We had another chance to watch the bears feeding on salmon at Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park. This was a real treat. The day was very rough and windy which made for an interesting flight. There was a 35 mph headwind going down so the ride was a bit longer than our last foray. Also it was rather bumpy. Didn't bother us because we wanted another chance to photograph the bears. The weather was sufficiently windy that a lot of the operators decided to cancel for the day. That was great because we didn't have to wait in line to go to the platform at Brooks Falls. We started right away photographing because we got all the kinks out of our methodology on the first visit.

It is about a mile hike from the Visitor Center to the Falls. On the way back we saw a mother bear with two cubs just ambling down the path. They ignored us and we just watched them. Back at the Visitor Center we had a good sack lunch then headed out to fly back to Port Alsworth. This time we had the wind behind us. The trip out was 1 hour and 18 minutes, the trip back was only 52 minutes; that was quite a difference. That is an average ground speed of 101 mph going down and 160 mph coming back. When we got home we couldn't wait to download the photos we took today. There were some really good ones.

Today's photo is of a bear catching a salmon in its mouth. You might think that a lot of skill went into that photograph, but I can assure you that there is a gigantic element of luck in it.