(#5) Katmai National Park
We set off on our Great Alaskan Road Trip early one Saturday in June with the goal of visiting all eight of Alaska’s national parks, many of which are located in exceptionally remote areas.
Our journey began with three days in Glacier Bay National Park. Then, we flew to Anchorage and picked up a car to drive to our second destination: Seward, Alaska, and Kenai Fjords National Park. After that, we spent two days in McCarthy, Alaska, to explore Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and two nights in Coldfoot to visit Kobuk Valley and Gates of the Arctic.
Kicking off the third and final week of our Great Alaskan Road Trip, we’re headed to the park Jonathan has MOST been looking forward to… and the stop I’m quite possibly the most petrified about. We’re heading to Katmai National Park to camp with the bears 🐻 and watch from up close as they fish for salmon at Brooks Falls.
This diary-style travelogue is dedicated to sharing ALL the adventures from this trip of a lifetime. Here's to daily recapping of an unforgettable journey… 21 days, 8 national parks, and 1 Great Alaskan Road Trip!
[Planning your own Alaskan adventure? Get our complete itinerary and Alaska Travel Guide here!]
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Day 15: Flight to King Salmon, Katmai
Today we head to our sixth national park in Alaska: Katmai 🐻
The day starts relatively standard, at about 6:45am, when we wake to finish packing for our Alaska Airlines flight to King Salmon at 10:10am.
All is going great as we lighten our bags (leaving what we don’t need in the car) and pack up the tent, which will be our first checked bag of the trip. We leave our Airbnb just a few minutes behind schedule and head toward the airport. About four minutes before arriving at Departures, and about 11 minutes after leaving the Airbnb, we realize a crucial mistake: We left the camera charger and battery behind.
I knew it was risky the night before plugging it into an outlet on the far wall, nowhere near the door we’d exit. But I went for it anyway and completely forgot to grab the charger and battery on our way out.
We consider turning back but ultimately decide we don’t have enough time, and it’s more important we make the flight than our gear. We luckily still have one battery on us (our pre-travel season purchase of a backup battery is coming in clutch right now!), but we’ll need it to last the next two days. 🤞
It’s the right call since there’s a decent line at security, but I’m definitely feeling bummed as this is one of the worst times to make this mistake. We’re headed to Katmai to see alllll the bears, and photography is one of the best things to do in this national park!! Not to mention, this is the stop Jonathan’s most excited about 😬😬 and wildlife photography can drain a battery quickly. You have to be ready at all times to catch that one fleeting moment since the animals only pose for so long.
But little did we know arriving at the airport this morning, a forgotten camera battery and charger will not be the biggest problem we need to solve today.
After getting through security, we check our email (which we haven’t been checking consistently since (1) we’re on vacation and (2) service has been limited) and see an email from the water taxi that’s picking us up in King Salmon to take us to Brooks Camp in Katmai National Park.
Our water taxi has been canceled due to weather, with absolutely zero taxis going to Brooks Camp today.
This is an even bigger wrench in our plans!
Of all the things we thought could go wrong, this was not one of them. After we made it to Kobuk Valley a few days before, we figured it was smooth sailing from here on out. What we didn’t factor in was the wind. So, while we kept an eye on possible storms or rain on the horizon, we didn’t keep an eye on heavy winds and definitely didn’t think about wind canceling the taxi service. (Especially because the water taxi promoted itself as the most reliable way to get from King Salmon to Brooks Camp 🤨)
We were bummed before, but we’re panicking now.
What if we get stuck in King Salmon? What if we don’t make it to Katmai National Park? Do we board this plane without a plan to get to Brooks Camp?
We quickly collect ourselves, or at least collect ourselves enough, and from our gate at the airport, we call the water taxi first. They tell us we might be able to get to King Salmon tomorrow morning on a 7:00am ride but confirm no taxis are departing today.
Since we’re scheduled to leave Katmai tomorrow at 8pm, that would mean less than 12 hours in the park. Plus, we’d miss our reservation to camp at Brooks Camp (Katmai’s campground) tonight and would have to find somewhere else to stay in King Salmon instead.
For some background, here’s what our itinerary was supposed to look like… We take an Alaska Airlines flight to King Salmon, followed by a water taxi from King Salmon to Katmai National Park. We camp in Brooks Camp tonight, enjoy all day with the bears, then take an 8:00pm water taxi to King Salmon tomorrow night. We’d camp in King Salmon for the night before flying back to Anchorage in two days’ time.
With the shift in water taxi departures, we’d lose over 19 hours plus our night camping in Katmai.
We tentatively reschedule our water taxi for the morning but don’t feel good about doing so. Especially as we talk to locals who don’t trust the water taxis will be running tomorrow, either. So as our plane prepares to board, we start calling seaplane services in hopes we can find a last-minute seat on a plane from King Salmon to Katmai instead. We can’t get ahold of anyone until the boarding group before ours is called. As we’re standing a few feet from the jetway, ready to show our boarding passes, Katmai Air returns our call and says they might have space for 2 on a 4:00pm flight.
This is hopeful news (!!!), but it’s not official, so after we board the plane, Jonathan’s making and answering more calls while I’m talking to our seatmate. All of a sudden, the couple in the row next to us overhears part of our conversation and asks, “Are you going to Katmai? Did your water taxi get canceled?”
Turns out, they were scheduled to be on the same canceled water taxi. They saw the email right when it arrived this morning (versus Jonathan and I, who only saw it after arriving at the airport, ha!) and were able to book a charter plane to get them to Katmai instead. It’ll leave around noon, right after we arrive in King Salmon, and if we join them and split the cost between the four of us, it’s roughly the same price as the water taxi.
This is amazing! What are the odds?!?!
We’re STOKED about this new method of transportation, the only problem is they’re returning from Katmai to King Salmon in two days, on Monday rather than tomorrow.
Surprisingly, they’re on the same flight as us on Monday heading back to Anchorage; they just have two nights at Brooks Camp, whereas we only have one.
You may remember from our travel season unveil post that the Brooks Camp Permit was very competitive, so getting nights during peak is incredibly hard. How would we get a second night to make this work?
Out of a mix of curiosity and desperation, while sitting on the runway waiting to take off, we open the Brooks Camp reservation site on our phone. It’s a shot in the dark; We know everything’s been booked for months, and each slot goes in mere minutes after reservations open. Katmai’s lodging is intimate and popular, but maybe we’ll get lucky, and a spot will be available now that the dates are right in front of us.
As the plane begins moving and we’re about to lose cell service for the next 48 hours, we’re shocked… and delighted! There’s a spot available to camp at Brooks Camp tomorrow!! We book it seconds before the plane departs and tell the couple in the row across from us… “We’re in!!!!”
We now have TWO nights at the iconic Brooks Camp and have a faster and more convenient mode of transportation to get us there!!!
We’re ecstatic and exhausted, feeling like we’ve been on the Amazing Race ever since we got the email just a few hours before, the one that had us questioning whether or not we’d even make it to Katmai. And we can’t believe our luck in sitting across the aisle from one of the few other passengers headed to Brooks Camp. (Come to find out, most of the people on our plane were staying in King Salmon to go on fishing trips. The gentleman sitting next to us was on an annual week-long fishing trip, where he expected to catch enough fish for the year. We wondered why no one else seemed concerned by this water taxi cancellation… but apparently, most of our plane was on a mission to find fish, not bears.)
It’s a short, easy flight from Anchorage to King Salmon.
When we arrive, we’re surprised to see how busy the airport is for this town of approximately 400 people. It’s small, but it’s packed with people arriving, people waiting to board their plane, and lots and lots of fishermen checking large coolers of fish from extended fishing trips nearby.
There’s no service, so while waiting for our checked bag (the tent), we use the airport payphone to call the water taxi and officially cancel our rides. The King Salmon airport seems to be a town meeting place when the flight from Anchorage comes in, so we’re able to find folks from Katmai Air and our King Salmon Campground to also let them know about our change in plans.
After we grab our tent, we meet up with our new friends (aka our aisle mates) and hop in a van to drive about five minutes down the road, then board a 7-seat seaplane from Branch River Air. It’s a 20-minute flight that ends up getting us to Katmai before our original water taxi would have even left. We’re not sure what to make of this day (it’s barely noon… we can’t believe all that’s occurred so far!), but we are SO grateful for how it’s working out. (And who knows… maybe we can use this in a future application for the Amazing Race to show how we handle frantically trying to reroute and figure out a next move WHILE TAXIING ON A PLANE!?)
As our plane is landing on the water by Brooks Camp and bringing us to shore, our pilot points out our first three Katmai bear sightings: a Mama Bear and her two cubs hanging out right next to the Katmai National Park sign. What a way to welcome us to one of the most densely populated bear areas in the world!!!
We pick a campsite at Brooks Camp for the next two nights and drop our things off before making our way to the visitor center to check in. One of the first things we’re required to do upon arrival is attend “Bear School” to learn about interacting with bears at Katmai and what to expect while we’re here. The same bears on the beach welcome us to Bear School, too, as they’re walking by the Visitor Center when we get there. Rangers are talking loudly to the mom and her cubs in an effort to get them out of the area and back onto the beach, and they’re sternly telling the rest of us to get safely on a porch or inside a building. (You don’t want to be between a mama and her cubs!)
I’m not sure what I’ve signed up for, living with the bears for the next two days, but at this point, I have no doubt it’s going to be interesting.
We attend Bear School, learning the importance of storing food and scented items in closed-door food caches, extra gear in gear caches (so the bears aren’t tempted to play with your things), and most importantly, WALKING, not running when you encounter a bear. (That’s right… when, not if.) Once we graduate, we take a quick tour of the area, walking past Brooks Lodge and along the platforms to Brooks Falls.
[There are two options for lodging here: (1) Brooks Camp, which costs $28/night and generally books out in minutes once reservations open for the season in early January, and (2) Brooks Lodge, which costs about $850/night and generally books up via lottery 1.5 years in advance!]
Although every step has my jaw on the floor since there are bears visible just about everywhere you look, Brooks Falls is the main attraction here at Katmai National Park. This is where the bears come each year to feast on salmon running upstream. Although bears are generally solitary animals, this is one of few places in the world where they’ll tolerate close proximity to one another because the food supply is so plentiful.
And as mentioned, Jonathan has been most looking forward to this stop along our Great Alaskan Road Trip. He has been waiting to see the bears. But apparently, I wasn’t listening well when he described what he was most excited about because I truly had no idea what I was in for.
Picture a wild zoo.
One where you can get as close to the animals as you can in a zoo, if not closer. But in this zoo, there are no fences and no cages. It’s an open zoo with all the dangers of the wild. And there are almost exclusively bears living here. Huge brown bears, some of whom weigh over 1200 pounds by the end of the summer.
Now picture the trails you use to get from exhibit to exhibit. Some of these trails are elevated platforms and boardwalks, where the bears can walk underneath while you observe them. Others are traditional dirt or gravel trails that both you and the bears use. Sometimes, at the same time.
This is Katmai National Park. It’s a wild, interactive, open zoo that’s home to thousands of brown bears and often offers views of a dozen+ bears at one time.
One of the cubs passing by the Visitor Center when we arrived.
A bear reaching a land bar for a nap in the sun after a swim.
When I say I didn’t know what to expect, this is what I mean. I had no idea these large and intimidating bears would be literally feet away from us. Or that sometimes they would sit right in front of the viewing platforms and just chill. For minutes at a time.
My favorite moment of our first day in Katmai National Park happens during our first trip to Brooks Falls. We’ve only just attended Bear School and walked to the Falls for an initial glimpse at the famous viewing area, and I’m standing at the corner of the Falls’ bottom platform. (Imagine a long elevated boardwalk through the woods to get to a two-tier viewing platform that holds about 40 people.)
As I’m standing on the platform with only a hip-height railing in front of me, one of the largest bears in the park appears in the grass to my side. He stands on his back legs to show off his height and scratches his head against a tree. He’s no more than 10 feet away.
Finishing his grooming, he heads toward the Falls, following a small break in the brush that’s just beside the platform. He’s now no more than 7 feet away as he stops to check out the Falls and see who is where. There are no words to describe the shock and awe of standing this close to a grizzly bear who seems not to care that you’re there. It’s mesmerizing and unnerving, but mostly it just leaves you speechless and giddy, ready for more as soon as he continues his walk.
No zoom - The bear scratched his head on the tree to his left then walked toward the Falls right in front of the platform!!! I’ll share the video on IG @roadtriplocals.
We enjoy watching the bears for about an hour on our first trip to Brooks Falls, but then we need to head back to camp to set up our tent and grab some food.
Walking back from Brooks Falls in the early afternoon, we’re treated to our next picturesque view. Under sunshine and blue skies, a brown bear is wading through the clear water to a small island highlighted by snow-capped mountains. Katmai doesn’t just offer bears. Its landscape is incredible, too!
Once back at our campsite, we set up our tent, then grab a quick lunch at Brooks Lodge before we go back to the platforms for more bear sightings. Our heads are on swivels the entire time we’re walking through the park, as there are bears in every direction you look. There are bears in front of you. Bears to your right. Bears to your left. Even bears behind you!
We’re on the platforms until about 9:30pm. We see a showdown between bears as one bear walks in a direct line toward another, who stands his ground and does not back down. And although it’s not yet the prime season for the salmon run, which is late this year, we see a few salmon jumping at the Falls and even see Grazer, quite possibly the best fisher among all the bears at Katmai, catch and eat a fish. (She’s one of the most active fishers and generally seems to prefer the dash-and-go method of fishing. It looks a lot like a cat pouncing on a toy, but she’s pouncing on fish in the water. We watched Grazer pounce again and again until she popped up with a fish she ate right there on a rock in the river!)
[Many bears at Katmai are given numbers and nicknames so they can be observed from year to year. We definitely didn’t learn all of the names and numbers of the bears during our trip, but we did pick up a few and will share them here as we can!]
Our walk to camp at the end of the evening is peaceful, as the soft Alaskan sun keeps it light outside, and most visitors have left for the day or turned in for the night. All we can say about our first day in Katmai is “wow” because this place is pure magic, and we’re in awe!
Day 16: Katmai National Park
There are no surprises during our first night of sleep in Brooks Camp - you know, no bears showing up to camp or anything! - so we wake fairly easily for an early morning back at the Falls.
The Falls platforms are open from 7am to 10pm each day, and we want to be there as close to open and close as we can. That’s because there’s a 40-person limit at the Falls, and the busiest time of day is the middle of the day when daytrippers are flying in, and a waitlist generally begins. We want to take advantage of the quieter numbers at the Falls in the morning and during the evening when just the campers and those staying at the lodge are in the area.
Only a handful of people are on the platforms when we arrive around 7:20am, so we get a prime spot for bear viewing on the Falls’ bottom platform. There aren’t any bears here when we arrive, so we wait and watch a few fish attempt the jump upstream. The cold winter, plus a lack of sun with a lot of rain this summer, means the prime salmon run is late. But we are seeing more and more fish show up each time we’re here.
One fish, in particular, is feisty and persistent, but after missing the jump three times, you know he’s in trouble. Because here comes Bear Force One, last year’s reigning champ in the category of “bear who’s gained the most weight”.
He’s large, he’s spotted the fish, and he’s on the move. (And to be honest, you don’t know whether to root for the fish or the bear. You just know that if the fish doesn’t make the jump in the next one or two attempts, he may not make it at all…)
Bear Force Once slowly wades through the Falls toward the fish, who just misses a final attempt when the bear arrives. Getting in his spot at the “jacuzzi”, which is a section of the Falls that whirls around fish who don’t make the jump right into the path of a waiting bear, Bear Force Once dunks his head before reappearing with the salmon flopping square in his jaw.
He’s caught the first fish of the morning!
Walking the fish over toward the platform we’re standing on, Bear Force One walks under the boardwalk to enjoy his breakfast with no other bears in sight. Once finished, he repeats this process, fishing successfully at the Jacuzzi until he’s caught four fish in an hour. He eats two under the boardwalk and two on the bank of the river, all in perfect view for us standing on the platforms in awe of what we’re seeing and how close we are to the action.
Not long after, a second bear arrives at the Falls, and in less than ten seconds, he pounces. We collectively gasp, “He’s got one!” as he surfaces with his own salmon in mouth. He brings it to the bank of the far side of the river and eats, then makes it clear the bears are putting on a show for us this morning. Because probably only 2.5 seconds after finishing his first fish, that same bear pounces and surfaces with a second. His second fish is caught and eaten in just ten minutes’ time.
What a morning! In two hours, we’ve seen MANY fish jump and six total fish caught, some from the stand-and-wait ‘Jacuzzi’ approach and others from the dash-and-grab.
At around 9:10am, the first waitlist of the day begins, which means we have 30 more minutes to observe before we’ll head to a different platform without volume restrictions.
I turn to Jonathan and say, “I can watch the bears fish and eat and hang for minutes uninterrupted, not taking a single photo or video, just being entirely present… and then as soon as we leave or they leave, I’m yearning for just one more bear to arrive or fish to be caught. Do you feel that too?”
He smiles and nods. “Absolutely.”
Bear Force One hanging out in the ‘Jacuzzi’ waiting for salmon to bounce back from the Falls. You can see a salmon jumping in this photo!
When a bear catches a fish, they sometimes bring it right to the platforms to eat. (This is Bear Force One!)
Once our time is up for the morning, we make our way back from the Falls to the rest of the trails in the area. We notice a group of people and photographers with cameras pointing down a side trail. We stop to see what they’re seeing… a mama bear and her yearling cub sleeping along a dirt path about 50 yards away. Just a few minutes after we arrive, they wake and begin walking toward us. We’re on an elevated platform, watching the two bears get closer and closer until they walk underneath the boardwalk to graze in the grass on the other side.
This is another one of those indescribable moments at Katmai National Park.
There’s a mama bear and her incredibly cute yearling cub no more than 10-15 feet in front of us. A YEARLING CUB. As in, the most adorable fuzzy teddy bear you’ll ever see just grazing in the grass without a care in the world. Yesterday was the closest either of us has ever been to an adult grizzly bear, and today’s the closest we’ve been to a cub!
We hang out with three dozen or so other people on the large boardwalks and watch the bears for as long as they’re in front of us. They don’t seem to mind the company or the photoshoot they’re giving us, and it’s spectacular. It’s hands-down one of the most adorable moments of our entire Great Alaskan Road Trip!
The most adorable yearling cub hanging out by the platforms! Who’s that right up front in blue?!
After a buffet lunch at the Lodge and a quick pit stop back at our campsite to freshen up, it’s already time to return to the Falls for an afternoon of bear watching. Standing on the platforms, we once more watch as fish attempt the jump over the Falls, and bears use all kinds of techniques to catch those who don’t make it.
It’s hard to believe there are any fish who can make this roughly six-foot leap, but eventually, we witness it with our own eyes. We see a fish make the jump!!!
Not too much later, it starts raining, and everyone shuffles off the platforms one by one until it’s just me, Jonathan, and a ranger left behind. Chatting with the ranger, we slowly see the rain bring out the fish and witness two more make the six-foot leap over the Falls. Apparently, both bears and people have a sense of this happening, and not much later, the platforms are full again.
We’re now seeing our record for bears in the water at one time — 7 bears! We can see seven bears along the river and at the Falls, all fishing for salmon using a variety of dunking, pouncing, and snorkeling techniques. (The fish also bring out some friskiness, and two bears show us how cubs are made, ha! 🫣)
One bear catches three fish in the span of about ten minutes. Then Bear Force One returns and quickly catches two back-to-back. The best fisher and one of our favorite bears, Grazer, holds her own against much bigger bears for the prime spot along the Falls. She’s small, but she’s feisty.
Our record for the most bears at one time. Can you spot all 7? One’s even fishing in this photo and Grazer is sitting in the Jacuzzi!
It’s getting close to the dinner hour, and we’re keeping an eye on the time. Not because we’re ready for a meal but because Jonathan has worked some magic, and we have someone to meet at the Lodge by 6pm. Remember how we left our camera charger and second battery behind in Anchorage? The one battery we do have is quickly dying, so earlier today, Jonathan asked around for a charger we could borrow. Instead, he was introduced to an employee who hosts photography trips in Katmai and has a second camera he’s not using. We buy him a beer (and hand over some collateral to ensure we won’t run off with his camera), and he lets us borrow his camera for the evening. ONE WITH A FULL BATTERY, SO WE CAN TAKE ALL THE PICTURES WE’D LIKE!!!
(I should note here that Jonathan has been conserving battery as much as possible over the last 24 hours, which has meant turning off the camera and forgoing the extra shot over and over again. Not having to worry about this is going to be a game-changer for our final evening in Katmai!)
Now with our temporary uber-professional camera in hand, we turn around and make our way back to the Falls, and our excitement builds with each step. We’re about to get some of the best photos we’ve ever gotten. After all, the guide who lent us his camera for the evening works as a PHOTOGRAPHY TOUR GUIDE in Katmai. You know he’s done the research, and the gear he uses is good!
We’re walking back to the Falls following the same trail we’ve followed probably 6 times already. We’ve yet to see a bear, so we’re pretty comfortable walking along, talking loudly as we go and making extra noise as we round each bend.
As we start on the final trail to Brooks Falls, we see a couple paused just a few feet in front of us. They’re pointing their camera at something further along the trail. “What do you see?” we ask when we approach.
“There’s a bear sleeping on or just next to the trail right ahead.”
I don’t know how they spotted this bear. He’s nestled in the brush, lying on his back next to the trail so that his brown fur is camouflaged by the brown tree trunks and branches.
“It’s a bear jam,” Jonathan says. “I’ve read about this. Sometimes, a bear jams the trail, and you just have to wait them out, prepared to get out of their way should they want to use the trail, walking toward you.”
And this bear… this bear is in no rush to move.
There’s another group stuck on the far side of the trail, on the other side of the bear, making noise to let the bear know humans are in the area and coming through. The bear doesn’t move. He doesn’t even budge. This is one of the biggest bears in the park, and he knows he has the right of way.
Shortly after we arrive and pause with the couple who first spotted the bear along the trail, a group of three arrives behind us. One of whom is (luckily 🙏🙏🙏) an off-duty ranger. He asks what’s going on as we fill him in on the bear ahead. There’s a dad and son that were walking with him to Brooks Falls, and it’s clear the dad is especially excited to get to the Falls. (To put it nicely.) He’s impatient and starts making loud noises, then walks a few steps closer in hopes of getting the bear to move.
And in case you’re wondering, this is the opposite of what they teach you at bear school.
The off-duty ranger, of course, knows this. He says to the dad, “If you do that again, I’m going to ask you to leave. The bear has the right of way. We stand here for as long as he lays there. If he moves, we move. We move backward if he walks toward us. We can proceed forward if he ventures off the trail into the brush. But until then, we stay put. And we don’t agitate him, threaten him, or surprise him; We talk in a normal voice because this bear already knows we’re here and is watching us.”
The dad eventually backs off, but not until after suggesting we should quietly walk past the bear because “he probably won’t even know we’re passing by.” (Also not what they teach you in bear school.)
After 10 or so minutes, the bear finally stirs.
He slowly rolls over and pushes to his feet to stand up. He’s huge.
“That might be Bear 856,” Jonathan says. “He’s known to be one of the most dominant bears in the park and possibly the most aggressive. He’s often seen fighting with Bear Force One, who is the biggest bear in the park.”
The off-duty ranger holds up a hand.
“Start walking backward,” he tells us calmly but sternly. We follow his directions as Bear 856 begins walking the trail toward us. As he takes a step forward, we take a step backward. He knows we’re here, and we’re attempting not to be a threat or prey. “We’ll continue to do this as long as he walks towards us, but if he charges, we’ll stand our ground, huddle together, and make ourselves big.”
That’s what they teach you in bear school.
There are lots of bends in this trail. So when we round a bend but then don’t see Bear 856 for a few minutes, the ranger tells us we’ll proceed with caution and start moving forward.
We take a few tentative steps in the direction of the Falls… then all seven of us jump in unison.
Bear 856 is gone, but in his place, we see a mama bear and her two cubs now on the trail. And they are just a few small feet in front of us.
“DON’T RUN!” the ranger says forcefully, clearly recognizing our instinct to take off in the other direction as our surprise turns to panic, and we want to get far, far away. It takes every intentional muscle in our body to force a deep breath and slowly walk, not run, backward.
In total, we backtrack about a half-mile, all the way back to the start of the trail that sits at a fork.
“Will they keep walking this way?” one of our group asks as we wait by bathrooms at the trailhead, instructed to get inside and close the door should the mom and her cubs appear at the fork and choose our direction.
“Yes,” the ranger answers. “Bears take the path of least resistance, of least energy expenditure, so they utilize trails often to get around.”
For two long minutes, we wait by the bathrooms with the doors open and ready for us to enter, but we don’t see any additional signs of the mom and her cubs. Our ranger takes a few steps on the trail, rounding the first bend with bear spray out in front of him. (You can’t bring bear spray on planes, so generally, only the rangers have it!)
So far, so clear, and he gestures to us to start walking toward him. We’re on high alert as we follow the trail all the way to Brooks Falls, passing the place where the initial bear lay minutes earlier. Sighs of relief all around once we finally see the first gate to enter the elevated platform that’ll walk us the final quarter mile to Brooks Falls.
We thank the ranger for leading us through our first (and hopefully only) 35-minute bear jam, and now it’s finally time to use the camera we’re so excited about! For this evening, with a full camera battery, Jonathan’s on a mission to get an iconic Brooks Falls shot — an image of a bear standing on the ledge of the Falls with his or her mouth open to catch a jumping salmon.
It’s Bear 634, nicknamed ‘Popeye’, that we watch standing on the ledge of the Falls for the next few hours. He’s waiting for a fish, and we’re waiting for the photo. Us and Popeye both put in the time, waiting and watching for about an hour and a half. We get some epic photos and some incredibly clear ones, but we don’t quite capture “the one,” as none of the fish jumping are close enough for Popeye to catch.
We stay at the platform till close since this is our final evening at the Falls and, at about 9:59, which is one minute before the platform closes, Bear Force One dunks his head in the Jacuzzi and grabs a fish he then eats under the platform we’re standing on.
What an end to a magical second day in Katmai National Park!
Ending our night with Popeye, trying to capture the iconic Brooks Falls photo! You can just see the fish jumping on the right.
Day 17: Katmai, Fly to Anchorage, Drive to Denali
It’s our final morning in Katmai National Park, so we pack up camp early to get to the Falls one final time before our flight to King Salmon leaves around 10am. Our tent is packed up and we’re ready to go in about 45 minutes, which is pretty good for people who’ve only taken down this tent once and have packed super light, meaning everything has a place and needs to go back in its place in order to fit.
After clearing our campsite and grabbing our food plus extra gear from the caches, we head to the Falls for one more session of bear watching. Rather than walk the wooded trails by the campsite, we choose to walk down the beach and spot three bears in the distance.
Besides this, it’s a quiet morning on our way to, and then at, the Falls.
There are no bear jams (happy about that!!!), and only a few bears fishing this morning. We soak up our final moments here in Katmai National Park before walking back to the beach in search of a sow and her spring cubs. We don’t spot them, but we do spot bear tracks, which are, as you’d expect, quite large. (Jonathan got an amazing picture of one of the bear’s paws at the Falls. I’ll post it below… just wow!)
The sun comes out as we wait for our pilot and charter plane to land at the beach and fly us back to King Salmon. It’s an easy, beautiful flight over Naknek Lake, which boasts the most gorgeous turquoise water. Then, it’s a pretty easy boarding process and a short second flight that takes us from King Salmon to Anchorage.
Once we arrive in Anchorage and reach out to our families after 48 hours without service, we recap our time at Brooks Camp and Katmai National Park, and we truly don’t know where to start. Despite missing the prime salmon run, we saw so. many. bears!
We saw bears by the welcome sign… by the visitor center… by the cabins, and by the bridges you take to get to the Falls. We saw bears under the bridges, swimming in the water, on the beach, at the Falls, and along the trails. Often, there were bears in every direction you could look!
And although we didn’t see the iconic view with tons of fish jumping, we did see plenty of fish. Some made the jump (which goes against what you think the laws of gravity should allow!!!), many missed the jump, and many were caught by the bears.
Katmai National Park exceeded my expectations in just about every way, and there’s no other way to describe it than magical. And this is coming from someone who was incredibly hesitant to spend up close and personal time with any bear, let alone dozens of them. But being so close to the bears doing their thing… I’m not sure there’s anywhere else in the world you can be that close to a bear existing in the wild (and feel safe). It’s incredible for wildlife watchers, photographers, and naturalists alike.
Katmai is a built-in experience. It’s not just about hiking or sightseeing, and it feels more interactive than probably any other national park we’ve been to. And I can honestly say we now both can’t wait to be back one day!
Once we land in Anchorage, we coordinate with our Airbnb host to pick up the camera battery and charger we left behind a few days before. Our host is on a camping trip of her own, so we have about 4 hours to entertain ourselves, and we choose 49th State Brewing in Downtown Anchorage while we wait.
After a few nights of peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, it feels great to sit at a table in the busy brewery and indulge with no rush. We enjoy ciders, sour beer, nachos, soft pretzels, and pizza. You know that warm, cozy feeling you have when indulging in comfort food, particularly after a few nights of doing the opposite? That’s how we’re feeling while we dine in abundance at 49th State Brewing. (It’s at this point that I’m telling Jonathan our next vacation will include more time for dining and resting, ha!)
Funnily enough, a Mavericks summer league game comes on one of the TVs at the bar, and we spend a few minutes watching the rookies in one of their first games wearing a Dallas uniform.
The hours pass quickly, and now it’s time to meet our host to grab our things and make a pretty uneventful drive to Denali National Park, where we’ll spend the next three days. It’s overcast with slight rain, so unfortunately, we don’t have any views of Mount Denali on our way, but at least this keeps us moving and we’re able to check into Riley Creek Campground around 9pm.
It’s late, and we’ve had enough of sleeping on the ground, so we opt to car camp instead. After moving a few things around so we can comfortably sleep in the front two seats of the car, we grab our toiletries and use the restroom nearby - with running water! - to get ready for bed.
On our way back to the car, we meet our neighbors, one of whom is a beautiful Alaskan Malamute. We get our fill of one-year-old puppy snuggles before turning in for the night and, surprisingly, getting one of our best nights of sleep so far.
Tomorrow, we’ll wake up and explore the 7th national park of our trip!