We had a steady rain all night, but our tent kept us wonderfully dry. We got up early to take advantage of the Lodge breakfast buffet which started at 7:00 a.m. Plus, we wanted to get a jump on the day to visit Brooks Falls before the day trips started coming in and a waiting list was established for the Brooks Falls viewing platform.
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were all served buffet style in the Brooks Lodge Dining Hall at designated hours. Basic prices were $17 for breakfast, $24 for lunch, and $40 for dinner. You could save a few dollars by having a continental breakfast or choosing the soup and salad bar only for lunch or dinner, but there was no ordering off a menu and when the scheduled meals ended, they were done.
Having meals at the Lodge makes things convenient and lessens the amount of food you have to pack in and prepare yourself, but the expense adds up quickly. You can pay meal by meal, or you can go to the Lodge office and get a "Katmai Card" which basically allows you to run a tab on your meals and whatever else you might want to purchase (drinks at the bar, equipment rental, etc.).
After breakfast, the rain continued at a level that kept us pinned inside the Dining Hall. We tried to wait it out, but after a while, I couldn't stand it anymore. I put on my rain gear and headed out while Linda decided to hang out in the Dining Hall around the large, circular fireplace.
That was a very popular spot, especially when it was raining.
Due to the very wet conditions, I left my Nikon SLR in the Dining Hall, and just stuffed my Olympus Tough waterproof camera into my Helly Hansen raincoat (a very wise investment we made back in Prince Rupert, BC).
I hustled across the new bridge. There were again quite a few bears, but I only stopped to take pictures of this sow walking upright in the river with her cubs swimming behind.
After crossing the bridge, and making my way up the roadway by myself, hiking alone against recommendations, I turned onto the 0.6-mile Brooks Falls Trail. As I mentioned yesterday, it's a narrow path through the bear-laden woods with blind spots around turns. Eventually you get to a small gate that puts you on a boardwalk. I took the below photo on a drier day.
For many, getting to that point without a bear encounter is a relief.
The boardwalk then goes through a larger gate and it becomes more elevated so that bears can pass underneath going back and forth to the river.
You then come to a nice sheltered area with some benches. That spot is known as the "Tree House" and that's where a ranger is stationed to take names and times for the waiting list for the Falls platform. I can't believe I forgot to get a photo there. As I mentioned yesterday, when you are added to the waiting list you are given a buzzer just like you are waiting for a table at a restaurant.
If waiting, you can sit in the shelter and read the several interpretive display signs or you can walk out a side boardwalk to the "Riffles platform" where there are often bears feeding and where you can see the Falls from a distance.
With my later start due to the rain, there was already a wait, but I got there early enough that I only waited a few minutes at the Riffles platform.
Between the Tree House and the Falls is a short boardwalk and another big gate to go through.
And then you come to the Brooks Falls viewing platform right next to the falls. Here's another photo I took later in the week.
It's a two-tiered platform and only 40 people are allowed on it. With about 60 people at the campground and another 30 - 40 staying in the Lodge there are about 100 people at Brooks Camp. But they tend to spread out in different areas at different times so the Falls platform usually isn't at capacity in the early morning or after 5:00 p.m. But with another 100 or so daytrippers all wanting to go to Brooks Falls in their limited timeframe, the platform stays packed most of the middle part of each day, thus the waiting list.
When I got to the Falls platform, there was a bear fishing for the salmon leaping up the falls.
That's what everyone wants to see - bears snatching salmon in mid-air. I didn't have the right camera to capture the perfectly timed shot, but I got this photo right after a catch.
In the poor light with the rain, I took a video.
Cool. Then it looked like it might clear up, so I gave up my spot and hustled back to the Dining Hall to get my other camera. Linda was still comfy by the fire, so I returned down the Brooks Falls Trail on my own again. By the time I got back to the Tree House, the waiting list was an hour long. So, I wandered out to the Riffles platform to wait.
The Falls are upriver to the left in the photo above.
In addition to rangers at the Tree House and Falls platform, there was usually a ranger at the Riffles platform as well. And I learned that the bears had numbers, and though they weren't supposed to be named, some of the more familiar ones had been given nicknames to go with their numbers.
I also learned the older, larger male bears (the boars) control the falls fishing where the fish are the most abundant and easiest to catch without much effort.
That's how big bears get bigger, eating more calories and burning fewer.
Younger bears could only fish at the falls if the more dominant bears allowed it or were not present. The next tier of younger adult bears fished just below the Falls or in the riffles, and the Riffles platform was also a great place for viewing.
This young bear walked right below us.
These two were feeling each other out.
Sometimes, there is a violent stand-off, but most of the time it's just a look and body language that dictates. With the younger bears, it's often a game where they wrestle and play fight.
Downstream from the riffles, this sow and her three fuzzy cubs ascertained whether or not it was safe to proceed farther upriver.
They decided to go no farther.
This bear entertained at the riffles until my buzzer went off, ....
and I was once again allowed to go to the Falls platform. It was my good fortune that the weather was turning nice.
The same bear as earlier was fishing from the top of the Falls, and he snatched a salmon quickly.
This bear isn't the prettiest in the world, but he's distinctive with a large scar on his right hip and a short left ear. His nickname is "Lefty", but it's not clear if that name came from his smaller left ear or the fact that he uses his left paw more when fishing. He's one of the best at fishing the "lip" of the Falls, and I focused on him a lot to get that special fish-catching shot.
Here he is nose-to-nose with a salmon.
And here he his in mid-chomp.
This bear was "snorkeling" in the "jacuzzi" below the Falls, a very popular spot.
Apparently, you can take a guided fishing trip on the Brooks River, and these guys were between bears below the riffles.
These two bears downstream were having a little fun.
Then I was back to concentrating on Lefty. Sometimes the number of jumping salmon confused him.
Watching the salmon was often as entertaining as the bears. I found myself rooting for them as the percentage of success in getting over the Falls was quite low.
Eventually, I got the shot I was looking for.
This is a zoomed-in version.
And here is the follow-up shot showing the successful catch.
We all watched Lefty and tried to figure out his feeding inclinations. Sometimes, he would eat the fish right at the lip; sometimes, he would turn to his left and walk back from the top of the falls to eat; and sometimes, he would go to his right toward the platform and eat. He seemed to eat the smaller fish at the lip, and sometimes, he would take an exploratory bite and let them go. The larger salmon were taken back for a more thorough dining experience.
All the larger bears weren't eating the whole fish. There were so many salmon that they were just eating the fattiest parts like the skin, brains, and eggs (roe) of the females. Often the fish were skinned and released while still alive. Watching bears eat the fish was not for the squeamish.
This bear in the "far pool" was devouring a fish. It had already de-brained it and then proceeded to stripping off the skin.
Though Lefty is a large bear, he's not at the top of the hierarchy, so he took particular notice when this larger bear emerged on the other side of the river.
Here's a shot of four bears at the Falls and the river thick with salmon.
This bear was employing the "stalk and pounce" fishing technique.
In this video, he combined "stalk and pounce" with "snorkeling, but the river was so thick with salmon that he eventually just walked over and picked one up.
It wasn't too tough to be successful today at the Falls.
The biggest, most dominant bears seemed to fish in "the chute". This is a spot on the far side of the Falls where the largest salmon try to leap and if they don't make it, they are washed down a chute right to whatever bear is standing there waiting.
The fish hit the bears in the feet and all they have to do is step on them. Sometimes, they would take them to the nearby rock which they used as a table.
Since there was a waiting list for the Falls platform, each person was given an hour. I was notified my hour was up, so I left to make room for someone else.
I made my way back toward the Lodge to see what Linda was up to. Before crossing the new bridge, I checked for bears and then took this photo from below.
It was turning into a beautiful day, and Linda was now ready to go exploring. So, we headed back out some time after 4:00. Crossing the bridge again, I took photos of the salmon.
Incredibly, the rangers were telling us that there were no salmon in the river just a few days before we arrived. Apparently, the water was too warm, and the fish had been holding in the deeper water of Naknek Lake. It had just cooled down enough for them to enter the river in huge schools over the prior weekend.
This lone bear was doing some snorkeling near the bridge.
And this young sow showed up .....
with her pair of cubs.
These are "Spring" cubs having just been born this year. Adorable.
They walked under us and under the bridge.
Next to the bridge is a little peninsula that is frequented by sows and cubs. She led the kids out to the end and then went fishing. They followed her into the water, and she soon returned with her catch, the cubs swimming behind.
Across the water, another sow stood on her hind legs to see what was happening.
But the nearest mother and cubs were more concerned about what was going on behind us.
A couple of sub-adults were on the lake side of the bridge, and the sows know they can be unpredictable.
The far sow came out of the weeds to the edge of the water with two cubs of her own. Her cubs peeked over her back, and all four cubs checked each other out.
In this shot, there are the three bears in the foreground, three in the center, and another bear at the top - seven bears in this photo.
As we prepared to continue on across the bridge, I took these shots of the peninsula, the bridge, the bears, and the viewing area on the other side.
You aren't supposed to stop in the straightaway of the bridge. There are signs telling you to keep moving, and there is usually a ranger or volunteer to herd people along. The goal is to keep people concentrated only in the designated viewing platforms so there isn't a line of people forming a "visual" wall stretching across the river perhaps hindering the free movement of the bears.
Our bear family crossed back under the bridge, and the cubs waited while mom took a turn on the scratching tree.
We spent about 45 minutes on the bridge before finally exiting through the gates on the other side. We then walked the gravel road and started past the "Y junction" when we were stopped by another sow which had three cubs.
We slowly started backing away, and they kept walking toward us.
We continued to back up hoping they would veer off into the woods, but they seemed to prefer the road and were in no hurry. Eventually, people coming from the Falls appeared behind the bears.
It looked like it might be quite a while before we would be able to pass, so Linda & I returned to the Dining Hall to have an early dinner at 5:30.
So, we're having our buffet dinner, and a bear walked by. I quickly snapped a couple photos through the windows.
You know, it's a rare treat to get to see a bear anytime, but this was getting surreal. I knew that there was a good chance we were going to have some good bear viewing when I booked this excursion, but I had no idea there would be this many bears and we would just be walking around with them with a high probability of a fairly close encounter. Wow.
After dinner, we started toward the Falls again. Crossing the bridge for the seventh time today, this beautiful, photogenic bear was at the edge of the river.
We continued on to the Brooks Falls Trail and made it there without any further bear delays.
We usually don't talk when we're hiking in the wilderness, but here we were more diligent about carrying on a conversation. There was a lot of evidence of bears along the trail - scat, matted grass, and side trails - so we wanted to make sure we didn't surprise any of the residents.
About two thirds through the trail, we came upon a guy that had stopped. He said there was a bear sleeping just around the curve. Sure enough, a bear was napping with just his massive head in the trail.
There were about ten people on the other side that were stranded, and they didn't know what to do. Well, you basically have three choices: 1) walk around the bear through the thick woods taking the chance on a closer encounter, 2) wait and hope the bear wakes up and moves on its own, or 3) wait for a ranger or the "bear management" folks to decide to wake it up.
The deal is that the park folks don't like to mess with the bears when they aren't doing anything "wrong". So, in these situations, they do nothing for an hour or so. And they make it quite clear that if you have a flight out of Brooks Camp, you should make sure you allow enough time to get back to camp just in case there is a "bear jam".
Eventually, one of the bear management team came along. She advised us to go back to the Lodge as it would be a good hour before they did anything and it looked like the bear was going to be there awhile.
She started to go through the woods around it to get to the people on the other side and lead them out, but with the sound of the grass swishing when she made two steps in, the bear picked its head up and looked a little irritated. So, she abandoned that plan.
By then, we were joined by a few photographers, and we all decided to wait it out. After the hour lapsed, another ranger showed up and they gently persuaded the bear to wake up and move on.
As we made it to the boardwalk, the sleepy bear walked below us toward the Falls.
When we got to the Falls platform, there were a couple of bears there, .....
and a couple feeding downstream in the riffles.
We watched as the big bears tore up more fish.
Lefty, who had been trying his hand fishing "the chute", didn't linger when bear 856 showed up to claim the spot.
That bear is one of the largest and is currently the most dominant.
We had some great lighting for evening photos.
We've heard the phrase "salmon so thick you could walk across their backs", and we got a first hand look at that.
As the evening wore on, this bear took a position fishing at "the rim".
To that point, we had only seen Lefty fish there. Interestingly, the bears develop different fishing skills, and there are only a few that have mastered fishing "the rim" which keeps the competition for the spots down.
This shot is "eye to eye".
Here are a couple action shots.
This bear wasn't using much skill. Linda was calling him "Lazy Eddie" as he just sat in an eddy and waited for salmon carcasses to float in.
Bears came and went, and the hierarchy played out. This large bear came from downriver and charged at one of the smaller bears.
He gave us a good head-on view.
I believe the bear below is 503, a long-legged, lanky bear that seems pretty smart and will likely challenge the older bears down the road.
These two had a stand-off, and the one on the right stood its ground perhaps moving up a notch in the chain.
It was quite interesting watching the big boy bear dynamics at the Falls.
Though you can pretty much go anywhere in Brooks Camp at any time of day or night, the Falls platform closes at 10:00 p.m. and re-opens at 7:00 a.m. So, sometime before 10:00, we finally left.
We were joined by our new friends Chris & Kalpana who came in yesterday with us on the float plane from King Salmon. They are a wonderful young couple, and they had the same passion for the bears and nature as we do. We tended to form our own group for walking to and from the campground and on the hiking trails.
Just after going through the last small gate at the Falls and Riffles boardwalk, there was a bear about 25 yards up in the woods on our right. He looked calm and relaxed, so Chris, Linda, and I walked by quickly while Kalpana and a couple of others waited for it to move a bit farther away. We joined back up in a few minutes.
Then, as we were approaching the new bridge ready to call it a night, we saw two sub-adults right at the bridge gate.
The bridge-monitoring ranger tried to shoo them away with little success.
Eventually, they left but as we were walking toward the gate, the ranger noticed another bear sleeping just off the road, so she held us up. She contacted a bear management ranger that came out.
By then there were about 20 of us stacked up waiting. The ranger circled way around the bears and got to us on the road. He was going to lead us through the marsh, under the bridge, and up some stairs. So, we started into the woods with that plan.
Linda was in the middle of the pack while Chris, Kalpana, and I were at the end. Suddenly, two bears appeared from our side moving in quickly. Half the group went forward with the ranger as he yelled at the new sub-adults. Linda went with him while the rest of us retreated to the road where we started.
The ranger almost had to use his bear spray, but he was able to get half the group safely to the bridge. So, Linda watched from there while the ranger backtracked to come and get the rest of us.
On his way back, one of the bears approached him again. Apparently it wanted to play as Ranger Michael described its actions like those of a big labrador. Of course, a bear "playing" with the humans is probably not a good idea, so Michael discouraged it.
When Michael got to us, he was explaining his new plan when two more sub-adults popped out onto the road behind us.
We moved farther away and around a corner while he maintained radio contact. Then we heard a sow and cubs were coming our way. In all, there were ten bears now preventing us from getting to the bridge.
So, we waited at the "Y junction" until we got the "all clear" to make our way to the bridge. We were out there about an hour after the first half of our group made it.
We learned to never expect to make it from one point to another at Brooks Camp without some type of bear delay.
Back at the Dining Hall everyone was talking about our adventure, and I wandered down to Naknek Lake. As soon as I hit the beach, a fat bear was looking at me, so I back-tracked. I waited, and then went back down. But I looked to my left and the bear was in the brush about 20 feet away from me. She just stared at me, while I quickly proceeded past her to the beach. That gave me a bit of a start.
This bear, known as Holly, ambled along so I could return to the others.
In the direction Holly was headed, there were two more sub-adults wrestling.
Finally, I hooked up with my group and we started the walk to the campground. In our first evening and one full day, we've already had to take detours to the campground due to bear activity on part of the trail.
As we walked down the beach on the campground trail, another bear turned onto the trail in front of us.
We waited and it left the trail to go to the beach.
I kept saying "WHAT IS THIS PLACE?" It just didn't seem real. In one full day our expectations were exceeded, and we just couldn't believe the number of bears. They were everywhere, and we were just allowed to walk among them. It was crazy, but the fact you could just randomly encounter a bear made the whole experience a little more exciting.
We made it to the campground, stepped through the gate and felt somewhat secure behind the electric fence. I'm not sure how good we'll sleep, but I'll be ready to get up early and do it all over again tomorrow.
Brooks Camp at Katmai National Park in July. Unbelievable.
WOW!!! What an amazing opportunity! Thanks for sharing your experience with all your amazing photos! Awesome!
Posted by: Pamela Wright | Wednesday, July 31, 2019 at 11:07 PM
Unbelievable what a fantastic experience.
I wanted to do a day trip there in 2014 with Alaska Wildland Adventures but mom not so much.
This is by far my favorite journal entry. What an experience you will not soon forget.
Thanks for sharing this wonder with us.
Posted by: Susan Anderson | Thursday, August 01, 2019 at 12:01 PM
I’m so happy for you. What an amazing adventure and I am definitely adding it to my bucket list. We’ve all seen the amazing shots but it’s wonderful to know it is way more than that.
Posted by: Tracy Perkins | Thursday, August 08, 2019 at 02:44 PM