A Typical Day at Brown Bear Bay Lodge in Lake Clark National Park
Brown Bear Bay in Alaska is one of those places that you dream of visiting. On the shores of Chinitna Bay in Lake Clark Resort, tucked just into the tree line, the only sightings of life outside of the lodge are the occasional helicopter or airplane flying overhead.
Each day was both similar and vastly different. That’s the beauty of bear watching in Alaska.
Below, I highlight what a typical day looks like at Brown Bear Bay Lodge. Now, weather, tides, and sunrise/sunset can shift things around. But this is a general overview of life in bear-adise.
What Your Day Could Look Like at Brown Bear Bay Lodge in Alaska
There were a day or two when this schedule got shifted around due to weather. Our week at Brown Bear Bay had heavy morning fog, so a couple of days we didn’t go out until 8 or 9am.
5am-ish: Wake Up with Home-Cooked Breakfast
Most mornings started pretty early with a 5am-ish wake-up call before heading down into the chalet for a tasty breakfast. Plenty of options were available, including quiches, pastries, fruit, and yogurt. I never once felt underfed. But if you are worried about needing a snack, you can always grab something to bring along for the morning outing.
6:15am-11:30am: Gearing Up for a Morning With Bears
After breakfast, we’d all regroup in the mudroom to pull on our waders (the lodge provides them) and get our gear for a morning with bears. You may think that 4-5 hours is a long time, but it flies by.
Some of the best pictures I landed were in these morning hours as the fog lifted and the light finally shone through.
12pm: Home-Cooked Lunch
Lunches were super casual—either a sandwich, calzone, or other tasty dish, but nothing over the top. We spent most lunches reminiscing about how amazing the morning outing was. Additionally, we went over what the evenings would look like and what time dinner was scheduled for.
Most outings were planned around the tide schedule and any weather rolling in that evening. Most times we’d do an early dinner, but a couple of days we went out around four and came back at eight.
1-5pm: Open (but no bear outings)
After lunch, it’s free time or nap time. This gives the bear guides and guests time to rest and lets you offload morning photos to your external hard drive. I’m not a napper. But by the second day, I was dozing off for two hours. It felt so good to relax and unwind here.
On the flipside, it’s also a great time to keep an eye out for wildlife walking by the lodge. While there are bear fences, they are tightly wrapped around the buildings, so animals have free rein to meander.
On the third afternoon, while I was uploading photos and footage, I noticed a wolf walking right in front of my room. I quickly grabbed my camera and snapped a few photos while alerting the group chat that a wolf was there. I didn’t realize this place had wolves and that we’d get to see them so close—truly a wonderful encounter.
This was also a good time to get the drone up. Matt and I would usually drone around 4 to 4:45pm and land some really nice shots of the braided rivers below.
5pm: Home-Cooked Dinner
Have I mentioned how incredible the food was? We never had a heads-up on what the food was, so we were always on our toes as the group sat down for dinner. Most dinners lasted 30 minutes before we headed back out to get our gear and return to our waders.
It was always exciting to gear up again as you never knew what magic was in store!
6-10:30pm: Evening Outing with Bears
Overall, I think the evening outings were our best. We had little to no fog, which meant visibility and photos were far better and sharper. Plus, we had INCREDIBLE cub encounters up close.
I’m pretty sure our group held our breath for most of them to make sure we didn’t spook them.
Those moments are ones I’ll hold onto forever.
The first couple of days, the water levels were super high due to the rain, so we took the ATV out to the spit, then walked. But the last couple of days we only drove halfway, then walked down the creek, which provided epic bear viewing on top of great views of Mount Iliamna.
If your group is mobile, there are plenty of options to get to the best spots.
11:45pm: Finally go to sleep
After late-night outings, I would offload all my videos and photos to the external hard drive. While thousands of files and hundreds of GBs of memory were backed up, I’d jump in the shower and get ready to sleep.
Most nights, I was in bed around midnight to get at least five hours of sleep. But sometimes, the thrill and exhilaration of the outing had my adrenaline maxed out, and I had a hard time falling asleep.
To me, that’s a good problem to have!
How the group handles inclement weather
If the weather (fog/rain) looked like an issue, we all discussed what the morning should look like and whether we’d want to push back breakfast. It was always a team decision. For the most part, we were always ready to get going early.
However, on one of our final mornings, it looked like it would be incredibly foggy, so we all decided to sleep in a couple of hours and start around 8-9am.
On another occasion, we woke up at 5am for breakfast, but the fog didn’t lift. For safety reasons, Justin delayed our morning outing until visibility improved. (Definitely don’t want to run into a bear literally…)
Final Thoughts on a Typical Day at Brown Bear Bay Lodge in Alaska
Now that you have a better idea of what a typical day is at Brown Bear Bay, are you hooked? Waking up each morning, knowing that you’ll see bears and possibly have the most awe-inspiring day with animals of your life meant you were never groggy or complacent. I woke up each day excited about the unknown.
And that’s the beauty of being in a place like this. You don’t exactly know what will happen, but you know it’ll be freaking phenomenal!
Until next time, adventurers, stay safe.
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