Hiking Deep into the Estuary at Aniakchak National Monument, Alaska

Parts of the estuary maintained enough wetness to throw off some beautiful reflections on our hike back.

At one of the least visited National Monuments in the USA, our group braved boot sucking mud and massive brown bears to hike deep into the valley at Aniakchak Bay, Alaska. This is a truly wild place. There are no building, no roads, no facilities.... just pure Alaskan wilderness. Brown bears roam, unimpeded by anything man made. And if people do arrive, we are just temporary visitors.

Today, my plan was to hike my group far back into the valley, but first we had to find a place to land our skiff on the shoreline. Usually, we can poke up the river and land near the entrance to the estuary lagoon. However, today's extreme low tide made that impossible. We we braved the incoming surf, and did a beach landing. Luckily we have great skiff drivers and all went well, although it did add another half mile to the walk.

The group performed admirably and we made it a few miles deep into the valley. Along the way, we noticed some fox tracks, and quite a few bear tracks. It looked like a mommma with cubs had walked through here, although not too recently. Then we came across some massive tracks, heading in the same direction we were. Luckily we had really nice visibility, far around us to each side. Sure enough, we eventually followed the tracks right to a large brown bear, chewing his way calmly through a field of sedge grass. The wind was blowing at us, so it took the bear a little while before noticing us. But, eventually he paused his eating, and looked straight at us. I imagine all the brightly colored jackets caught his eye.

He went back to eating, but now keeping a eye on us as he did. We were still quite far away, so we ambled a little closer. This must have been a bit too close for the bear's comfort bubble, so he strode up and over a ridge, into some dense alder. Its always amazing to see how quickly such a large animal can disappear.

We never saw the bear again, even though we continued past the alder forest to the marshy fields beyond. The valley itself was surrounded by mountains, and the wet mud of the estuary was like a mirror. I had the group trek out into the estuary for a reflections picture, which was great, although two of the guests went down into the boot sucking mud. Chalk it up to another bonding experience which are so plentiful on this type of adventure.

It is always such a pleasure to help people experience these wild places. Aniakchak National Monument might be one of the more wild.

Aerial drone shot of the shifting sands of the mouth of the river emptying out at Aniakchak Bay.

Sharing local knowledge between a seasoned crew and a new.

First attempted dropoff, we had to abort because a fast moving river cut us off from the shore. The extreme low tide also made our usual dropoff spot undoable.

Wes, pictured in front here, was a great addition to the trip. He usually heads up a wildlife podcast called "Tooth and Claw", but he moonlights as a trip leader for certain groups.

Huge bear prints in the mud. This is the same direction we are traveling... and these are fresh prints. There are bears in the area.

Red rock crab, left stranded by the receding tide.

Just how big was this bear?

Still hot on the bear's trail.

It was a good thing we all had rubber boots on as we had some rivers to cross.

Towards the back of the valley, we angled inland and climbed up this rise to get a better view of the marshy plains beyond.

It was a little tough getting through the soft, boot sucking mud, out to where we could take this photo...but totally worth it!

Beautiful natural formations in the river as the estuary flows out to the ocean entrance.

These two guests fully understand BSM now..... boot sucking mud!

Standing tall at our turnaround spot.

A little bushwhacking was all it took to get up on this rise.

We found our furry friend munching on sedge grass in the field shown here.

Not your typical weekend walk.

As always, keep traveling and keep posting!

• Dai Mar