Sunrise Grizzly, Lake Clark NP Alaska
By now you are wondering is he crying wolf or what? You can decided.
One of the proposed changes in operations for the lodges around Silver Salmon Creek in Lake Clark National Park, Alaska is to prohibit the use of atv’s during the hours between 10PM and 6 Am. This means the only way you can do sunrise and sweet evening lightphotography in the spring is to walk. Some of the best bear locations are a long way from the lodge if you are walking with a 600 mm setup.
When I told the resident ranger that they needed to accept that a major use of that area was for photography she replied “you can still take pictures”.
She is correct, the issue is, some of the areas we find bears in are over a couple of miles from the lodge. With sweet evening light beginning around 9 pm and going until after 11PM and golden morning light before 5 am photographers will miss many great photo opportunities just so the resident range can sleep in. With most of the visitors are there to Photograph or fish who else could be affected by the drone of a atv in full daylight at 1030 pm returning to the lodge?
The regulations are not set in stone yet but as most people know, by the time changes are made public the concrete is drying.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Hey Jess,
Personally, I’d rather see no atvs in the National Parks at all – the subsistence use will always be allowed up here, but for recreation, I don’t think the atv belongs in the NPs .. my 2 cents.
Cheers
Carl