2019 Alaska Trip - Day 80 - Travel Day To Brooks Camp, Katmai National Park, Alaska

Our flight leaving Anchorage for King Salmon wasn't scheduled to leave until 3:50 p.m., so we had plenty of time to gather our thoughts and make sure we had what we needed for our 4-night tent camping excursion to Katmai National Park.

Around 1:30, we left Cabela's and drove the short distance to CJL RV Storage which is located at and operated by Lyberger's Car & Truck Sales. The last time we were in Anchorage, we pre-arranged to store our RV and Jeep in their secure storage area for the next few days.

We squeezed the vehicles into their designated spaces, made sure everything was turned off (except the propane which we left on to run the refrigerator), and walked back to the auto dealer's sales building. We requested an Uber driver, and someone was there within minutes to pick us up and take us to the airport.

To add a little stress, our flight was delayed and our connection in King Salmon was already tight. I called Katmai Air, the float plane operator for the connection to Brooks Camp to let them know. We certainly didn't want to have to spend the night in King Salmon. Fortunately, it all worked out.

We arrived at the tiny King Salmon Airport where a bus picked us up and took us to the Katmai Air float plane base.

On the big screen monitor at Katmai Air, they were streaming the live "bear cam" from Brooks Falls. Bears were in the river at the falls, so that was a good sign.

Each passenger had to get each bag/backpack/suitcase weighed, and then each passenger was weighed with their carry-ons. Weight and weight distribution is very important on the float planes. We were limited to 50 pounds of gear per person, and we each came in well under that.

Once we were checked in, we went outside and watched a float plane land on the Naknek River.

Soon, we were ready to board the de Havilland Otter for our 6:15 flight.

We walked down the dock with two young couples that were also going to be camping for a few nights. The ladies were the first to board.

Once we were all in and they had our weight distributed the way they wanted it, the pilot gave us a safety briefing for our 18-minute flight.

We love float planes, and had we not have been on a couple in the past, we would have been more thrilled. Soon, we were in the air and traveling along the Naknek River.

Soon we were over the huge Naknek Lake, the second largest lake in Alaska and the biggest lake within any National Park.

We would be landing on the lake, but we first took a shortcut over the mountains.

Brooks Camp and the Brooks River came into view.

This is a zoomed-in shot of Brooks Falls from the air. When I zoomed in more on the photo later, I realized a couple of bears were visible.

Another view of the camp and the Naknek beach which is used for float plane parking.

Zooming in, we could see the new bridge over the Brooks River that I had been reading about. It was completed over the winter, and this will be the first summer of use for this improved structure that will make getting around easier for both bears and people.

We landed smoothly on the lake and as we made our way toward the beach we were greeted by a coastal brown bear and two cubs.

So, we had our first bear sighting before we got off the plane.

Our pilot backed the Otter into the beach, and the staff took our backpacks and gear to the Lodge Dining Hall where it was all deposited on the porch for us to pick up later.

We were directed to walk up the beach in the opposite direction toward the Katmai National Park Visitors Center.

At the Visitors Center, we were shown to a room with a big screen where we had to go through "bear school".

Every visitor, whether staying overnight or coming in on a day trip, has to go through bear school before going anywhere else.

At the end of the video, a ranger filled us in on other rules and answered any questions we might have.

Rules:

You can't carry any food with you in the Brooks Camp and Brooks Falls areas. You can't take any food out of the Lodge. You can't carry any snacks or drinks (other than plain water) or even gum. Campers have to store their food in a food cache building in the campground and can only cook and/or eat meals at one of the cooking shelters in the campground. Day trippers have to store their food in a food cache near the Visitors Center and can only eat in the Lodge or at the picnic shelter with an electric fence around it.
You can't leave any gear laying around as the bears see backpacks and other items as potential play things and they are quite curious. In the campground, nothing is to be left outside the tent, and anything you don't keep in the tent has to be stored in a gear cache building.
On walkways, you are only supposed to stop to view bears in designated viewing spots. On long stretches, you are required to keep moving so a "wall" of people doesn't create a visual barrier that may inhibit the free movement of bears.
At viewing platforms, you are to remain quiet, there is no smoking, and camera flashes are not allowed.
At the Brooks Falls viewing platform (by far the most popular), only 40 people are allowed. If there are already 40 people, you have to sign up on a waiting list and you are given a buzzer just like at a restaurant when space is available. If there is a waiting list, once you get on the Falls platform, you are given an hour and then you have to leave. You can go back on the waiting list if you wish. However, during the day when the daytrippers arrive, the wait could be an hour or two.
At the Brooks Falls platform, you are not allowed to spread out the legs of a tripod - you must only use your tripod as a monopod there. No camera mounts may be attached to the railings.
While walking on the trails, you are supposed to converse in a normal volume so that bears know you are coming and are not surprised.
It is recommended that people walk in groups.
Never, ever run.

Of course, the ranger went over bear safety and what to do if you encounter a bear. They have a wooden cut-out of a bear that you can see from "bear school" which is 50 yards away, the minimum distance we are supposed to have between us and a bear unless we are in a secure area.

One thing to note is that bear spray is not allowed on the planes, and it's not sold here at Brooks Camp. So, your best protection is to follow the rules, follow the advice, keep your head on a swivel and always remain aware.

Surprisingly, we were allowed to walk pretty much anywhere. Although there were walkways and bridges, we didn't necessarily have to stay on them except at Brooks Falls.

After "bear school", we were all given pins we were supposed to wear to indicated we've "graduated". Since all six of us were camping, the ranger then registered us and gave us a tag that we were supposed to tie to the exterior of our tents. Those tags indicate our names and dates of stay and are checked daily.

Then we were released to walk to the Lodge to retrieve our gear. We were at least allowed to transport our food from the Lodge Dining Hall porch to the campground.

Just outside the Visitors Center is a food/gear cache and vault toilets, and across from the Visitors Center is the picnic area I mentioned above with the electric fence.

We walked the tenth of a mile to the Dining Hall (this is a photo I took later in the week).

Campers are allowed to eat meals at the Lodge Dining Hall. The have scheduled buffet meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. All are pricey, but it's convenient.

Across from the Dining Hall is the Brooks Lodge Office where lodging guests check-in and out, .....

and on the back side of the Office is the store.

We picked up our gear on the Dining Hall porch which is right at the entrance to the new bridge.

Fortunately, they had carts available to transport our stuff to the campground.

Since the campground is almost a half-mile away, we took advantage of that little nicety.

Just to the right of those carts are public restrooms with flush toilets and a single, token-operated shower in each of the mens' and womens' restrooms. All the Lodge rooms have private bathrooms and showers, but us campers could purchase tokens from the Lodge store and have a shower ($7 for up to ten minutes).

So, we loaded up a cart and started toward the campground. And at that point, it started to rain. We were prepared for rain and expected rain during our stay at Brooks Camp, but the worst possible time for rain was while we would be setting up our tent.

I pulled the cart down our little campground trail through the woods just off the beach on Naknek Lake (this is another photo I took later in the week).

Eventually, we reached the campground and pulled our cart through the gate. Here are a couple more photos I took on a drier day.

We were told that the electric fence was a "deterrent", but certainly not "bear proof". It clearly was not going to stop even a mildly curious bear much less one with something more serious on its mind.

There are no campsite numbers, just a bunch of loose gravel pads scattered throughout the campground situated among trees and very tall grass. We chose a site close to the single latrine, the food and gear cache building, and a cooking shelter.

Note, you can only have a campfire at the three cooking shelters, but at the time of our stay, a fire ban prevented campfires at those fire rings as well.

With the rain, we tried to quickly tie up a tarp to keep our gear dry while we were putting up the tent. That didn't work too well, but after some effort and some cursing at the heavy downpour, we finally managed to get our tent up and the rain fly on. Here's yet another photo taken another day.

We were soaked and tired, but we managed to keep the inside of our tent, our sleeping bags, and our other gear dry. It was around 8:00 by then. We brought a camp stove and a couple meals to cook, but we decided to just go to the Lodge Dining Hall and take the easy way out for dinner tonight.

So, we stored our food in the food cache and our gear in the gear cache and marched through the rain to the Dining Hall. We arrived around 8:20. Oops. Dinner ended at 8:00.

The rain let up a little bit, so we decided to explore. We walked out onto the new bridge, with what some were calling its "Jurassic Park" gates.

On the other side of the gate, near the Brooks River, we were treated to this wet sow and her two cubs.

The bridge and the "lower river" near the mouth are the prime spots to see sows and cubs and the younger bears known as sub-adults. We were sort of in awe at our quick bear sightings and how close we were.

The cubs were chowing on salmon scraps.

At a little bit of a distance, we spotted another bear.

But we quickly turned our attention back to the beautiful sow and her adorable cubs.

I tried to get every single picture I could of bears standing on their hind legs.

Eventually we moved on and crossed the river. Holy cow! The number of salmon was unbelievable. No wonder the bears come here to feed.

On the other side of the river, two sub-adults were walking by.

And on the downriver side of the bridge, there was another sow with a larger, single cub.

So, we had only walked the bridge so far and we had seen eight bears plus the three we saw on the beach when we arrived. I always try to keep my expectations low, but we were already getting the feeling that this is a very special place.

We crossed the bridge and exited the gates on the other side. Might as well head to Brooks Falls since there was plenty of daylight left. From the bridge, it's a bit of a walk in the woods on a wide road, and there is certainly no protection.

Eventually, we came to a place where there are vault toilets on the left, .....

and the narrow Brooks Falls Trail on our right.

That trail itself is 0.6 miles one way to Brooks Falls. The Falls are a little under a mile and a half from the campground and a little over a mile from the Dining Hall and park Visitors Center.

Having seen several bears already, it was a bit unnerving walking down the narrow, windy path through the woods as the rain began again. And this time, it didn't stop.

I kept my head up looking for bears, and sure enough we came upon one on the trail. We stopped, and slowly started backing up. It was maybe 30 yards away, but it was crossing the trail and quickly moved off into the woods. Well allrighty then. This place is no joke - you could encounter a bear anywhere.

Eventually, we made it to another walkway with gates, and went through a shelter where you have to sign up for the waiting list when the Falls platform is full.

It rained so much, I didn't take my Nikon out of my daypack where it was wrapped in rain gear. And I didn't even get out my waterproof camera because trying to keep the lens dry would have been futile.

There were very few people at Brooks Falls that late, but there were a couple of big bears. We watched as they caught salmon at the bottom of the falls with little effort.

Salmon were trying to jump the falls, but there were no bears on top of the falls to try to catch them in mid-air - the one thing every visitor wants to see.

After a while, we had enough of the rain, and made the walk back to the campground. We were sure hoping that the rain wouldn't stay like that for the next four days and hinder what promised to be some unbelievable bear viewing.

Before we sign off, I took a couple of the aerial photos I took on the way in to Brooks Camp earlier, and I added labels to give more visual perspective. These two images I've made clickable so you can see them in a larger window.

Though Brooks Falls isn't that far from the campground as the crow flies, you have to walk along the lake, across the new river bridge, and then follow the trails on a wide arc to get to the Falls.

This one just provides a different view near the bridge.