Travel to Katmai National Park for brown bear viewing in the home of North America’s largest population of brown bears. Reach Brooks Falls and Hallo Bay on the Katmai Coast for Katmai bear viewing via a day trip on a scenic flightseeing tour from King Salmon, Homer or even Anchorage, Alaska.
A trip to Katmai National Park to see the bears is a bucket list item for many amateur photographers, wildlife enthusiasts and national park fans. We have already seen bears in Yellowstone, Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains. Still, there are in fact more bears living on Alaska Peninsula then there are people, so a trip here would take our (and your) bear viewing to a new level.
Katmai National Park and Preserve protects 4 million acres in southern Alaska. Every year like clockwork, the salmon runs in July draw brown bears to Brooks River and the Brooks River Falls. Millions of salmon enter the river, and the falls stall the movement of the salmon upstream and provide an opportunity for the bears to go fishing. At other times, the Katmai bears can be seen along the Katmai coast including Hallo Bay.
Brooks River is located between Naknek Lake and Lake Brooks in Katmai national Park. It is about three miles long, with Brooks Falls located about halfway between the two lakes. Why do the bears go to Brooks Falls? Brooks River is one of the first rivers in the area for the salmon run. The waterfall at Brooks Falls temporarily traps the salmon downstream from it as they navigate past the natural barrier. Salmon can leap to a height of as high as 12 feet in a vertical jump. The falls are six feet high and between 200,000 to 400,000 sockeye salmon leap over it every year.
The Naknek River is a short 35 mile river that flows from Naknek Lake to Kvichak Bay. The sockeye begin congregating at the mouth of the Brooks River in mid June, and the migration runs in earnest from late June to late july, when the sockeye salmon have moved upstream to their spawning site. This makes July the prime season for Katmai bear viewing at Brooks Falls.
Bears can also be seen along the Brooks River in September, as dead and dying salmon are found in the river. They are not typically seen at the falls in the same concentrations as in July, as the salmon are not there in large numbers anymore. However, there are also fewer people travelling to Katmai.
Because there is a limited window for your prime time Brooks Falls bear viewing trip, it is important to plan your trip well in advance. There are no roads into Katmai, so visitors to the national park usually fly (or take a boat to the coast). Air taxi and flightseeing tours are available to Katmai National Park from a number of locations. This makes planning even more of a necessity when going to Katmai. Getting to Alaska from the lower 48 states can be its own adventure.
There are five wildlife viewing platforms in the Brooks River area. Three are located at the mouth of the Brooks River, one is llocated at Brooks Falls, and one is located along the river downstream from the falls.
Katmai bears are coastal brown bears. They are differentiated from grizzly bears, generally considered a subspecies of brown bears, in their habitat, diet, location, size and temperament. Grizzlies are generally smaller, located inland, and with no access to salmon for food. When you are in Katmai, you will be seeing brown bears and not the subspecies known as grizzlies.
How to Get to Katmai National Park for Bear Viewing
There are typically three jumping off points to reach Katmai.
King Salmon
King Salmon is often referred to as the gateway to Katmai National Park. The park’s headquarters is in King Salmon. There is an interagency visitor center in King Salmon. Brooks Falls can be reached by boat from King Salmon on the Katmai Water Taxi. Katmai Air flies between Anchorage and King Salmon as well as King Salmon to Katmai National Park. Branch River Air also flies between King Salmon and Katmai.
Homer
Homer is considered the gateway to some of the best bear viewing in Alaska. Located across Cook Inlet, there are both flight and boat trips to Katmai and Lake Clark National Parks. Natron Air, Adventure Aireways, Smokey Bay Air, Emerald Air Service, Kingfisher Aviation and Alaska Bear Adventures all offer guided adventures departing from Homer, Alaska.
Anchorage
Brooks Falls can be reached by day trip to Katmai National Park from Anchorage, but is probably better done as an overnight trip as Katmai sits 290 air miles southwest of Anchorage. Lake Clark and Chinitna Bay are both closer, for those who only have time for a day trip and want to see the brown bears. But if your dream is to cross Katmai off your life list, it can still be accomplished on a compressed time frame with Anchorage as your home base.