Silver Salmon Creek

Silver Salmon Creek is a Cook Inlet destination in Lake Clark National Park, spread around the creek mouth, tidal flats, beach and sedge meadow. Brown bears are the draw, with sport fishing and clamming alongside them. This is a trip to arrange, not a roadside stop: most visitors arrive by a small wheeled plane that lands on the beach. Flights from Homer, Kenai or Anchorage take less than an hour, and licensed outfitters offer day and overnight trips. Boats can cross Cook Inlet, but rough seas and extreme tides make access difficult.

Visitors without a lodge transfer move between sites on foot. The nearest meadow or fishing spot is a few hundred yards from the beach across sandy ground; searching the salt marsh, tidal flats and creeks for bears or fish can add two miles or more of walking. Lodge guests may be taken between sites in trailers towed by ATVs. The beach is the only route where the public may use off-road vehicles; other marked routes need a special permit.

A stretch of sedge meadow between the Sargent Creek confluence and Silver Salmon Creek is closed to people from June 15 through September 15 for habitat restoration. Stay on the established footpath. The ranger station is on the south side of the creek, just off the south beach trail.

Coho (silver) salmon, pink (humpback) salmon and Dolly Varden run up the creek in late summer. The tidal flats hold razor, littleneck and butter clams, but the beach is not monitored for paralytic shellfish poisoning. Treat clamming as a real food-safety risk, and follow Alaska fishing rules for both shellfish and fish. Boats and planes also have to account for the extreme tides; the tide flats can leave a craft stranded or put it in the water if it is left too close to shore.

Shorebirds stage on the mud and sand flats during spring migration. Dabbling ducks stay through summer and peak during migration in April and September. In summer, seabirds nest on rocky cliffs north of the creek and on nearby Chisik and Duck islands; loons use coastal freshwater ponds, including Silver Salmon Lakes. Moose, wolves, foxes, ermines, marine mammals and year-round raptors are also reported in this coastal area.

When you photograph the bears, leave room for the sedge meadow and creek with Slope Mountain behind them. That wider frame shows the feeding habitat and the scale of the coastal setting; use the established footpath rather than stepping into the meadow.