This August me and my wife visited Alaska and had an incredible outing on Prince William Sound with Sound Eco Adventures. Next we flew to Kodiak and spent 5 days photographing Kodiak brown bears chasing salmon in the river (another AMAZING experience). Thanks to everyone that posted tips on gear and suggestions for things to do and see. The trip was much better than I had hoped for and that's saying allot.
We would like to visit Alaska again and we've heard that the Peninsula can be a cool place to visit. Can anyone offer any first hand information about what some of the opportunities there are? We love to photograph but any great outdoor adventure will do.
thanks,
ds
Geographic Harbor is superb. There are a couple of charter boats out of Kodiak that get over there once or twice a year. Katmai Wilderness Lodge on Katmai Bay -not to be confused with Katmai Lodge at Brooks- does a great job in the immediate surroundings via skiff transport. You fly out of Kodiak to the lodge.
The further west you go, the more problematic and expensive the transportation. The furthest west I've been ashore is near Castle Cape. Remarkable, but no camera in hand and virtually no way to get back there again without major cash infusions. You might be able to access some of the more remote regions via Cold Bay/King Cove (regular scheduled airline flights) or Chignk (seasonal flights, as I recall), but from all of those, access to more remote regions is problematic due to limited local services. If you're into birds, Izembek Refuge adjacent to Cold Bay is a truly remarkable place. There's at least one lodge in operation there, though it caters more to salmon anglers in the summer and waterfowl hunters in the fall. I know the owners, and they're great folks. I'm sure that if you visited outside their peak hunting season they would do a nice job of meeting your photo needs.
There are other ways to access the area, but I'm still on the top side of my first cup of coffee. Can anyone else help?
Posted by Jim DeWitt on October 11, 2009 at 2:27 PM
Further out, Adak Island is spectacular, with good support infrastructure and very nearly regular flights. If you've the inclination, outside of fish openings a lot of fishermen would be happy to take you out on the water, as well. As you probably know first hand, the weather can be chancy, but the better weather tends to be in May or early June.
Discussion
2 repliesWe would like to visit Alaska again and we've heard that the Peninsula can be a cool place to visit. Can anyone offer any first hand information about what some of the opportunities there are? We love to photograph but any great outdoor adventure will do.
thanks,
ds
The further west you go, the more problematic and expensive the transportation. The furthest west I've been ashore is near Castle Cape. Remarkable, but no camera in hand and virtually no way to get back there again without major cash infusions. You might be able to access some of the more remote regions via Cold Bay/King Cove (regular scheduled airline flights) or Chignk (seasonal flights, as I recall), but from all of those, access to more remote regions is problematic due to limited local services. If you're into birds, Izembek Refuge adjacent to Cold Bay is a truly remarkable place. There's at least one lodge in operation there, though it caters more to salmon anglers in the summer and waterfowl hunters in the fall. I know the owners, and they're great folks. I'm sure that if you visited outside their peak hunting season they would do a nice job of meeting your photo needs.
There are other ways to access the area, but I'm still on the top side of my first cup of coffee. Can anyone else help?