Alaska Trip Photo Kit

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RikWriter said:
Yeah, but if you're going to Katmai, you won't get the salmon run.
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Depends on where you go on Katmai. The reds run in July which is what Brooks and McNeil Rivers are famous for. But small creeks in most of the bays such as Hallo, Kukak, Geographic Harbor, etc, the runs are usually in mid to late August and into September. Pinks/chums first followed by silvers.
eaj101 said:
True, though I've been told there are small runs of silvers in September. And at least you won't get eaten by bugs. Bears, maybe... :)
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There are still plenty of bugs on the coast that time of year. Possibly getting a little frost but no hard freeze yet. Denali is over 300 miles north of the Katmai coast. The visitor center is at over 1700 ft elevation and Plychrome Pass at about 3500 ft. Totally different climate.

You can't generalize about weather, fishing seasons, etc, in "Alaska". The interior is totally different than the coast, Southeast different than Kenai different than Katmai, etc. The state spans about 16 degrees of latitude(550 miles) north to south and almost 60 degrees of longitude east to west. Ketchikan in Southeast and Attu in the Aleutian Islands are as far apart as Jacksonville, Fla and San Francisco. So if someone tells you they've been to Alaska, ask them where in Alaska. Denali has little in common with Katmai other than being within the same political jurisdiction.

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Calson said:
Having made two trips to photograph the bears in Alaska I would recommend chartering a float plane out of Anchorage. They land on beaches where the bears are active. I have been on a trip where the salmon runs were off and so the bears were nowhere to be seen or photographed. The timing of the salmon runs on a river is critical to having bears there to photograph.

If you plan to also visit Denali then your lens choices will be a bit different than if going only for the bears. 600mm was often too long for Brooks but too short without teleconverters for Denali. For moose a 24-120mm is long enough though best to keep a safe distance from these animals.
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Yep…the salmon run at Brooks is hit or miss and with reservations almost impossible to get last minute another spot might be better. We took a flight from Homer and landed on the beach in Katmai but not at Brooks…didn’t get the classic falls leaping fish shot but got plenty of others including a head shot from about 10 feet as one walked by us.

we did an RV trip for all of July and August…left from Dawson Creek so in AK from the 12th or so of July through 25th or so of August and bugs were essentially non existent for us.
 
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