Home»Alaska 2009»Melissa, Queen of Hallo Bay -- Katmai NP 2009

On the wild and remote Katmai coast Melissa and her spring cubs are rock stars. They are favorites among the guides and photographers who frequent Hallo Bay and know the bears by name. Melissa is one of the sweetest bears you'll ever meet and also the most muscular sow our guide, Buck Wilde, has seen in his nearly 20 years of brown bear viewing. Melissa was so unconcerned by our presence that we took hundreds of pictures of her and her cubs as they grazed on Sedge Grass and Goose Tongue.