A small group of nature lovers and photographers looks on as a coastal brown grizzly bear and her cubs walk along the edge of Silver Salmon Creek in Lake Clark National Park looking for salmon. Apex predators in their ecosystems, these bears spend weeks grazing on the fresh grasses in late spring and early summer, before the coastal salmon runs start and the fall berry crop arrives. These coastal dwelling bears are very similar to grizzly bears, which live 100 or more miles inland, but they get much bigger due to plenty of food sources such as grasses and salmon. The ecosystem protected within Lake Clark National Park is one of the largest areas in the world (more than 4 million acres) where Brown Grizzly bears are protected from hunting. Silver Salmon Creek, which empties into the Cook Inlet, is one of the most accessible places to view these bears up close in the world. This popular summer tourism destination allows the few visitors lucky enough to take excursions from Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula to visit Silver Salmon Creek to see not just one but many of these magnificent creatures, one of the largest land predators in the world, often while fishing for salmon themselves.
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