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The Grant River is the headwaters of the famous Wood River watershed, which drains into Bristol Bay near the fishing village of Dillingham. I was introduced to the Grant as a new guide in 1984 by The Boss, my friend and mentor, Bud Hodson. It’s a short river by Alaskan standards, just seven miles long, and begins in a high, windswept lake that is isolated by a series of barrier falls. I’m told the lake is nearly barren of fish, with only a few wizened char whose ill-fated ancestors were trapped there and left to feed upon their own young and aged.
Downstream from the outlet of the lake, the river meanders through a low and wet meadow, slowly gaining speed and depth until it tumbles through a series of craggy ledges. It plunges finally, over a cliff of such height that the pool at its base becomes the furthest limit of migration for any of the millions of salmon that return to the watershed. It’s both the end of the line and the source of a mysterious journey.
Once the sockeye arrive to spawn, the river becomes an important source of food to a number of brown bears, and it’s not unusual to share the river with them.
Painted on location in the Bristol Bay area of Alaska in summer 2025.
