Katmai National Park

We had wanted to visit Katmai National Park back in 2010 when we were here, but we could not fit that in. Now being back in the area, we jumped at the chance. However, it’s not simple – the Park can only be reached by air. There are no roads leading to the park at all.

We got a huge bonus totally by luck. Katmai was established as a National Monument by Woodrow Wilson on May 26, 1918. The Park is larger than the state of Connecticut. The Monument was originally established to protect the area around the major 1912 volcanic eruption of Novarupta, which formed the Valley of 10,000 smokes. The Park contains no fewer than 18 individual volcanoes, 7 of which have been active since 1900.

The main reason that folk visit Katmai today is that Brooks Creek is the main route for salmon from the Bering Sea to get to their spawning grounds. Because of that, Grizzly bears flock here during the salmon runs in order to fatten up for the winter. While Grizzly bears in the interior US feed on berries and small mammals, those in the coastal areas feed primarily on salmon. The high calorie count of the salmon and the abundance during the run make for a buffet for the brown bears.

We were stunned when we got here. We have been to areas that were magnets for brown bears before, but we have never seen so many. Every time we ventured to the creek we saw anywhere from 9 to more than a dozen very large grizzlies. And they were feasting – we’ve read that brown bears need to eat around 10 salmon a day in order to gain the fat needed for hibernation. We are certain that these bears were getting more than their 10 a day quota.

We experienced s good news – bad news scenario. The good news is that there are lots - I mean LOTS of bears around. The bad news is that bears don’t necessarily follow the National Park Service rules. The bears tend to think that the slightly cleared paths that the visitors use to get around the Park are a nice, easy way for them to get around. Because of this, human/bear encounters happen. And they happen more the more bears are in the area. We actually shared our path with 1,000 pound brown bears several times – yikes!

There is only a foot bridge over the bay that gets you across to the main paths to the bear viewing areas. If bears are around the foot bridge, the Park Rangers close it to protect the visitors. However, the bears could care less about this inconvenience. When the number of bears is high, the incidence of the foot bridge being closed is high.

The Park rangers record the bears in the area. They do it all visually – they don’t try to tag the bears or anything electronic. But through their observations, they have a pretty good record of the brown bears that fish here. Each bear definitely identified is numbered, and a few of the more interesting or photogenic bears are named. Our favorite was 747, or Lefty. Lefty was easy to find due to a patch of missing fur the size of a dinner plate on his right hip. Also, Lefty took a position he alone owned on the top of the falls, where salmon literally jumped into his gaping jaws.

The goal is simple – eat as many salmon as you can to gain enough weight to live through your next winter hibernation. So, the big, mean bears got all the choice fishing spots up near the falls where the salmon were continually jumping. Moms with cubs would find lesser desirable places to fish, sometimes just eating the carcasses that washed downstream from the main event. They did this in part so they didn’t have to mess with the bigger males for choice fishing. They also did this because the big males were indifferent between getting their needed calories by eating a salmon, or a cub brown bear!

We learned that grizzlies were solitary, usually only to only tolerate only one bear in say a square mile. But, they willingly abandon those rules to participate in the smorgasbord that is the salmon run. Young adult bears – teenagers – pretty much at this point in their life cycle are looking for a safe place to call home. Finding it easier to do that search with someone covering your back, they often will pair up with another young adult bear who is not a sibling and do the search together.

I have never been anywhere I can remember where the picnic tables for Park visitors were surrounded by electric fences. This seems like an extreme measure, however given that the bears don’t seem to understand the rules at all, or if they do they don’t follow them, I guess it totally makes sense. The Woman found out the hard way that even the outhouses inside the Park are outlined with electrified strands of wire.

We loved our time at Brooks Camp and Brooks Falls. We couldn’t have asked for more in terms of bear count. In addition, the whole experience of flying into communities that were only accessible by water or by air was fun. Flying out each morning in a light plane to see the bears, and back each night to a very cozy and warm King Salmon Lodge was a fascinating experience.

Talk to you soon!