The Bears of Katmai National Park, Alaska

Ronstar

Ronstar

Moderator Emeritus
Joined
Aug 23, 2007
Messages
16,627
Location
Northern Illinois
Just got back from Alaska. Spent 3 days at Brooks Camp in Katmai National Park. Brooks Camp and Brooks Falls are known for their brown bears. I spent 2 afternoons at the viewing platform taking bear photos and 1 morning fishing in the river with the bears.

Here's a slideshow of the bear photos.

 
Those are some great shots! DW and I are going to Alaska for the first time next year. Can't wait. Thanks for sharing.
 
Great photos Ron!
That is a great place to see bears from spring to late fall.
 
Great pics - thanks for sharing.

I can only imagine what it was like to “be there” and watch them.
 
wonderful pictures!
thank you for sharing your trip
 
We did not go to Katmai in our Alaska trip. So many places to go, and one cannot do it all in one trip, even if it was 2 months.

We did spend time in Haines, and where the water from the Chilkoot Lake flows out to the Chilkoot Inlet, bears go hunt for salmon at a certain time of years. We were there in July, and there were no sightings.

Here's a photo from the Web of the bears in Haines.

Along the Alcan highway, we got to see numerous animals, bears included, so it was not for naught. However, we saw more animals in the Yukon, and the sightings dropped off when we crossed into Alaska.

chilkat-river-bears-photo.jpg
 
The Brooks webcam is attached to the viewing platform. Probably gets its power from solar. And I think that the feed may go out via a small satellite dish.

We saw as many as 30 at one time. Ranger saw 50 at once earlier the same day.

Wish I could have taken some photos while fishing in the river. The bears are more imposing when you're level with them.

Viewing platform is about a half mile walk from the lodge/cabins. Bears were everywhere - 10' from the lodge, and walking along the shore of the lake delaying folks from exiting the float plane.

Very strict bear rules:
No food outside of a building
Don't get within 50 yards of a bear
Walk, don't run away from a bear
 
Awesome !
I've been there fishing and briefly on the viewing platform. Stayed at Enchanted Lake Lodge and one of our fly out trips was to Brooks.
The really freaky scary part for me was walking through their bedding area to get to a part of the river to fish. VERY LARGE ANIMALS
 
I fished there! It was an unbelievable experience. We were after the huge rainbows, which the bears could have cared less about. For them, it was all salmon, salmon, salmon.
 
About 15 years ago we flew in for bear viewing with Emerald Air out of Homer. At that time it was owned by Chris and Ken Day. Ken was the mechanic (piston Otter) and pilot. Chris was everything else, including our guide for the day.

We spent it on the ground, within 100 yards of a mom and her two cubs. (Ken spotted her as we came in for landing; fortunately fairly close to the landing lake.) We spent hours just walking, photographing, and watching. Mom had eaten so much salmon that she was just slitting them open with a claw, eating the roe, and throwing the "husk" away. The kids were very curious about us and kept moving toward us, but when they got too close mom would give them a sort of growl-grunt and they would hurry back to her.

Emerald Air has changed hands a couple of time since then and has gotten bigger, now flying a couple of turbine Otters. But for anyone who can spend only a day, I'd still recommend the experience. It's the real deal, on the ground with the bears in their real territory.

Bear info: https://www.emeraldairservice.com/about-bears
 
OldShooter said:
About 15 years ago we flew in for bear viewing with Emerald Air out of Homer. At that time it was owned by Chris and Ken Day. Ken was the mechanic (piston Otter) and pilot. Chris was everything else, including our guide for the day.

We spent it on the ground, within 100 yards of a mom and her two cubs. (Ken spotted her as we came in for landing; fortunately fairly close to the landing lake.) We spent hours just walking, photographing, and watching. Mom had eaten so much salmon that she was just slitting them open with a claw, eating the roe, and throwing the "husk" away. The kids were very curious about us and kept moving toward us, but when they got too close mom would give them a sort of growl-grunt and they would hurry back to her.

Emerald Air has changed hands a couple of time since then and has gotten bigger, now flying a couple of turbine Otters. But for anyone who can spend only a day, I'd still recommend the experience. It's the real deal, on the ground with the bears in their real territory.

Bear info: https://www.emeraldairservice.com/about-bears
Click to expand...

You had me at piston Otter. Would love to fly in one of these beasts. One giant step up from the DHC-Beaver which Harrison Ford flew in SIX DAYS, SEVEN NIGHTS. (I think HF owns one as well.) Got to fly in a Twin (turbine) Otter at a regional airport - commuter airline. Not the same I'm sure.

Here's the Wiki on the Otter (with an unfortunate tail number.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Canada_DHC-3_Otter

Now returning you to our regularly scheduled thread.
 
Markola said:
I fished there! It was an unbelievable experience. We were after the huge rainbows, which the bears could have cared less about. For them, it was all salmon, salmon, salmon.
Click to expand...

We fished there too. Mixed in with the bears. We kept having to move because bears were constantly closing in.

When we first got there, we were walking along the shore and 2 little heads popped up out of the tall grass about 40' in front us. 2 cubs and a momma bear just waking up. We reversed course immediately so as not to rile the momma bear.

We were after rainbows also. Using artificial salmon egg flies. The rainbows love them. I netted a couple, had several others on line, but escaped.
 
I, too, am addicted to the bears at Brooks Falls. It has been my guilty pleasure for several summers, from the start of the salmon run to the end of season Fat Bear Contest (hosted by the park service and Explore.org).

OP, were you there when Otis returned? For those not familiar, Otis is one of the oldest male bears (estimated to be 25-26 yo) that visit the Brooks River each summer. He was about 3 weeks late to the feast this year. Many of the rangers and the viewing regulars feared that he didn’t survive the winter. A couple weeks ago he slowly stumbled to the river. They watched him catch and eat 17 salmon that first night! And everyone heaved a sigh of relief.

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2021/07/si...bear-480-otis-alive-well-katmai-national-park
 
ocean view said:
I, too, am addicted to the bears at Brooks Falls. It has been my guilty pleasure for several summers, from the start of the salmon run to the end of season Fat Bear Contest (hosted by the park service and Explore.org).

OP, were you there when Otis returned? For those not familiar, Otis is one of the oldest male bears (estimated to be 25-26 yo) that visit the Brooks River each summer. He was about 3 weeks late to the feast this year. Many of the rangers and the viewing regulars feared that he didn’t survive the winter. A couple weeks ago he slowly stumbled to the river. They watched him catch and eat 17 salmon that first night! And everyone heaved a sigh of relief.

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2021/07/si...bear-480-otis-alive-well-katmai-national-park
Click to expand...

I was taking pics while a ranger was talking about Otis with DW. Not sure how long Otis had been there before we got there. I should have paid more attention to the ranger, because I don’t remember which bear he was. Probably the one that others got out of the way of when he sauntered to the falls.

ETA - DW says Otis was sitting in the river a little upstream of the falls. He got up, turned and walked to the upper edge of the falls to feed. All other bears scattered.
 
Last edited:
Ronstar said:
Just got back from Alaska. Spent 3 days at Brooks Camp in Katmai National Park. Brooks Camp and Brooks Falls are known for their brown bears. I spent 2 afternoons at the viewing platform taking bear photos and 1 morning fishing in the river with the bears.

Here's a slideshow of the bear photos.

Click to expand...

Very nice shots.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

starry night
Let’s visit National Parks
2 3
Replies
55
Views
3K
iloveyoga
iloveyoga
2017ish
Indonesia Diving and Komodo National Park; Yes, it is worth the long journey
Replies
5
Views
615
2017ish
2017ish
C
Do any of you cut it really close in easy retirement?
2 3 4
Replies
87
Views
8K
Koolau
Koolau
Chuckanut
Nice Hotels as we get older?
6 7 8
Replies
188
Views
15K
fifa
F
2017ish
Driving and Hiking Patagonia, Emphasizing the Carretera Austral.
Replies
11
Views
923
klebs01
K

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom