Katmai National Park and Preserve

Located on the Alaska Peninsula, Katmai National Park and Preserve was created as a national monument in 1918. It is the home of Brooks Falls, one of the best sites for viewing the Alaskan brown bear, and of The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes.

We flew from Anchorage to King Salmon by a commercial airliner and saw some spectacular views of snow-covered mountains and then the greener valleys. From King Salmon we took a small float plane to the park. This was my first experience in such an aircraft. The water was smooth for the take off, but it seemed to take forever for us to get off the water. More wonderful scenery, this time filled with lakes, and ponds, and rivers. The landing on the choppy water was a little bit bumpy.
Immediately upon arrival at Brooks Lodge, we were greeted by a park ranger who gave us instructions on how to behave around bears.
"Enjoy them from a distance."
"When walking through the woods, make noise so that you do not surprise a bear."
"If you catch a fish and a bear approaches, immediately cut your line."
This last warning was so that bears would not associate humans with food and the sounds of fishing reels. Although, the bear season was over, he said that there had been one in the area and there was a good possibility of our coming upon it. After that, we checked in to the lodge and on the way to our cabins, came upon a bear in the lake! However, it was too far away to get a good view.

We hiked along a trail to Brooks Falls, being careful to make noise. This is one of the most famous bear watching sites in the world. Here, salmon returning from the sea pause at the bottom while summoning up the strength to leap up the falls. Brown Bear gather in large quantities to feast upon the salmon, often snatching them out of the air. The bears are normally aggressive towards each other, but food is so abundant here that they tolerate close proximity to one another. (Brown Bear and grizzlies are now considered to be the same species. The ones living near the coast are called Brown Bear and are generally larger than the inland grizzlies.) The height of the salmon run was over for the year and there were no bear (or tourists other than us) at the falls. We did enjoy watching the few salmon which were still working their way upstream.
On the way back, we enjoyed the peace and quiet of the woods. When we arrived at the lodge, we found the bear that we had previously seen in the lake. This time it was much closer and we were able to watch it catch and eat salmon. A true gourmet, it would eat only the most succulent parts of the fish, before discarding it and catching another. We were later told that this was a rather young bear that was remaining in the area after the older bears had left.

Brooks Lodge was in a most attractive setting and the long hours of sunlight enabled us to enjoy the view and watch wildlife late into the night. Admittedly, it may not have been as fearsome as the Brown Bear, but I took my life in my hands as I stalked a hare. I also enjoyed watching a Porcupine taking a midnight ramble.

The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes

The next morning, we took a bus ride to the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. In 1912, earthquakes rocked the area and then the volcano Novarupta exploded with tremendous force. More than forty square miles of land were buried under deep layers of the lava and ash released by the volcano. The tens of thousands of small fissures that were formed and continued to emit steam and gas gave the name to the area. We enjoyed our bus ride to the valley, pausing to look at bears frolicking in the river, bright red salmon, and simply extraordinary scenery.

The area around the valley was filled with fog and low clouds. It made it seem quite mystical. Down in the valley, we observed the raging waters rush through areas of blackened lava. We later found out how strong the current was and what it could do. Naturally, I spent time looking at the plants.

Some German tourists made a memorial in stones to one of their friends who had been swept away by the currents a few days before. His body had not been found as of the time we were there.

After the long day, we spent an enjoyable evening at the lodge. The next morning, we watched the fish jumping in the lake for a while and then left Katmai National Park.

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Copyright © 1996 Richard L. Becker