As tends to happen, I am way behind on my blog entries again. I have had such a busy summer that I have not had a chance to sit down and post anything. I have several posts I still need to make from this summer, including a couple of trips to Glacier National Park and a trip that included Iceland and Norway. I decided that I would work backwards however and make a post about my most recent trip which was to Katmai National Park while it is still fresh in my mind.
A brown bear walking on he beach of Naknek Lake near the Brooks Camp in Katmai National Park. I liked this picture because it has the bear, the lake, the mountains and a National Park sign that says “Katmai National Park” so it kind of sums up the experience.
We (my sister Melissa, my wife Denise and myself) were in Katmai National Park September 1-4, 2023. We were there for four days and three nights. Of course the first and last days were not full days since they included travel to and from. We added an extra day in Anchorage on the front of the trip, just to make sure if there were any travel delays we would have some wiggle room. We had to overnight in Anchorage again on the way back due to the timing and availability of flights coming home.
A still frame taken from a video off my GoPro showing a mountain somewhere in Alaska while we were in flight to Anchorage.
We left Great Falls on Wednesday afternoon on an Alaska Airlines flight. Alaska is the only airline in our area that flies into King Salmon, so that was our primary reason for choosing them. There may be some more regional options depending on where you are. Luckily we had a combination of mileage points and buddy passes, so the flights were not too expensive. We had a quick layover in Seattle and then it was up to Anchorage. It was fairly late in the day by the time we got to Anchorage, so we found a quick bite to eat and then settled into the motel for the evening. The next morning we got up and decided to take a drive. Knowing we would be in town for the day we rented a car. Rental cars in Alaska can be very difficult to come by, so as soon as you know you are going, I would recommend making a car reservation if you need one.
We started out going down the Seward Highway hoping to maybe spot some beluga whales or maybe see some dall sheep up on the cliffs. The morning was super windy and raining however and we did not end up spotting anything. We had thought about a few other options for places that we like to go, for example the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, but we decided that in the storm nothing outside was probably going to be a lot of fun. So we drove back into Anchorage to see what we could find. There was some shopping involved and some poking around downtown. Eventually the storm cleared and the afternoon in Anchorage was actually pretty nice. We explored a few other areas along the ocean closer to downtown Anchorage hoping to spot some sealife, but we did not find a lot. The tide was super low due to the “Super Moon” so I am sure that had some effect. We ended the day with a trip to Moose’s Tooth Pizza which is one of our favorites stops in Anchorage.
The next morning we had a few hours until our flight, so we decided to take the drive down the Seward Highway to try our luck again looking for whales. This time we did have success, we finally spotted some beluga’s! When we first spotted them they were actually pretty close to the highway, but unfortunately it was in a very busy stretch of the road where there were not a lot of pull offs to view them. We tried to keep track of them as we could find places to pull over, but due to the terrain and the trees we could never get a clear view while they were still close to the road. I guess I should mention for those that are not familiar, the Seward Highway has a stretch that is along the shore of the Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet, if you are wondering why we are looking for whales from a road. Eventually we did spot some way out, but they were too far away to get a good look. If we didn’t have a flight to catch we may have stopped at Beluga Point or somewhere and hoped the whales eventually would come past us, but we just didn’t have the time. So we headed back to Anchorage to catch our flight to King Salmon.
This grainy picture is the only proof I have of us seeing the beluga whales, but hopefully you can trust me.
There are a couple of jumping off points to get to Katmai National Park (Homer is popular and some even come directly from Anchorage), but King Salmon is probably the most popular. There are a couple of float plane companies there, as well as a water taxi that can take you into Katmai. There are no roads into Katmai, so by float plane or boat are your only options for getting there. We chose to use a smaller company called Branch River Air. We had a great experience with them and they were cheaper than the more well known Katmai Air that also services the area. Branch River Air met us at the airport when we arrived and shuttled us back to their “terminal” along the river. I would guess we were in the air to Katmai within an hour of touching down in King Salmon, so I would say that’s pretty good service. This was the first time for all of us being in a float plane, so it was a lot of fun. Well, except for my wife who gets easily air/car sick. It was windy and rainy that day, so it was a bit of a bumpy flight for her, but she made it ok. Luckily it is only about a 20 minute flight. We had heard that the water taxi routinely gets canceled or delayed because of weather, so we chose the float plane option largely for that reason. And I am glad we did, as the water taxi was canceled on the day we flew out. If it gets canceled there are only a few options for places to stay in King Salmon, so you are probably better off staying in Anchorage if you can’t find a float plane to take you.
A view out the window of the float plane from my GoPro on the way to Katmai National Park.
My sister Melissa and the pilot inside of the float plane on our way to Katmai.
Upon landing in Katmai you are immediately escorted to “Bear School” which is in the visitor center just above the beach from where you land. With all of the bears in the area it is important for everyone to be educated on the procedures and potential dangers. It is a good thing that you are brought to bear school right away, since an encounter with a bear could happen at any time and anywhere so it’s good to know what to do and expect. After you complete your “bear school” the ranger gives you a pin as proof you completed the training.
This is looking up from the beach to the Visitors Center (Left) and there is a storage building for your food and gear (right.)
A picture from my GoPro inside of the Visitor Center during our “Bear School.”
The pin you get upon finishing “Bear School.”
The sign on the beach welcoming you to Brooks Camp. The building in the background is the back of the Visitors Center. There are some old moose antlers strewn about for photo ops.
We then headed over to the Brooks Lodge to check-in and get the keys to our cabin where we would be staying. You basically only have two options for staying in Katmai, it is either at the Brooks Lodge or in the campground. Since those two options are very limited, which I will get to more shortly, a lot of people elect to just fly/boat into Katmai for day trips. This makes the mornings and evenings way less busy for those staying in the park. The campground is by reservation only and it can be difficult to secure a spot. It is surrounded by an electric fence and is located maybe a ¼ mile or so from the main lodge area. There are strict rules about where you can store your food/supplies and where you are allowed to eat/cook within the campground. We knew that we did not want to camp, so we elected to try and get a spot at the lodge. The lodge reservations are given out by a lottery system due to the high demand and limited space. The lottery is held almost a year in advance, so if you want to stay at the lodge, you really need to plan ahead. It took us about three years after deciding this was something we wanted to do for us to finally get a spot. And our spot was actually as a result of a cancellation, so we were notified of the availability and we had less than 24 hours to either say yes or no. So it all happened very fast. Since we took a cancellation spot, we did not get to request a date, so we ended up going in September, which probably wouldn’t have been our first choice. But it actually ended up working out well. The crowds are MUCH smaller in September then they would have been earlier in the summer. We may not have seen as many bears as we would have in peak season, but avoiding the crowds made it worth it. We still saw plenty of bears.
Looking from the bridge back to the main lodge (center frame) and the check-in and general store building (right.) There is also a public bathroom kind of behind the brush to the far left.
The Brooks Lodge is actually kind of a complex of buildings. There is a building where you check in and is kind of the service desk. The back half of the building is actually a little general store where you can get some food and basic supplies from. Across from the check-in building is the main lodge that has a small bar, a seating area around a wood burning fireplace and the back half is set up for buffet style meals. There is a buffet line setup and then several tables with bench seating. There is also a little drink station off to the side where you can get coffee, hot chocolate, cider, tea or just hot/cold water. Those items are complementary and are available anytime the lodge is open. We took advantage of the coffee a lot. You are only allowed to eat/drink (besides water) inside enclosed buildings or designated picnic areas. So you find yourself in the lodge a lot, even just to drink coffee. You are allowed to have snacks in your room, but no “smelly foods” which they were not very specific about. We did bring some snacks along that we kept in our cabin, but they were all prepackaged low-smelling foods, so we felt like we were ok.
They serve hot meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They also have “light” options for lunch and dinner which is basically a soup and salad bar. The meals are a little expensive, but it’s to be expected. We found them all to be pretty good and tasty though. The eating area could become pretty crowded however due to the limited space. We had poor weather most of the time we were there, which I think tended to keep the lodge a little busier since many people were in there just to warm up and dry off.
A sow (female) bear with her cubs right outside our front door, I took this pictures standing in our doorway. They moved along pretty quickly, I was lucky to se them as I had just happened to open the door and there they were.
A large bear that was feeding on the grass and was just about to lay down in front of our cabin when a ranger came to scare it off. This picture was also taken from the entrance to our cabin.
Speaking of expensive, staying at Brooks Lodge is not cheap. And I realize it is out of the price range for a lot of people. They raised prices again this year due to the rising costs of everything else. The cabins all sleep 4 people (bunk beds) so if you can split the cost a few ways, it does become a little more doable. I would throw out a word of caution however, the rooms are not very private, so I would make sure it is with people you enjoy and are comfortable around. I mention that, as I have seen posts of people looking to join other groups to share costs and increase their chances of getting a room. So that is something to really think about if you are going to be staying with strangers. There is just a curtain you can pull to create a little bit of a private area in the back of the cabin but otherwise it is just one room with a small table and the bunk beds. There was a sink, a small shower and a toilet in the room. The toilet was in a small room by itself. The view from our cabin was amazing though. We could often see bears out in the river from our room and on multiple occasions had bears pass right outside of our door. And with the rainy weather it was nice to have a dry place to go, I felt bad for the people camping. And I guess I should explain why I am going back and forth between “room” and “cabin.” Brooks Lodge has several small single unit cabins but there is also a larger building (cabin) that has several rooms in it. We were in the bigger cabin that has multiple separate rooms. The size and layouts of the rooms are virtually identical whether you have a single unit cabin or a “room” in the larger one. I think it would be quieter though in a single unit as we could hear a lot of noise from the neighboring rooms in our cabin.
A bear named “Gully” fishing on top of Brooks Falls. I had two pictures in mind that I really wanted to get, this one, using a slow shutter speed to smooth out the water and a bear actually catching a salmon in its mouth.
OK! So for all of you that are just here for the bears, here we go. I wanted to include all of that background information though, as maybe it will be helpful if there is anyone that is interested in visiting Katmai reading this.
So, as I have already alluded to, there are bears everywhere at Katmai. I would say at least several times a day rangers were chasing bears away from the lodge area. And almost every time we left our room we would see a bear somewhere (and oftentimes we didn’t even need to leave our room to see bears), it was pretty awesome. While Katmai National Park is huge, the main area most people think of as “Katmai” is actually pretty small. It consists of the Brooks Lodge area (and the Visitor Center is close by, along with the campground) , the main trail to Brooks Falls, the Falls itself of course and Lake Brooks.
A bear passing between the lodge and entrance to the bridge over the Brooks River.
Brooks Camp is actually on the shore of Naknek Lake. And then the Brooks River connects Naknek Lake to Lake Brooks and Brooks Falls is on that river. You might want to bring up a map to try and make sense of all that. There is a river, the Naknek River, that connects Naknek Lake to the ocean in Kvichak Bay for the salmon to navigate to get all the way up to Lake Brooks from the ocean. It is actually pretty impressive how far they have to go. The majority of the bear viewing action happens in and around the Brooks River, including the shores of Lake Brooks and Naknek Lake.
Looking out over where the Brooks River runs into Naknek Lake.
A sign marking the picnic area at Lake Brooks. Just off frame is a covered area surrounded by an electric fence were you can picnic.
A not very good panorama of Lake Brooks. It was storming pretty good so I wasn’t able to capture any good images of the lake. It was actually a lot larger then I was expecting.
They built a bridge over the Brooks River with several viewing platforms known as the “North” and “South” viewing platforms. From the bridge you can see a good portion of the lower Brooks River, which is kind of slow moving water and the shore of Naknek Lake. The salmon runs while we were there were kind of in between the sockeye and the silvers, so we saw more bears in this area then we did at the falls. The sockeye were done spawning and were kind of on their last legs and they were congregating in the backwater areas around the bridge, so the bears were there too. The silver salmon were just getting started but not in large numbers yet at the falls. We did see some fish jumping the falls, but not a lot. As a result, the most bears we ever saw at the falls was 5, but usually it was only 2 or 3. And sometimes when we went there were none. On a good day during the peak of the salmon runs you can see over 30 bears at once at the falls for some comparison. The salmon runs were a little late this year because of the cold spring, so I think things were kind of off this season in general.
A view from the bridge looking back toward Brooks Camp and one of the viewing platforms.
Looking at the bridge the opposite direction from Brooks Camp including the other viewing platform.
Looking down the bridge to Brooks Camp. The Brooks River is to your left and Naknek Lake would be just to your right.
My wife Denise taking a picture of a bear from one of the bridge viewing platforms, this give you some perspective on how close you can view the bears.
From the start of the trail/bridge it’s a little over a mile to the viewing platforms at Brooks Falls. There are actually two platforms there. One is overlooking the falls themselves and one is just down stream called the “Riffles Platform” that kind of looks up river to the falls. Of course the platform at the falls gives you the iconic up close and personal views of the bears at the falls, but the Riffles Platform gives you kind of a wider perspective of the falls. So both are worth visiting. The boardwalk kind of splits at a place called the “Treehouse” to go to either of the viewing platforms. This is a covered area with some benches and informational materials posted. It serves as kind of a staging area during the peak season to control traffic to the platforms. When the crowds get too large they will limit how many people and for how long you can be at the platforms so everyone gets a turn. It was so nice going in September as that was a non issue for us. A few times we even had the platforms to ourselves and at most there were maybe a dozen people at any given time.
Looking down the raised boardwalk leading to the Falls and Riffles viewing platforms.
A view from the “Riffles” platform looking up to Brooks Falls. There are 4 bears in this picture. The most we saw at one time was 5.
The classic view from the Falls platform. The bear on the right was starting to encroach on the bear above the falls and it was not very happy about it.
Please Check out the gallery below to view some of my favorite images from the Falls. As with all of the pictures in this blog, depending on your device you should be able to select the picture for a larger view.
This next gallery below are pictures taken from the bridge viewing platforms or areas not immediately near the falls.
If you don’t take the trail to go to Brooks Falls (there is a pit toilet at the fork if you need it) you can stay on the road and end up at Lake Brooks. This was supposed to be a little over a mile hike as well, but we all agreed it seems farther than that, as compared to going to the falls. We saw several bears on the road to the lake and we saw signs of bears at the lake, but none at the lake itself. It is also common to see lynx on this road, so that was largely why we made the hike, we did not see any lynx, but talked to people that had. There is a large population of snowshoe hares in the area, so that’s what attracts the lynx. So, as I mentioned, there is a road between the bridge and Lake Brooks. This road is the start of the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes tour you can do, and is the only road in the park. There are some buildings near Lake Brooks and the National Park Service housing is in this area. Since there are no roads to the park, the few vehicles that are there had to be brought in on barges. They have some information posted about that in the visitor center I think it was, so that was kind of interesting. We did not feel like we had time to do the tour, as it takes up a pretty good portion of a day, but if I ever get back there it is probably something I would try. The tour takes you to where the last volcanic eruption was (1912) in the area and kind of explores the geology of the area and looks at the aftermath of what was left behind.
We spent our days kind of going back and forth between our cabin, the lodge, the bridge and the viewing areas looking for bears and taking care of what we needed to. I don’t think we tracked every day, but most days I think we put in at least 10 miles going back and forth to everything. There may have also been some naps and downtime involved in there too. It pretty much rained (and sometimes there were heavy winds as well) the first three days we were there, so it was difficult to stay out for long stretches of time. If it had been nicer weather it probably would have been easier to just camp out at some of the locations for longer periods. We did take in the ranger lead Cultural Walk that was interesting. There were some evening ranger lead talks similar to other National Parks as well. Oh there was an auditorium building there too I forgot to mention, where the talks were held. We also spent some time looking for non-bear viewing opportunities. For example I found a lot of interesting mushrooms and fungus growing like I had never seen before. There were usually small mammals and birds around to view as well. The one upside to the cool rainy weather was the lack of bugs. The few times there were breaks in the weather however, the bugs did come out. We had been warned of this so we brought head nets to wear. I am glad we did. We didn’t need them often, but when we did they were nice to have. Obviously it is also important to bring good rain gear with you too.
Please check out this gallery for some of my non bear pictures I was able to capture.
As far as gear goes, we all packed as light as possible for this trip. There is a weight (and space) limit on the small float planes that bring you in. We also did not want to risk having any bags not showing up from checking things in with the airlines, so we traveled with only carry-on luggage. Since all of my camera gear (I will go over that next) pretty much took up my carry-on luggage and personal item, my wife and I split another carry-on bag and backpack for everything else we needed. I think I ended up stuffing a sweatshirt into my sister’s luggage as well at the last minute. And this was fine, I did not find myself needing anything I didn’t bring. It is actually pretty amazing how few things you actually NEED. As I mentioned, we did bring rain jackets, bug nets, we both had zip up hoodies, of course undergarments/socks, a couple changes of shirts and pants and a few bathroom essentials. And we still had room for some snacks and a few other personal items.
For my camera gear I brought my small ThinkTank Backstory 13 backpack I have been using and have mentioned in some of my other blogs as my personal item. I had my Canon R5 and Canon RF 100-500 L lens in there along with my Canon RF 24-105 L lens. I also had my extra batteries, memory cards, lens clothes, my GoPro 11 (and extra battery) and a few other accessories in there. And then I brought my big Canon 600 F4 L version 2 lens, my 2nd Canon R5 body (with the battery grip) and my larger tripod and gimbal head in my Tamrac bag as my carry-on. I don’t think I have talked about that bag before. I was also able to stuff my rain jacket, lightweight hat/gloves, and bug net into that case. It acted as some extra padding as well, which was good.
With hindsight being 20/20 I am not sure I really needed to bring my big 600mm lens. You can’t beat the quality of it, but in all honesty there were only a few times I really needed it. When you are at the falls for example, a 600mm lens is too much, except for some really tight shots. I may have been better served to have saved that space for some other options. Maybe my 70-200 2.8 for example? It certainly would have been easier to get through the airports not carrying the big stuff. But with that said, if the salmon had been running better and I had a chance to get the iconic bear catching a salmon in its mouth on the falls shot, I might have wanted it for that. Spoiler alert, I did not get that shot. As it was, 90% of the time I had my R5 (no battery grip) and the 100-500 on. Which was nicer to walk around with anyways since we were putting on so many miles everyday. With the clouds and rain most of the time there were not very many opportunities to break out the wider 24-105 either. I think there was one afternoon and a few hours on our last day when I did get it out to finally get a couple wider shots. But I guess there is the old adage about it being better to have something and not need it, than not having it and needing it. So who’s to say.
Our last view of the beach at Brooks Camp, including the water taxi and all of the float planes. We actually left on the silver plane just coming into dock in the background.
After our awesome few days in Katmai we boarded our float plane and took off back to King Salmon. The sun was actually out on our flight back to King Salmon so we could finally see and enjoy some of the landscape surrounding the park. And that ended our time in Katmai National Park. After that it was flights home and back to reality. I took a lot of video footage on this trip as well, but it might be a while before I get that put together. If you are interested, please check back on this blog as I will update it if I get it posted, or keep an eye out on my YouTube channel for it.
I have been asked several times if I was ever scared of the bears, and the honest answer is no. Of course your heart jumps a beat when you have an unusually close encounter with a bear, like we did on our first day with the mother and three cubs coming down the road right in front of us. But if you follow the guidelines they teach you in “bear school” the bears are very tolerant of having people around. You still have to do your part to not have food around and give the bears some space, but I always felt comfortable around the bears. The situation in Katmai is very unique however, and you should not expect that kind of behavior from bears anywhere else in the world.
(Edit from March 3, 2024)
I was finally able to put together a video from our trip and I posted it on my YouTube channel. It is posted below. It is a fairly long video, but I wanted to make sure I covered most aspects of our trip. I may do shorter, more focused videos in the future. I will try make a note of that if it happens. I have also added an additional gallery of photographs as I have gone back and given a second look at things since my original post, and found a few more images that I liked. As always, you can select each image for a larger view.
A video documenting our trip to Brooks Camp in Katmai National Park.