7-day GOLD Photo Tours — Tips, Options & Itinerary

$8495.00

Includes: 

Anchorage pickup/dropoff at your hotel

7 days land/air/boat wildlife excursions

6 nights lodging and meals (excl. snacks)

Flight to secluded bear camp, 3 days/2 nights

Brooks Falls or similar wildlife excursions

Marine mammals/fjords cruise, Kenai Fjords NP

Helicopter flightseeing glacier/fjords tour

                                    FREE 75+ pg APA “Mobile College of Alaska Knowledge”                                            (packed w/photo tips & wildlife info)     

The BEST tour you can find anywhere! Compared to any others out there, especially for the price (you’ll literally save thousands — we are family run and have long-term local connections with trusted pilots and lodge owners. No corporate multi-level structure or expensive TV ads to pay. Our tours give you the most flexibility and time to take advantage of prime photo opps with bucket-list animals. You can relax knowing you’re getting the BEST value for your money.

Below are the activities and time frames you can expect. Order of activities may change due to weather and other logistics. Weather can crunch time, so the flex days built into every tour can sometimes make all the difference between getting the shots you came for, or getting NO shots. Especially in Alaska on a once-in-a-lifetime trip, more time is your greatest ally and excellent “insurance”. 

Main Advantages

1) Flexibility to stay longer with bears and wildlife, without having to return to Anchorage.

2) Ability to change order of activities and/or add extra days with the bears/wildlife, depending on group wishes, and/or

2) 1-2 days at other wildlife spots hotspots in Lake Clark, Katmai or the Kenai Peninsula, and/or

3) Other recreational options (see below).

Tour Options

Tour options you can add or substitute for included activities (prices are for adding to existing activities). Contact us for logistics and prices if you wish to substitute instead:

1) Wildlife float trip down the upper Kenai river ($50-150 option depending on length)

2) Dogsled ride on a remote glacier. A great add-on, but very weather dependent, as the glacier is nestled in a relatively low elevation bowl. Fog and low clouds are common, which sometimes delays or prevents flights. ($250-575)

4) Zip-lining among old growth forests in Chugach National Forest. This option can also be combined with the boat cruises, rafting or Kenai river float trips

5) A second or longer helicopter flight to see wildlife or do a glacier landing. ($250-750)

6) Other options we can customize for you depending on your particular requests.

NOTE: If you are interested in a 1 or 2-day tour to see wildlife and/or bears, we are sometimes able to accommodate shorter photo tours to specific wildlife areas in between the 7-day tours. This may include bears with salmon. Prices range from $399/pp (min 2), $349 pp (3+) and up depending on where the bears/wildilfe are and if you will need a fly-out. Contact us on the form below and we’ll give you options. 

DAY -1 or -2:  Arrival in Anchorage

You should arrive at least a day or two before (and after) this tour date begins. This way you can leave room for weather delays before or after your tour, plus get acclimated and decompress in your hotel or around Anchorage

DAY 1: Pick up at your hotel in Anchorage, land wildlife tour, drive to Seward, fjord flightsee

Sometime around 8-9AM you will be picked up  and we will spend a few hours at some special wildlife spots in Anchorage before we drive south to the Kenai Peninsula. We will look for moose, black bear, dall sheep, bald eagles, trumpeter swans, loons, beluga whales (high tide) and other wildlife along the way.  Lunch will probably be in Anchorage, and  dinner will be at your lodge/hotel in Seward.

DAY 2: Kenai Fjords National Park marine mammal/bird boat cruise, Helicopter flightseeing and/or Dogsled adventure on a glacier

Today you will have an unforgettable marine mammal boat tour in the morning (including Puffins!) and a helicopter flightsee or dogsled adventure on a nearby glacier. It is a GORGEOUS cruise and flightsee over Resurrection Bay and some of the most beautiful glaciers and fjords in the world!

If weather is bad, or if there are participants who don’t want to dogsled or take the marine mammal cruise, there is the option of a second or longer flightsee that may include landing on a glacier or other options. After the Seward adventures, we drive to Soldotna for the night.

DAY 3 & 4: Flight to Bear Camp, Brown Bear Photography

We leave either Soldotna or Homer airport for your 30-45 minute flight to your bear camp. Landing on a sandy beach near the bears or cabin, we’ll spend 1-3 days shooting and enjoying the trust and beauty of being among the famous brown bears in Lake Clark Nat’l Park. Note above

We have different bear locations and charters that we work with, as a redundancy for you in case one is full, or weather delays us from using another. If we stay overnight, cabins, glamour tents or lodges are  very comfortable with twin and/or double beds, bathrooms, hot water, electricity (usually), boardwalks or decks with views of tidal flats, a lake and/or the ocean. Some have electrified fences around the cabins while others are full-size permanent lodges or rooms.

After you get settled, you’ll be accompanied by one or two highly trained guides as we watch and photograph brown bears in supreme natural Alaskan settings. We are very familiar with the bears here and you will have spine tingling experiences in a safe setting. We may use ATVs to transport us from one location to the next.  After a break for dinner, you’ll again look for bears,  hopefully in beautiful evening light, taking photos and enjoying their behavior as long as light allows.

Day 5: Mid-morning flightsee/return, land wildlife tour around Kenai Peninsula or Homer

Depending on whether you left from Soldotna or Homer, you’ll return to the same place. Land wildlife tour in the afternoon around hot spots on the Kenai Peninsula after lunch. Flex day depending on when we return from bear camp or any weather days that prevented previous activities. We can do any missed activities today. Overnight in Soldotna or Homer before flying out to Brooks Camp tomorrow.

DAY 6: Daytrip to world famous Brooks Lodge & waterfalls

Flight to world famous Brooks Lodge on Naknek Lake, Katmai Nat’l Park to watch the iconic brown bears catching sockeye salmon. A thrilling experience that you will remember for the rest of your life. Depending on the time of summer, there are usually anywhere from 10-40 bears along the river, where you can watch and photograph safely from elevated walkways and platforms. You will be required to watch or listen to a short bear orientation by the NPS ranger(s). There will be a gear shed to store food and/or daypacks that you don’t to bring on the trail (no food allowed on your person while you hike/visit the bears).

Your guide will accompany you. Bears at Brooks falls have grown up now for many generations around people, and are safe to be around, even at close range, if you follow the guidelines in your orientation. Sometimes bears will even be on the trails with you, approaching at close range. As you step off the trail, they will pass right by you for some great photo and video opps!

DAY 7: Catch-up day, possible fjords flights or boat tour if missed earlier, return to Anchorage for final dinner.

Another catch-up/flex day we can use instead of one of the other days for the bear camps or helicopter aerials, if weather or other circumstances prevent us from going earlier. This is a day divided between a short wildlife land tours and return to Anchorage in the evening. As recommended before, it is wise for you to have a buffer day or two in Anchorage before your flight home for the unforeseen circumstances mentioned above. If weather or light hasn’t been cooperative, this day might make up for it with great light!

We will work our way after breakfast around the peninsula and eventually back to Anchorage in the evening for dinner. We’ll reminisce a bit, share some photos, and wish you our very best before dropping you off at your choice of lodging (reminder: this night’s lodging is not included in your tour price). We will sincerely wish to see you again and hope that you have a great time in this great land!

(Note: If one or more participants want to stay longer on the Peninsula, we can make arrangements for additional lodging stays at your existing lodge in Kenai or Seward, or give you suggestions for other locations or activities. You are not obligated to return to Anchorage with the rest of the group.)

 75