Katmai is a remote National Park of over 4 million acres, a bit larger than Connecticut. It is about 300 miles southwest of Anchorage and south of the Kenai Peninsula. The only access is by plane or boat. We visited the park in the summer of 2019. We were camping in Homer at the KOA on a hill over town with a super view.
Most of these park photos are new to the site, and all of them are recently edited or re-processed. There will be a link to this post in the National Park Gallery menu under Alaska and Katmai. Still working on the link process but this type of link will be the new norm for all of the park entries going forward, and I do plan to re-do all 290+ that we have already visited. Lots of photos.
There are two primary ways to visit Katmai to view the bears - the park is all about the bears. The first is a day trip by seaplane to the primary Visitor Center at Katmai called Brooks Camp. After attending a bear safety class with a ranger, you are admitted on a timed schedule to several viewing platforms. The most popular is by a waterfall; this is where many photos of a grizzly catching a salmon are taken. In pre-covid times you would be on site about 4 hours. Alternatives to the one day trip to Brooks Camp include tenting overnight in a fenced safe compound or inside accommodations in a lodge with a second full day bus trip to the “Valley of 10,000 Smokes.” You can fly commercially to King Salmon, a small village, stay overnight and use a float taxi to Brooks Camp. Visiting Katmai is expensive.
We chose another option - an excursion with Bear Adventures from Homer on the Kenai Peninsula, a great town in Alaska to visit. The pilot/guide flies four guests in a small plane to a remote area on the coast of Katmai National Park, lands on a beach, and you take a guided walk among the bears. This option is also expensive - and I have been to Disney! But it was the most amazing experience - worth every penny. We paid a bit under $700 each with an early bird special in the spring.
Our first reservation was aborted by bad weather after getting up at five, suiting up in our hip waders and listening to the safety lecture. But glad they take weather seriously. There was an opening the next afternoon, and it turned out to be a perfect day. As we approached the park, our pilot flew in lower looking for opportunities. He spied three bears and said we would try this bay - activity indicated the salmon had started to spawn.
He was correct. He landed smoothly on the beach and over the first dunes were three bears, a mother and two cubs about 2 years old. (All bear facts courtesy of our guide) Before we had settled along a log to watch them, a wolf appeared and the three bears chased it over the dunes running right past us. Shortly they came back, no sign of the wolf, and resumed fishing about 40 yards from us. We watched them a long time until they moved out of sight up the stream. We walked over another dune or two and soon spotted two 5 year old bears fishing and playing the at edge of the sea where the steam entered. I failed to focus properly on them thus poor photos! As they moved inland, our guide moved us to another location where he expected that they would emerge and fish, again correct. Now we were mirroring them on one side of the river while they moved up the other side. Amazing. We were never more than 20 yards from them.
Then the BIG bear approached. He was 1000 pounds plus and would be 1200 by end of the summer. The two younger ones moved back into the weeds and the full sized male grizzly walked past us on our side of the river less than 25 feet from where I was shooting. He ignored us (yay) and continued out of sight toward the mouth of the river. The other two continued to ineffectively fish and, in a show of bravado, one crossed the stream and walked past us just like the big one did, never taking his eyes off us. He then turned around and went back past us to rejoin his sibling. We went back toward the river outlet again and watched the big bear catch two salmon. As he moved off, we returned to the plane and flew back to Homer over an extinct volcano. We saw some unique sea birds, three eagles and glorious scenery.
What a fantastic day! The staff of Bear Adventures was very competent - committed to guests’ experience and safety while maintaining a respect for the bears and their habitat in Katmai National Park.
Cadillac’s Viewpoint: Pure perfection and I even got to pilot the plane, of course. Cadillac’s Elevation 5 Antlers
Tomorrow: the Big Bear Lumbers in
Momma returns from the wolf chase over the dune
Back to fishing
We were told they stand when curious and two year olds are curious.
Not a happy bear
The five year old siblings - likely their last year together.
No you cannot outrun a bear, 1000 pounds of fast.
Ready to leave with one more windy photo
A special beauty - eagle soaring over the beach