Katmai National Park – Think Jurassic Park with bears! No roads lead to Katmai, just like Lake Clark. We few early morning out of Anchorage for a day trip to the park. Katmai National Park also houses the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. We didn’t have time for that tour, but we witnessed gorgeous volcanoes on our flights in and out of the park. The 5-seater plane we flew in was one from 1944 😛 And I was seated in the co-pilot’s seat (scary but fun!)
We had a bear orientation at the visitor center and were required to leave all food and drinks behind, except water. As we walked towards Brooks Fall, a ranger approached us from the other direction – ‘Bear on trail’ he yelled. It sinked in only when 10 seconds later a huge brown bear was approaching us from the same direction! We moved into the dining room of Brooks Lodge and observed the bear from the window. He was huge!
Once he was gone, we proceeded on our trek to Brooks Falls to see the bears catching Salmon. There was a smallish group that had formed, of which we were a part. From somewhere behind me, I heard: “Bear, one o’clock!” Before I could turn to the aforementioned direction, two huge bears walked onto the trail in front of us; 3 people separated us from the bears. We did as we were told during orientation – we started walking backwards – never show a bear your back! The bears were taking a casual stroll on our path, towards us. We were instructed never to run. The path was narrow, and then we were out on to a larger patch. People split in different directions, and the bears kept walking towards us. This moment, here and now, this was hearts skipped a few beats! Those bears, on all fours, were taller than me. They were so close, if I stopped walking and stretch my hand out, I’d be touching them in about 5 seconds. What happens if they attack someone? We left our bear spray along with the other things – why would we do that! Why I was pondering upon all possible scenarios, the bears got bored of following us and trailed off into the woods! Phew!
Brooks Falls was a bear fest! Bears approached the falls from all direction, caught some salmon, and wandered off with their loot. You could watch them forever! This was nature in it’s rawest form! A glimpse of feasting bears here:
On our way back to the visitor center, we discovered a huge crowd at the river crossing – bears were sleeping on the bridge! We were told that they like to do it. And at Katmai, bears always have the right of way. We waited patiently along with the others. After an hour and a half, a ranger came looking for us. Our sea plane was waiting for us on the other side of the falls, and we were evacuated from the scene in a van, escorted to the plane, and off the Bear Land – Jurassic park style! In a nutshell – Katmai National Park totally blew our minds!