We have already met one or two bears in Alaska, but we don't want to miss the grizzlies on the coast of Lake Clark National Park. The national park is only accessible by plane. And so we book a tour from Soldotna with Natron Air. Tim, the pilot, runs a small business with his wife Janet and offers tours of all kinds with his two planes. Even starting with the Jesna is pure adrenaline - at least for us. Tim turns on "Into the danger zone" and casually checks his emails as we gain altitude.
We cross the Cook Inlet and head for one of the countless sandy beaches. Is it possible to land there? By the time we ask ourselves how that should work, Tim has already gently placed the Jesna on the ground. Now it's time for bear watching. We walk along the sandy beach and it doesn't take long until we see the first grizzlies - at first only from a distance, but they are getting closer and closer.
And finally we discover a blonde grizzly that is sunbathing a few meters away from us. Wow, we are overwhelmed.
Finally head back to our plane parked on the beach. On the flight back, Tim takes a panorama tour with us over the snowy peaks of Lake Clark National Park. Now we also know why the locals advised against the multi-day hike that we originally planned there. There is simply far too much snow, so that the passes are impassable, not to mention camping :-)
The bird's eye view is unbeatable! Again, we feel very small.