In mid-July, the full mania of Alaska summer is on. Life feels like a wonderful frenzy during these long summer days, where night never seems to come and we’re going like gangbusters to harvest garden veggies, catch enough salmon to fill the freezer, and squeeze in the hikes and camping adventures we wait all year for. And did someone say work? Yes…there’s that too.

Experience Alaska Wildlife 

Mid-summer is also a wonderful time to experience Alaska’s wildlife, and even locals   thrill at the sight of a pod of orcas plying the bay, a humpback breaching, a bear—at a safe distance of course, or a mama moose and her caramel-colored calves. There is nothing  like witnessing the lives of the animals who share our home.

And Kachemak Bay is an incredible place to see the wildlife that many visitors to Alaska are eager to observe. What makes Kachemak Bay unique when it comes to seeing some.  of Alaska’s most incredible wildlife? This is a region of dynamic tides and currents, where cold, nutrient-rich waters upwell, fueling a productive ocean food chain that supports about a dozen species of marine mammals, all five species of wild Pacific salmon, and scores of other fish species and other marine creatures including shark, octopus, and a rainbow of sea stars. And the region has numerous kinds of habitats that support a dazzling array of biodiversity on land as well. Surrounding the bay, alpine meadows, high mountain slopes, eel grass wetlands, rocky intertidal, and temperate rainforest provide home and sustenance for moose, bear, wolves, wolverine, mountain goat, Dall sheep, and other animals.

A visit to Stillpoint Lodge can be your gateway to experiencing Alaska’s wildlife in countless different ways. Around the lodge, in the calm waters of Halibut Cove, seals and sea otters eat, nap, and play. As you stroll on site, you’re likely to see these fascinating marine mammals, and to spy bald eagles as well.

Adventure Alaska at Stillpoint Lodge

À la carte adventures, such as a Scenic Wildlife Cruise or Saltwater Fishing Excursion, can take you further afield into waters where humpbacks, orcas and the occasional Steller sea lion swim. A Visit to Gull Island will immerse you in a raucous seabird nesting colony, home to horned and tufted puffins, cormorants, murres, and black-legged kittiwakes. You can dazzle at the murre’s gravity-defying nests on the edges of rock cliffs and observe puffins at the doorsteps of their grassy burrows. A Bear Viewing trip is a bucket list activity indeed. You’ll fly to some of the wildest and most beautiful coastline in the world on the Alaska Peninsula—home to the Katmai National Park and Preserve and Lake Clark National Park—where you’ll see brown bears in their natural habitat. Bear viewing is a chance to witness the many aspects of these top-of-the-food-chain animals, who are voracious predators while being also playful, curious, social, and loving.

Talk to your Stillpoint reservation specialist about a photo safari or a hike to Grewingk Glacier Lake. There are opportunities to go tidepooling, bird watching, and hiking on high mountain slopes. On the shores of Kachemak Bay, at Stillpoint Lodge, the options are nearly endless and the wildlife awaits.

By: Miranda Weiss

Author of Tide, Feather, Snow: A Life in Alaska
www.mirandaweiss.com