Katmai: the highest concentration of brown bears in the world

Katmai is on the Alaska Peninsula, 450 km south-west of Anchorage. People come for one image: a brown bear standing at the top of a waterfall, jaws open, with a salmon leaping straight into them. It’s taken at Brooks Falls, every summer.

History and origins

Yet the park owes its creation to a volcano. In June 1912, Novarupta erupted: it was the most powerful eruption of the 20th century. It buried an entire valley under dozens of metres of ash. When explorers arrived, four years later, thousands of jets of steam were rising from it. They named it the “Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes”. The site was protected in 1918.

The steam vents have since died out. It’s the bears that have stolen the show: the park is home to about 2,200, the largest protected population of brown bears in the world.

What to do there

• Brooks Falls: a waterfall barely two metres high, which the salmon clear by leaping. The bears wait for them at the top, at the bottom, or dive into the churning water. You watch them from raised platforms, beside the river.
• Brooks Camp: the camp on the lakeshore, with a lodge and a campground surrounded by an electric fence. The bears walk through the camp, and they have the right of way.
• The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes: a bus makes the day trip there and back to an overlook above the desert of ash. A trail goes down to the bottom.
• Fishing and kayaking: the park’s lakes and rivers are renowned for their salmon and trout.
• The coast: far from Brooks Camp, bears fish and graze on deserted beaches. You get there by floatplane, with a guide.

Stories and good to know

• Every autumn, the park runs an online contest, “Fat Bear Week”. People vote for the bear that has fattened up best before winter.
• Cameras film the falls live all summer. You can follow the bears from home.
• An adult bear can eat more than 30 salmon a day at the height of the season.

Practical information for your trip

• Getting there: most visitors take a flight from Anchorage to King Salmon, then a 20-minute floatplane. Direct excursions also leave from Anchorage, Homer and Kodiak.
• Clothing: a waterproof, boots or shoes that don’t mind mud, and a mosquito head net.
• Where to stay: at Brooks Lodge or the Brooks Camp campground. Otherwise in King Salmon, making the return trip each day.
• Combine it with: Lake Clark, the region’s other great bear park, and Kenai Fjords.