any behaviors, you obviously don’t want to stay there.

You want to safely back away, right?

Yeah, and what’s really cool is our guide was telling us this.

And again, it’s nature, so anything could happen, right?

So I’m not saying 100% safe because when your nature, anything goes.

32:30

But he was saying that because this area is so isolated and it is a National Park that can’t be hunted.

So they’ve never really had any fear from humans, and that doesn’t get really passed on to the babies.

And because lots of people come to visit, to some degree, they’re acclimated to human presence.

32:49

So we felt, and again, I’m speaking from my own personal point of view, and I believe yours as well, Brittany, that even though we were close, we’re within safe limits, right?

But I didn’t fear for my safety, so to speak, with all of these bears that are around because to some degree they are acclimated to your presence.

33:09

So Ben took us to this one area again with the little lookout in the forested area.

We went back to the beach and walked in the opposite direction because they have another viewing area that allows you to overlook a different side of the meadows.

That area is not covered by trees, it is more open.

33:27

What was really cool when we landed is nobody was the park yet or at least on that beach yet.

So we got a lot of time to ourselves.

But by the time we made it to the second area, a couple other planes had landed and then they came over to our area.

So we shared that spot.

33:44

A a little bit with other people before we moved on, but no less.

How many bears would you say, Brittany?

I would say 15 to 20 is how what we saw in a highly concentrated area.

So scene 1 is cool.

Imagine just seeing a whole bunch doing their own things and so we saw the Mama with three Cubs.

34:01

We saw a different Mama with three Cubs.

We saw another Mama with two Cubs.

We saw a male bear stocking a female bear and by that of course he’s trying to mate and do other stuff and it wasn’t like anything aggressive.

But they’re just watching them go about their daily activities, and I think that was really cool.

34:18

Yeah, and there was also a few solo female bears out there as well.

So we got super lucky because again, a different Mama bear with three Cubs was the closest to us.

And then the next closest to us was a Mama bear with two Cubs who was in the distance and back a little bit.

34:34

But wildlife sightings are never guaranteed.

And we could have seen all of these bears but just in the distance.

And so we were super, super lucky to see some pretty close to us.

It was truly a highlight.

And I was like, how do we even really top this, right?

34:51

Like I already felt like I got my money’s worth out of this experience that we had only been on the beach for for about an hour or so.

Right.

And we had another beach to go to.

And before we get into the other beach, I want to say something that our pilot and guide Ben had said to us because he flies to Cat My National Park.

And if you’re not familiar, Cat My is another place where it’s almost one percent guaranteed that you’re going to see a bear again, nature never know asterisk, right, but pretty much guaranteed to some degree.

35:15

And it’s known for the famous Brooks Falls where all the bears are sharing the waterfall, catching the salmon jumping upstream.

He says that he likes Lake Clark a lot more because less people come here.

He equated Katmai National Park almost to the Disney World of Alaska because even though it is a National Park, it is very touristy.

35:36

And you do have lines.

He was saying like, you know, you see on social media that oh, people are on the the deck looking at the waterfalls at cat my.

But he was saying that he heard from another guy just the day before.

It took an hour and a half queue on the boardwalk to get to the falls because there’s only so limited of space.

35:55

So here you are without having to do that weight.

And he says he thinks that this is a much better experience.

Again, we have not been a cat my yet.

I’m hoping when we go, we don’t have that big a boy.

It’s still going to be cool because you’re going to see the bears in different element.

But he’s saying that this is his preferred for their viewing experience in Alaska at Lake Clark versus Katmai.

36:13

And landing on the beach there in Alaska and Chenetna Bay, it really gave me Pacific Northwest vibes.

You are on kind of like a rocky beach.

You’re overlooking the mountains and the forest is right on the edge.

The way that the trees grow right on the rock, right on the edge, just really gave me almost the beach vibe that we saw in Olympic National Park.

36:34

Yeah, definitely so.

And in fairness, Alaska is Pacific Northwest to some degree.

I guess.

So after this area here in Genetna Bay we got back in the plane took off for a 5 minute flight back N to Silver Salmon Creek which is another area where of course our tour stopped Here you can also see meadows of the zedge grass.

36:59

And yes, of course we were on a beach, but this area is really more where they have the tidal and mudflats where you can see bears actively on the beach, tide dependent when it is low, trying to dig for clams and other types of sea life.

So as we landed, there were already 2 bears with the tide being low out there digging for clams, which was really, really cool.

37:23

And our pilot and Ben said to us, this is great because the tide is about to come up.

It’s going to push them even closer to us.

So when we first landed, he’s like, all right, it’s time for lunch.

Lunch is included with Regal Air, which really, really love.

They pack sandwiches, chips, string cheese, Snickers bar, other types of candy and stuff like that.

37:41

And of course, they had bottled water for us.

So a comprehensive lunch.

Really good.

But I enjoyed this experience.

But I know this was something special for you, Brittany, so why don’t you talk a little bit about it?

Oh my gosh, it was the best.

We literally landed on the beach.

We could see the two bears from the air.

37:57

We land, I wouldn’t say like right in front of them, but like right in the path where we’re pretty close to them.

They’re unbothered by our plane landing, so they’re still hunting for clams.

We get out and he’s like, we’re just gonna eat lunch on the wing.

So literally, we set up our picnic little lunch on one of the wings of the plane.

38:17

And as we are eating our lunch, we are looking over the plane because it’s small.

You know, you can look over it and we can just see the bears on the other side digging for their lunch.

And I was like, wow, what a core memory.

How cool is this?

I didn’t even take any pictures or videos during our lunchtime because it was just, well, one, it was windy, it was windy, it was windy.

38:40

It’s so like we don’t want anything fly away.

But it was just like such a core memory that I knew will stick with me forever.

And I was like, wow, this is just like so special.

And I’m just going to savor this moment in the moment.

Yeah, it was really cool.

And then after we were done with lunch, the bears were still out on the beach.

38:57

The tide is coming in, so getting pushed towards us.

Our pilot and guide said, hey, we can definitely get closer.

So we walked closer.

The bears of course within reasonable space and safety, but that was really, really cool to walk out onto the tide and mud flats, get close to them.

39:15

At some point one of the bears trying to dig for the clams came closer to us, so we had to back up again in a non aggressive way.

But that was really cool.

And at this spot here is the home of the National Park Ranger.

39:30

So once you exit the beach, there is a path that gets you into the meadows area where they do have the grass.

If the Ranger is there, she loves to talk to you.

Our guide was telling us that we went to her cabin and home that she has up there.

Unfortunately, at the time she was not.

39:46

But she’s very knowledgeable, as they say, just with general information to share.

So if you’re not going on a guided thing, you’re getting dropped off walking on your own.

That would be a cool spot to go.

But then we search for more bears in the meadows areas here and the creeks, which was really cool, and again we saw a ton more.

40:02

Well, we ended up taking a picture at the cabin of the National Park sign.

So there is a little bit of a National Park sign if you want a picture with it at the cabin.

So that was cool.

We did get our picks there and then we walked out to the Meadow area.

There wasn’t as many bears in the Meadow.

40:20

The one closest bear to us was napping in the grass and wasn’t doing a lot of movement and didn’t have any Cubs and we were able able to see a few in the distance.

But the highlight of this area was seeing the bears on the beach.

I agree but what I will say though is the grass here I think was a little bit higher.

40:40

The meadows is rather large but in this area I feel like it was pocketed with spurts of trees so it feels like it was more sectioned off than versus a large Meadow valley like at the other location.

But I made the analogy in my head and I said it out loud and our tour guide even agreed with us.

40:58

It was like, it was almost like watching lions if you’ve ever been on a safari in Africa because you know, they’re in the grass, they blend in.

You can’t really see them.

The grass is tall here.

There could have been a lot more.

And even as we were walking in this area from the beach, it is more thick with the grass, brush and other stuff.

41:16

And you can tell too, Brittany, right?

Like Ben was more cautious of us walking in this area just because your sights are less limited.

And So what we saw, I am positive, is not indicative of how many were actually there.

OK, that’s fair to say.

41:32

But we were like, OK, so we didn’t see as many bears.

We were going to head back to the plane and take off.

But as we were walking back to the plane, we came across another group that had just landed.

And Ben had asked them like, oh, are the bears still on the beach?

41:48

And their guide said, oh, they actually just went into the grass.

So we walked along the beach a little bit to where we think they would be, like going into the grass.

And we did come across one that was closer to US, one of the ones that had been on the beach.

And then in the distance, you could see the other one who was farther in the Meadow at this point.

42:07

And we got to watch them for, I don’t know, at least 15 minutes, 20 minutes.

Yeah, I mean, of course these tours are time, So within a degree of us being satisfied, Ben had told us, hey, just take as long as you want, you know, when we’re ready to go, we’re ready to go.

So we watched another bear up close just getting in our last true sighting of a bear here at Lake Clark.

42:29

And I know we’re kind of wrapping it up, but what a magical experience this was.

Like, even though it was short, right?

You’re spending at least two hours minimum of the tour flying in each direction.

But your time here, at least for us with how many bears we saw in close proximity.

42:45

I just, I can’t put anything close to this experience that we have done in a National Park.

Like I’m going to say other national parks with hikes and glaciers and other things haven’t been cooler possibly.

But in terms of just the high concentration of bears here, wow.

Yeah, it was so amazing. 10 out of 10 experience, 1000 out of 10 experience, really like it was so highly rated on my list and I would absolutely do this again.

43:11

I would love to go back to Lake Clark and visit other areas.

Unfortunately, time and money are restrictions for us and so this is what we did for our Lake Clark experience.

But I would love to go back and experience more, especially now that we’ve seen the coastal brown bears.

43:27

And it was, it’s kind of crazy to see how quickly the tide comes up because when we landed on the beach, we started to eat because the tide was pretty far out.

But we watched the bears for a little bit.

But we went and saw the cabin, we checked out the Meadow, and by the time we came back that way, those bears had already been pushed up that much by the tide.

43:45

Yeah, and they were already getting pushed back while we were sitting there watching as well.

It was even like when we were watching them.

You can see it come in.

So again, that goes back to what I was saying earlier.

And your pilots do know this and guides of like trying to time the tide so that you can actually see them out on the water.

44:01

So we were very fortunate in that experience.

But I know how we were talking earlier about the weather, it delaying us raining in Anchorage, the cloud cover, but sunny and Lake Clark.

But this is just a good lesson for you of how fast weather can change in Alaska on a dime.

44:19

The weather and flight back to Anchorage, sunny the whole time.

By the time we land back in Anchorage, not raining at all, right?

So again, to the tips that we mentioned earlier, just be prepared for all weathers no matter what type of year that you go to Alaska.

44:35

But I really enjoyed flying back with the sun out the entire way because it gave a different perspective of the cloudy areas that we had first flown through.

And you got to see more of it with the actual light hitting it shine a different green.

That’s really beautiful.

Yeah, Jamal was pointing out a glacier that was on our flight back that I don’t think I caught on our way there.

44:54

So it was really, really pretty.

It’s a great flight.

It was very smooth.

Ben thought that we might hit some bad weather about four miles from Anchorage, but we really didn’t.

And when we landed in Anchorage, it was about 5:30 PM and it was nice and sunny, so we actually went and got to explore a little bit once we got back.

45:15

Yeah, so we had had a later lunch on our tour.

So now of course we are back in Anchorage.

The time that we had been in Anchorage before we went to Wrangles St.

Elias, Brittany was wanting to go and try Wild.

I shouldn’t say try, have again Wild Scoops Ice Cream, which is a famous ice cream shop.

45:35

They have a couple locations in Anchorage.

The first time we were in Anchorage on a trip a while back, we had it, loved it, delicious.

While we were in Anchorage before Wrangle Sanalized, we didn’t have the opportunity to have it.

So Brittany is like, all right, this is our last night in Anchorage.

We need to have ice cream.

45:51

So we ended up getting some ice cream from Wild Scoops.

Wild Scoops is so good I will go there every time I’m in Anchorage.

I ended up getting a flavor called the Sitka swirl and they change out their flavors often and they are handmade.

46:07

The one that I got was a sweet cream base with salted caramel swirl made with Alaskan sea salt, and then Jamal got a simple vanilla bean because he’s boring.

I’m not boring, I just know what I like.

Vanilla bean ice cream is delicious, but what makes it good minus the ice cream itself is here at Wild Scoops you can get a Baked Alaska cone.

46:25

So they’ll give give you a waffle cone, they’ll put your soft marshmallow cream on top and then they will toast it for you.

And wow does that create such a delicious contrast with the waffle cone and your ice cream.

Below O do check out Wild Scoops when you are in Anchorage.

46:43

We knew, of course we wanted to have dinner, but we had a late lunch.

We just kind of filled up a little bit more with ice cream, eating our sweets out of order.

So we were like, what are we going to do?

And of course it’s summer in Alaska.

The sun don’t set until around like. 1111. 15.

46:58

Yes, when technically the sunset.

But then it’s twilight for another couple hours and it truly doesn’t get dark, so you have plenty of time to do stuff.

So there were a couple things that Brittany wanted to do and see, and she asked which one, and I said, well, why not both, you know, because if we’re not super hungry now and we’re going to eat later, let’s just build up an appetite, right?

47:19

So we ended up going to Potter Marsh Wildlife Viewing Boardwalk within Anchorage, but also just a little bit outside of Anchorage, if that makes sense.

And it is a boardwalk area that you can walk over on top of man made, but unintentionally man made kind of like estuary area because when they originally were building the road and the railroad, they kind of created a little marsh here.

47:43

And now a lot of wildlife goes here from birds, moose.

You could even sometimes see bears in here.

So they’ve built an elevated boardwalk.

What we would be able to actually see as soon as we arrived, got on the boardwalk, you could go in two different directions.

Somebody says, hey, there’s actually a moose right now.

48:00

If you go to the left, you’ll be able to see a moose.

So we walked immediately to the end of the boardwalk and was watching a moose at the end for a little bit, just grazing on some grass, really up close.

And I was excited because we hadn’t seen a moose yet on this trip to Alaska and I wanted to see another one.

I was hoping it was going to have the antlers.

48:16

It was antlerless, but nevertheless still really cool to see the moose.

Yeah, so cool to see the moose.

We got to watch it for a little while.

We finished the rest of the boardwalk.

We saw a few birds, but nothing super exciting.

But the backdrop of the mountains is really nice.

It was nice and sunny out, so that was good too.

48:33

And then we ended up going to a park called Point Orzenzoth Park.

And this is actually back near the airport, but this area is known for watching the sunset here because it is facing West.

We didn’t stay for sunset because sunset was going to be like at 11:15, but you can watch the sunset sometimes.

48:53

You can see beluga whales here.

And it was just a nice little beach overlook that we went to just to kill some time before we went to dinner.

Yeah, and this is beluga season now, where they would be in this area.

Brittany’s a little jealous of me because I saw the beluga from the plane, so she wanted to come here.

Just check out the beach vibes, maybe see some belugas in the water.

49:12

Unfortunately, we did not here, but this is a spot where I don’t want to say high probability because, you know, it’s whales, right?

It’s really hard to see them, especially unless you’re out on the water.

But you can see them here.

It’s known for it.

And then we went to dinner in Anchorage.

We ate at 49th State Brewing and I ended up getting a sour.

49:29

It was called the Tiger’s Blood Sour.

It was a nice tropical fusion of strawberry, water, watermelon and coconut, and it was really delicious.

Yeah, I got a beer here as well.

I’m actually trying to remember what I had.

I don’t remember it by name, but I know it was a pale ale because I wanted something light.

49:44

But they do have a very good selection.

They are their own brewing, if you can tell it by the name.

But they do have, of course, pub food.

But what’s unique is they cater their pub food to be really Alaska oriented.

What do I mean by that?

They have seafood here that you can actually go ahead and get that’s fresh.

50:01

They have burgers, but a lot of their burgers are game burgers from like yak, Bison, all those type of things that you would expect to see here versus traditional beef wants.

Not to say that they don’t have it, but it has an Alaskan flair which I really appreciate them playing to the roots and of course heritage and location.

50:19

Yeah, so I wanted to go here because I had heard good things about this from her squaties and just in general when I was doing some research.

We ended up getting some chicken wings and then if you recall back to our last episode about Wrangle Saint Elias, we actually rented with Alaska 4 by 4 for our rental car because we had to have a specific car that could drive McCarthy Road to Rangel St.

50:43

Elias National Park.

Well, we kept that same rental car until we left Anchorage and the branch manager there, I was chatting with him.

His name was Robert.

He was telling me that his go to here is the king crab grilled cheese and it comes with a side of chowder for dipping.

51:01

And so I was like, wow, that sounds really good and intriguing.

So we ended up ordering that.

Jamal and I split it and it was good.

It was delicious.

And again, the grilled cheese itself was good, but dipping it in the chowder actually makes it.

It’s a chowder.

It’s not like a New England clam chowder.

51:16

It has a little bit of a different flavor.

And I don’t say that like it’s a bad thing.

It was like a really good Alaska chowder.

Yeah, of course.

It was a really good Alaskan style chowder.

And just think, you know, grilled cheese, tomato soup, it’s great to dip it in there.

Grilled cheese and chowder is a new combo that I really appreciate and it went really well and I liked it.

51:34

Yeah, it went really well with the king crab grilled cheese.

So delicious.

I would recommend it if you like seafood.

And we had our overnight in Anchorage before our flight out.

The next day we flew back home to San Diego and had a little bit of a layover in Seattle.

Yeah.

But All in all, collectively, what a great trip to Alaska, taking into consideration both national parks that we did wrangle St.

51:56

Elias as well as Lake Clark.

But of course we are talking about Lake Clark in this episode and I just can’t say it enough.

But wow, what an experience with the bears.

I mean if you love nature, I don’t think wildlife viewing ever gets old.

52:12

And when you see such amazing top tier predators and so many in a highly concentrated area and close to you, what a magical experience.

And I think what makes it even cooler is the fact of how remote this is.

Yes, it’s only like 100 miles away, but no roads leading into the park.

52:29

I mean it really is truly isolation and desolate out here, untouched by humans so to speak, in terms of nothing surrounding it minus the visitors.

Before the trips say that this was like a bucket list trip, but after going I would say this is a bucket list experience.

52:46

It was truly, truly amazing, magical, majestic, all of the different things.

I mentioned that we do have the Lake Clark guide, but I also want to mention I did make an itinerary for you squaties that puts Rangel, St.

Elias, Kenai Fjords National Park, and Lake Clark all together for the ultimate Alaska National Park road trip, kind of using Anchorage as a base.

53:08

So you can also find that on our website, shoptravelsquad.com.

And with that, thank you guys so much for tuning in to this week’s episode.