Observations of an Alaskan Waffle

I miss bears.

If you’re feeling the feels, find someone to hug. Don’t let isolation stop you.

This bear feels your feels.

Sow 94’s unruly trio of 2.5-year-olds, 2020.

Daily bear! NAP TIME. Nap time under the bridge ramp so you hoomans can’t go anywhere. Thanks, bear.

I can handle this.

Backpacking along Knife Creek in the Valley of 10,000 Smokes, in Katmai National Park, Alaska. All of the terrain is made up of volcanic ejecta, pumice, and ash. There is a surprising amount of vegetation along Knife Creek due to the area being protected from the severe winds of Katmai Pass. The erruption happened in 1912 so it has taken over 100 years for even this much to grow here.

Abandoned car dashes.

Daily bears! Bear 284 nursing her cubs on Naknek Lake beach at Brooks Camp in Katmai National Park, Alaska.

Daily bears. Sow 94 with one of her three 2.5-year olds walking past the Brooks Lodge porch in Katmai National Park, Alaska.

After 8 or 9 hours we made the Mt Katmai caldera. Prior to 1912 the volcano had a proper peak but it collapsed in the eruption that year, the magma chamber beneath it draining away and coming out 6 miles away at the Novarupta vent. The event created not only this epic caldera but also the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes which led to the establishment of Katmai National Monument in 1918, later to become Katmai National Park & Preserve.

An October morning walk in Alaska.

Ascending the glaciated Mt Katmai volcano in the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes in Katmai National Park, Alaska. Everything orangey-yellow brown you see is ash and pumice. Just surreal.

Two brown bears playing outside the Brooks Lodge Trading Post in Katmai National Park, Alaska.

Those ears, tho.