Skolai Pass Phototour
Alaska Photo tours
Photography tours and workshops that offer a great opportunity for folks to bring home some unique images. Carl Donohue, Alaskan Alpine Treks owner and guide, runs these exciting photo tours and they're a great way to experience some of the best nature has to offer. Skolai Pass, in Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve, and Katmai National Park and Preserve, home to great Alaskan brown bear, or coastal grizzly bear, in all their majesty in fall colors. Read on for these trips and stay tuned as we add more photo tours to be announced soon.
Skolai Pass:
We've been running this trip for a number of years now, and it's always a great trip. Skolai Pass, in Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve, is simply one of the most scenic landscapes anywhere, bar none. There are few, if any, backcountry places that offer the array of incredible landscape scenes within a day's walk that Skolai Pass offers. The massive Russell Glacier, sweeping south towards the University Range, home to Mts Churchill and Bona, 15 and 16 000' peaks respectively is simply jaw dropping. Face east from Chitistone Pass, and stare forever toward the headwaters of the White River, running into nearby Canada, and Castle Mountain, a majestic view.
Walk north and stare at the entrance to the Nizina River, Frederick Mountain, Mt Regal and the Wrangell mountain range. Or venture westward into the well-known Chitistone Valley, home of the famous 'Goat Trail', a popular backpacking destination. Lastly, spend a few days exploring Hole in the Wall, a classic glacial formation dwarfed by towering peaks that must be seen to be believed. If big landscapes, I mean REALLY big landscapes, are your thing, Skolai Pass is the place for you to visit.
Wildlife? Though we don't run this as a wildlife tour, we've photographed Dall sheep, Woodland caribou (the only herd of Woodland Caribou in Alaska), marmot, arctic ground squirrel, red fox, grizzly bear, and an array of birds, from summertime shorebirds such as Semipalmated Plovers and Wandering Tattlers to songbirds of the tundra and the ever present ptarmigan; both white-tailed and Willow ptarmigan are fairly common here. We've also seen golden eagles and merlins, and with luck will maybe get some images of those species soon enough. Vist the Skolai Pass Phototour page for details. Skolai is simply a great place to head, spend a week with your camera, and surprise yourself with some great photos.
Grizzly Bears in the Fall:
Katmai National Park and Preserve is the greatest place in the world to view and photograph these magnificent animals, and there's no better time than the fall to photograph them. The grizzly bears (known commonly as brown bears, or coastal brown bears) are in their prime during the great fall color; their bodies flush and fat with rich salmon from the summer, their coasts filling out for the long cold winter ahead, these bears fairly glow in the waning fall light.
You'll find all the details here, or you can contact us for more information or to answer specific questions you might have.
Grizzly Bears in the Fall Phototour .
There's simply no better time than the fall to photograpoh Katmai National Park's grizzly bears, and these 2 phototours are a fantastic opportunity to come home with some great photos and an amazing experience. Click either of the images on this page for larger versions.
More Photo Tours coming soon.
We'll be adding more phototours soon, so stay tuned. Including one I'm excited to offer will be a whitetail deer phototour to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee, for the late fall whitetail deer rut. That'll be a blast for anyone looking for some great whitetail deer photos. Other phototours will be added soon, and if you have any interest in a prviate customized tour, please don't hesitate to contact me to inquire about it. Thank you.