Katmai National Park

My daughter and I made a return visit to Katmai National Park. There was drama.

I’ve written previously on this blog about my trip last year and, this year, the difficulty in getting campground reservations. This is how the trip actually went.

The first bit of stress was after we boarded the airplane in Anchorage. The pilot announced while we were still on the ground that the weather conditions in King Salmon were below minimums and we might not be able to land. We took off, approached King Salmon, and had to do a hold while we waited for other traffic to attempt to land. A little late, we landed in King Salmon.

Having made the trip the previous year, we knew the process to use the water taxi. We waited, the van showed up, we rode to the boat launch, we boarded. Naknek Lake was smooth; we had a comfortable trip to the Brooks Lodge area. After watching the video about how to stay safe around bears, we checked into the campground and pitched the tent.

We had three days of cold weather. The bears were less plentiful than last year and we saw no cubs at all. The fish were everywhere in the river, with their deep red bodies easily visible from the bridge. Most of our bear sightings were from the bridge.

Salmon in the Brooks River

There was a very windy day that cancelled all flights and water taxi trips after our second night. I was worried that the water taxi would not run for our return trip to King Salmon, and then we would also miss our return flight to Anchorage. The waves on Naknek Lake were pretty big (for a lake), and the bridge over the Brooks River shook below our feet when we looked for bears. That night as the wind blew it also started to rain. Thankfully our tent stayed upright and the inside stayed dry.

Our water taxi reservation was for 10AM. We knew that the water taxi’s first departure from Brooks was usually 8AM, so we got up early, packed our stuff away in the rain, and hung out at the lodge to try to get an early trip out. I was worried that the wind would pick up again later in the day and halt the taxi. We were able to leave early (and we were the only passengers) and then my daughter and I hung out at a cafe in King Salmon until it was time for our flight. The return flight to Anchorage was uneventful.

OK, time for bears…

Gully

This bear is named Gully because he caught and ate a seagull at some point. Gully was my daughter’s favorite bear this trip because she was impressed at how he parted the waters while sitting at the top of the waterfall. Gully is bear #903.

747 and Chunk

There were frequent dominance conflicts at the falls. The most dominant bear claims the best fishing position, and this year that spot went to #747. I was fortunate to witness a confrontation between bear #32, aka Chunk, and #747. Sometimes these turn into brutal fights; this time Chunk backed down and moved away.

Near the bridge

There was a group of four bears that lingered in the wetlands upstream of the bridge. My guess is they were recently emancipated. The bears in this group frequently did these faux fights.

One of many fishing bears by the bridge

Most of the time the bears swimming around the bridge just ignore the people watching. This one looked up before passing beneath me.

Brooks Falls

My daughter and I walked over to Brooks Lake on the one day that was sunny. It was so windy on Naknek Lake that the airplanes were landing at Brooks instead, so it got pretty busy there. The bugs were pretty bad that day in spite of the wind.

Staying in the campground was OK. My tent held up well even in the strong wind. Our sleeping bags kept us warm enough. We took showers in the bath house at the lodge and ate our meals in the lodge. The campground was completely full.

Compared with last year, the photography opportunities were disappointing, although I did manage to get a few shots that I like.

I doubt I’ll ever go back to Katmai; I’m glad I had the experience to share with my daughter.

Brooks Lodge and Campground Reservation

I made a campground reservation at Brooks Lodge in Katmai National Park and Preserve. It was ridiculously hard to do!

Campground Entrance

In 2022, I tried to get a reservation for a room at Brooks Lodge, hoping to visit in 2023. I entered the lottery, and was not selected. But there was a cancellation, and the concessionaire offered me three nights in early July, which I accepted. My wife and daughter and I made the trip in July 2023 and we had a lot of fun watching the bears.

My daughter has one more year on her Air Force assignment in Alaska, so I want to visit her again and I want to make another trip to Brooks. The hotel is very expensive; this time we are going to stay in the campground.

Campground reservations are very hard to get. There’s no lottery; reservations are first come, first served. The reservations are usually completely taken within an hour of becoming available. And the reservation system makes all dates for the year available at once, at 8AM Alaska time on January 5. My daughter and I visited the recreation.gov site days before January 5 to become familiar with the site. I even went through the process of reserving a cabin in an unrelated location (without completing the reservation) just so I would be ready.

It turns out there are two ways to search, and I searched the wrong way. After logging in, users are presented with several links, one of which is entitled “Camping and Lodging”. This is the one that I tried to use, and the Brooks campground never appeared as an option even after conducting several searches. In the meantime, my daughter, luckily, used a different search box at the top of the page, with text that says, “What are you looking for?” She entered “Katmai”, and then got to the correct reservation page, but she only found dates available in June, which is much too early in the season. We talked on the phone and she described how she got to the correct reservation page.

I finally got to the reservation page and I was able to get three nights in early September. All reservation dates from early June to late September were gone by 8:30 AM Alaska time.

We originally wanted to get dates in late July, which is usually the peak of the salmon run, and consequently also the peak of the bear presence there. There’s a second peak in early September, so I think we’re still able to see bears again. Now I’m going to frequently check for cancellations, hoping to extend our stay.

We’re going back!

Katmai National Park and Brooks Lodge

The Trip

My wife and daughter and I visited Brooks Falls/River/Lodge in Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska. We saw lots of bears.

I’ve wanted to visit the Brooks River area for years to see the bears during the salmon run. The pictures on the Internet are cool. The videos on YouTube are cool. The webcams videos are cool.

My daughter is in the Air Force, currently stationed in Anchorage. I researched a trip to Brooks. It’s hard to get there and really expensive. I’m not getting any younger; it’s not getting any cheaper; my daughter will not be in Alaska forever. It was time to try to go to Brooks.

It’s possible to stay (cheaply) in the campground, but my wife wouldn’t camp and it’s hard to get a camping permit. So I did a lottery submission to get into the lodge. No luck. But a few months after I failed to win a lottery slot, the lodge concessionaire offered me a cancellation, which I took.

With the lodge dates firm, we then had to figure out how to get there. The options are:

1. Take a floatplane from Anchorage directly to Naknek Lake.
2. Take a commercial airline flight from Anchorage to King Salmon, followed by either a floatplane trip to Naknek Lake or a water taxi trip on Naknek Lake.

Floatplanes on Naknek Lake

We opted for an Alaska Airline flight to King Salmon and the water taxi. The weather is highly variable in that area. Flights in small aircraft frequently are cancelled and there’s a very strict weight limit. At least the water taxi can go in low cloud ceilings and there are no weight limitations. However, the water taxi is a flat-bottomed boat because of the shallow depth of the area it needs to traverse; it’s subject to cancellations when the winds are strong and the waves are too high.

Katmai Water Taxi

The flight to King Salmon was uneventful. The water taxi company provided vans to take people to the dock. Actually, we boarded the water taxi at a boat launch. The ride to Brooks was really rough, with the hull repeatedly pounding on the waves. When we arrived at the lodge area, we immediately went to required orientation in the welcome center, then checked into the lodge.

Our home for 3 nights

We spent three days watching bears. There were bears on the beach. There were bears on the riverside. There were bears at the falls. There were emancipated juveniles. There were adults. There were sows with cubs. What there wasn’t, was a lot of fish. As luck would have it, we got there about a week too early for the salmon run. We saw lots of fish, but not in the numbers that attract dozens of bears to the falls.

The lodge is adjacent to a bridge over the mouth of the Brooks River where it flows into Naknek Lake. After crossing the bridge, there is a gravel road that leads to Brooks Lake. A short distance down that road, there is a path that leads to Brooks Falls. The walk to the falls from the lodge is a little more than a mile.

Bridge over Brooks River

Once we got there, we spent our time at the falls and exploring the lodge area. There were several times a day in which bears passed through the lodge area or walked along the beach or lingered around the mouth of the river. The rangers were often busy keeping people away from the bears or “encouraging” the bears to leave.

Dining is in the lodge. The food is expensive, but good. It’s buffet style, with seating in a crowded room with wooden tables and benches.

Rooms are comfortable, but small. There is a pair of bunk beds for up to four people per room. There’s a shower, sink, and toilet.

There is no cell phone service at Brooks Lodge. There is no customer WiFi service. Neither my phone on AT&T nor my daughter’s phone on Verizon worked in King Salmon.

The weather was highly variable. I was constantly adding/removing layers. The temperatures were in the 50-70 degrees F range. The wind, when it picked up, was welcome because it blew the mosquitoes away. I was glad I brought mosquito nets.

Events of Note

Shortly after arriving, my daughter and I took a walk around to explore. We stepped onto the beach and noticed two bears in the distance, one on our right, another on our left. We retreated into the woods to wait for them to pass. When the larger of the two passed, we presumed the smaller one would turn around and we proceeded toward the beach again. We were wrong: the smaller one suddenly appeared, running away from the larger one. This was our closest encounter of the trip, with the smaller bear only about 20 yards away. We were concerned that the larger bear would soon follow, so we left the area.

One afternoon we were on the bridge at the far end away from the lodge. We saw a sow and two cubs at the mouth of the river near the parked fishing boats. We watched as the bears approached the bridge, slowly. The Valley of 10000 Smokes bus arrived and had to stop because of the bears close by, stranding the passengers aboard. The bears eventually passed under the bridge and went to a spot nearby on the riverbank, where they settled down for a nap. The rangers were about to take the people off the bus when another bear appeared. It too, slowly approached from the same area from which the sow and cubs had come. Once again the bus passengers were stuck. We watched from the bridge as this new bear, apparently an adult male, followed the sow/cubs’ path. Suddenly the sow and cubs became aware of the new bear’s presence and watched as the big male approached. All at once they ran into the woods. The male lingered in the area where the sow/cubs had napped, smelling the rocks where they had lain. Eventually that bear too wandered into the woods. Finally the bus passengers could get off the bus, after being stuck for about 45 minutes. I posted a photo of this family on the Facebook “Bears of Brooks Camp” page and the moderator declared that this is bear #94 with her yearlings.

On alert for an approaching male bear

On the morning of our last day at the lodge, a sow and three cubs wandered into the area along the beach, but also going into the woods near the lodge/dining room. The rangers kept people back as the bears ate grass and the cubs briefly climbed trees. The bears went along the lakeshore and up the riverbank, offering another chance to see them as they approached the bridge. A crowd gathered to watch them. Something spooked them and they ran away into the woods near the lodge office and store, and I never saw them again.

First year cubs

Also on the morning of our last day at the lodge, I went to the beach. I saw some rangers about to launch a kayak. They had not noticed that a bear was approaching along the beach. I called to them, “There’s a bear.” They looked at me, and I pointed behind them. When they saw the bear, they immediately grabbed the kayak, took it into the woods, and reappeared, calling other rangers on the radio to help with crowd management. This bear eventually wandered into the woods near the river.

Photographs

This is (probably) the one time I’m ever going to Katmai National Park, so I wanted to be sure to take the best camera gear that I could. I brought my 500mm, 300mm, 70-200mm, and 24-70mm lenses, not knowing what to expect. I tried the 500mm but it was too much reach for the falls. Maybe it would have been useful if there was more action at the falls. I could have gotten some frame-filling closeups. I didn’t even take the 24-70mm out of the bag. I ended up with two cameras at a time, one with the 70-200mm, and one with the 300mm. The 300mm was useful most of the time. The 70-200mm was great for times when the bears approached the platforms and bridge. For shots around the lodge, I used my phone.

The lighting conditions were highly variable. Sometimes (most of the time) the skies were overcast, sometimes with drizzle. Sometimes there were partly cloudy skies. I was constantly adjusting ISO, aperture, and shutter speed.

Shutter speed was tricky - too slow and the lunging bears were blurred. ISO was tricky - sometimes up to 2000 so I could get the shutter speed/aperture combination that I wanted. Dark bears in the white, foamy water made for exposure selection challenges. I usually just went for the brightest water that I could get without blowing the highlights out, resulting in really dark bears that I had to recover in post.

OK, lets see some bear photos…

Swimming across the Brooks River

#747

Lunging for a Fish

#747

#747

#747

Salmon Jumping the Falls

A crowd forms whenever there’s a bear

Alaska

Earlier this year, the Air Force reassigned my daughter to Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson. She reported for duty early in January. She planned to bring her dog, but at the last minute, was told by the airline that they could not take her dog because it was too cold in Alaska.

So, she sent her dog to me in Virginia. Ironically, it was colder that day in Northern Virginia than in Anchorage. We selected a time frame during which it would be neither too hot in Virginia nor too cold in Alaska for the dog to travel. I delivered the dog, visited my daughter, then took a cruise.

Of course I was jet lagged that first morning in Alaska. I went for a walk in my daughter’s neighborhood and saw some moose.

Moose with calves

During the week in Anchorage:

• We hiked.

  

  Anchorage from Flattop Mountain

• Tried to see Denali on a partly cloudy day. By the time we got there, it was overcast.
• Visited some parks in Anchorage.

  

  Moose in Earthquake Park

  
  
• Saw lots of moose.

My daughter drove us to the cruise port in Whittier, where my wife and I boarded the Royal Princess. This was our second Alaska cruise, having previously cruised from Vancouver to Whittier on the Pacific Princess.

Royal Princess at the Dock in Skagway

On this cruise:

• We visited Hubbard Glacier on a dreary overcast day.

  

  Hubbard Glacier

  
  
• We visited Glacier Bay.

  

  Glacier Bay

  
  
• We made port calls in Skagway, Juneau, and Victoria, ending in Vancouver.

The cruise ship used the new medallion instead of a cruise card. It would unlock our stateroom door from 50 feet away, which was kind of weird.

The check in experience at the Vancouver airport was the worst of my life. After 80 minutes in line for the check in agent, there was another long line to get through security and yet another long line at US passport control. It was a full 2.5 hours from our arrival at the airport to our arrival at our boarding gate. Thankfully we deliberately took a flight that gave us LOTS of time. Then our flight took off a little late. That cut our margin at our already tight connection in Chicago. We had one of those customary long O’Hare taxi rides after landing to get to the arrival gate. Finally off the plane, we dashed to our next gate, only to find that the flight was delayed. And delayed again. And again delayed. Finally we boarded and departed, only to spend a long time in a long line of other aircraft waiting for takeoff. When we landed, it took a long time to get our baggage. We finally arrived home about 2AM.

Kenai Fjords

We rode down the Kenai Peninsula in a bus under cloudy skies. We boarded a catamaran in Seward and proceeded out to Resurection Bay. This was our third trip to tidewater glaciers, and the only time when the gloomy overcast persisted.

Our captain was very talkative and she got us quickly to Rugged Island, where we lingered to watch a pod of fin whales who lazily blew and dove repeatedly. This pod has apparently been hanging around the bay this summer and I'm guessing she's seen them before and was in communication with the captain of another tour boat that was also observing the whales because she headed straight for them for 20 minutes.

Fin Whale

These are huge whales, and I have some shots with at least three animals together. The National Park Service posted online that they've seen as many as six of them.

Two Fin Whales Blowing

Once it seemed they went deep, a humpback whale appeared, repeatedly blowing and diving . It eventually showed its fluke, indicating the start of a deep dive, but then the fin whales reappeared, so we watched them a while longer. Eventually we moved on to another pair of humpbacks, including one that was repeatedly smacking its pectoral fins on the water with huge splashes that were clearly audible. This trip reinforced something that I already knew: it's hard to shoot an animal that has most of its body under water. I've previously tried to photograph manatees and beavers, with limited success because there's hardly anything above the water. Add the difficulty of shooting from a moving boat, one that's also pitching and rolling, and it's just about impossible to keep the horizon line level. So, I have some action shots that don't show much, and the horizons are all off.

Humpback Whale Extending its Pectoral Fin

Slamming the Water

Starting a Deep Dive

We proceeded to more islands where we watched puffins. I had always wondered how they could fly with such stubby wings. Answer: not well. It looked more like an uncontrolled fireworks rocket than a graceful flight. They beat their wings so fast that they look frantic. One seemed to have eaten so much that it couldn't lift off from the water; it kept skipping like a stone, repeatedly lifting a few inches above the water then bouncing off the surface again and again. They flitted around us everywhere. The poor light, their small size and eratic flight, and black and white plumage made them difficult subjects. Add the rolling motion of the boat, and the result is only a few barely usable images.

Puffins in Flight

It was a bit easier to get shots of the birds on land.

Puffins on the Rocks

On to Aialik Glacier... By now we had already visited Tracy Arm and Glacier Bay, and we had also seen quite a few other glaciers from a distance, so this was no longer a novelty. However, we saw lots of sea otters.

Aialik Glacier

Sea Otters

Aialik Glacier

Glacier Ice

Aialik Glacier

As we exited Aialik Bay, we stopped to check out the Steller Sea lions who had hauled out in large numbers on a rocky island. They were really loud, with two males vocalizing to establish dominance.

Steller Sea Lions Facing Off

And then the show was over as we headed back to Seward. This was one of my favorite outings of the whole trip to Alaska, bested only by the day in Tracy Arm.

College Fjord

After leaving Glacier Bay, we headed out to sea. I noticed these mountains, part of the Fairweather Range. Then it was an overnight sail to Prince William Sound, followed by a slow daytime approach to College Fjord. For the third time in three glacier approaches, we had low overcast skies the cleared as we got to the glaciers. Again we approached in green water that gave way to milky brown silted water. Again there were seals on ice. And again we stopped at the end of the channel, lingered, pivoted, and left. Here are some of my favorite shots.