We booked a bear watching trip out of Homer to Hallo Bay in Katmai National Park. Emerald Air Services was our guide and have been dong this type of trip for over 20 years and have a great reputation for safety. We met Chris and Ken at the office and after a briefing on bear behaviour and how to act we boarded a 1960 DeHavilland Otter and took off for Hallo Bay. The ride was about an hour and was very smooth. Landing at Hallo Bay we waded ashore for 6 hours of spectacular bear views. And yes we were that close to the bears with only our guide Chris and common sense for protection. These were all shot with 40D and Canon 100-400 IS (mine) or 50D and Sigma 150-500 OS (Susan). Chris estimated we saw 26 different bears that day.