So, this is the trail we travel to and from the Brooks Camp Campground at least a couple of times a day.
Part of the campground trail is often closed due to bear activity and we have to take an alternate route. Well, on our way to breakfast, this is what we found on one of those alternate routes - a bear dug a bed overnight.
This happens near the trails from time to time, and the rangers just fill in the holes. Nothin' to see here.
At breakfast, we met a couple of ladies that had just arrived the night before, so we walked with them to Brooks Falls. Well, we had yet another bear encounter on the Brooks Falls Trail.
This one was coming our way, so we all slowly backed up. It stayed on the path, and we continued to back up. It eventually left the trail and we watched until it was a safe distance away before proceeding. That was a little exciting for everybody, especially for the women who hadn't yet experienced a close encounter like that.
We reached the Tree House well before there were enough people to start a waiting list, so we accessed the Brooks Falls platform and got front rail spots. The heaviest bear, 747, made an early appearance.
A couple more walked by the platform, but the early morning hours just aren't as lively as the mid-day hours and, especially, the evening hours.
This is one of the few females that dares to fish the Falls with the big boys. She is 128 "Grazer".
Many of the bears used rocks for tables to dine on their fresh salmon.
This morning, we got our best look yet at the oldest bear and webcam favorite, 480 Otis.
Otis is gettin' up in years, and isn't eating as much as he has in the past. The rangers aren't sure how much longer he'll be around.
We didn't stay as long at the Falls platform this morning, and we went back to the bridge. The "fuzzy cubs" family was there.
The cubs swam across the river with their mother, which I believe is 482.
They hung out in an elbow of the river for quite some time. Here is a wide view from the bridge .....
and a wider view from the bridge.
At one time today, turning 360 degrees, we could see 20 bears (including a few sets of cubs) from that vantage point.
In the fuzzy family, the cub on the left below is more blonde than the other two, and it seemed to be a "mama's bear".
Here are a couple of interesting facts about bear reproduction. First, cubs in the same litter may have different fathers as the bears mate with multiple partners and since the females only produce one ovum at a time, it requires multiple copulations to fertilize multiple eggs. Second, fertilized eggs in the females don't attach to the uterus immediately. It's called "delayed implantation", and the development of the embryo is postponed until the bear has accumulated enough fat to get through the winter and the eggs will attach at hibernation. If the bear doesn't reach the proper level of fat, the embryo is reabsorbed and the pregnancy is terminated.
We made the trip back to the campground to get a bite for lunch. During our stay, we ate breakfast and dinners at the Lodge Dining Hall, but we tended to go back to the campground if we were hungry in the middle of the day. Remember, we're not allowed to carry any food with us while wandering around watching bears, so though our preference would have been to just carry lunch or snacks, that wasn't an option. We were only allowed to carry plain water.
On the way, we saw some folks out on the beach on Naknek Lake, so we walked out. This sow, the same one that nursed her cubs by the Dining Hall last night, was sprawled out sleeping with her cubs. Quite adorable.
After getting ourselves fed and taking a little rest of our own, we walked back out to the bridge. The same bear family was now out there. We watched for several minutes. I think she is number 171.
The sow swam out and grabbed a salmon for lunch.
This is one of my favorite shots.
Who got the fish head led to a little sibling conflict.
Though cubs played together a lot, when it came to food, there were some pretty serious cub fights. But soon enough all is forgotten, and it's back to being cute.
We hung out on the bridge just watching bears in all directions before going back to the Dining Hall for an early dinner. But first we watched a couple of the fuzzy cubs on the beach.
After dinner, we were walking across the bridge on our way to the Falls for our evening visit, when Ranger Michael pointed out a wolf. We had heard there were two wolves hanging around, and Linda spotted one of them the other day from the bridge while I was off at the Falls.
It was a long way off between some photographers and a bear, in the center of the photo below.
It picked up a fish carcass and walked toward the photographers.
The photographers re-positioned and found themselves between two bears and the wolf as it walked by the closer of the two bears.
Surprisingly, the bear and the wolf didn't pay each other much attention.
We've seen a few wolves in our travels, and this one was definitely the skinniest of those we've viewed.
Eventually, we made it back to the Falls. Looking downstream there were four bears in the riffles.
Just below the Falls, this fellow was checking things out. I'm pretty sure this is 856, a large boar that is currently the most dominant.
He gets whatever fishing spot he wants, and the other bears just make way.
On the other end of the spectrum is 480 Otis, who once was a dominant bear, but has been surpassed by others and is now fading with age. He looks sad.
Also at the Falls was 747, the largest bear this season.
He's not as aggressive as 856, but he still gets pretty much any fishing spot he wants.
We're not sure which bear this is, but for the second day in a row, he slept with his head on his front leg which rested on a rock in the river.
Here's Otis fishing "the chute" next to 747 in the far pool.
It was good to see him eat.
There were surprisingly few eagles on the Brooks River given all the salmon carcasses. But we watched as this one flew in and grabbed a fish head.
Our next surprise was the second wolf sighting of the day.
It was on the opposite side of the river but still quite a bit closer than the one we saw earlier at the lower river.
It was also a very skinny wolf that was scavenging fish remains.
We were told that wolves were rare at Brooks Camp, so I guess we were quite lucky to see them. It's been a thrill to see all the bears, but to add two wolves was just over the top. This morning we had wondered what else we could possibly see - well, that question was answered. But we weren't finished.
The bear power hierarchy testing each other at the Falls.
It was like "legends of the Falls" with the oldest bear, 480 Otis, the largest bear, 747, and the most dominant bear, 856. Also, 775 Lefty was there in his usual position fishing "the lip" of the Falls entertaining everyone.
Here's Lefty with another fish.
So here's a photo with five bears at the Falls with Linda looking on.
And then we had six bears at the Falls, as a female bear (I believe 402) joined Lefty and fished "the lip" beside him (we were surprised he allowed it).
What a magnificent sight.
The female seemed to be even more efficient at catching fish than Lefty.
But they were both fun to watch.
My goal was to get both of them catching a fish out of the air at the same time. I got very close with this next shot.
Then, in the spirit of what else could we possibly see, these two different bears started mating just below the Falls.
That went on for awhile, until 856 appeared, and the smaller bear bolted.
Both bears headed for the woods as 856 went in pursuit of the female. We're not sure what happened behind the platform as all three disappeared behind us.
We then watched the fishing activities for a little while longer before heading back.
Since our flight doesn't leave until 2:00 tomorrow, we'll have another chance to come to the Falls in the morning.
We almost made it back to the bridge without a bear delay, and then we came upon a sow and two cubs blocking the path.
We backed away, and eventually she headed the opposite direction toward the river.
We followed, and once on the bridge, I got one more good shot of this trio.
We saw a few more bears, but it was getting late and we headed back to the campground. This time the main trail and one of the alternate routes was closed, so we had to take the "orange" trail through the woods and tall grass to access a back entrance to the campground.
That was a little nerve-wracking, but we had no issues and got ourselves inside the electric fence for the night.
Yesterday, we were thinking that a three-night stay would have been enough. But we're sure glad we were here for a fourth and got to see the wolves and more bears. From the bridge, we had 20 bears in sight at one time. At the Falls, we had six bears right in front of us and ten in sight at the same time. We got to see two bears fishing "the lip" together, and we saw the eagle swoop in, and bears mating.
I'm not sure what else I can say about our visit to Brooks Camp at Katmai National Park. These memories will last a lifetime.
Wow! What an incredible experience. Both Bear and wolf on your Katmai Falls outing.
Posted by: Naomi | Sunday, August 04, 2019 at 08:55 AM
ABSOLUTELY SPECTACULAR!!!! Thanks for taking us along on this wonderful adventure:o)))
Posted by: Bill and Nancy | Sunday, August 04, 2019 at 08:57 AM
Treasured memories. Thanks so much for sharing all those great photos!
Posted by: Janna | Sunday, August 04, 2019 at 09:21 AM
Wow, just can't thank you enough for writing, photographing and sharing all of your adventures. Truly specatular!
Posted by: Camille | Sunday, August 04, 2019 at 09:35 AM
Your stay at Brooks has been my absolute all time favorite. I learned a lot about bears and their habits. It's amazing how fast you can get attached to them. I think you will miss them.
Posted by: Julie Hazlett | Sunday, August 04, 2019 at 11:31 AM
Wow wow wow. Wolf, eagle, and bears bears bears. I’m so happy for you.
Posted by: Tracy Perkins | Thursday, August 08, 2019 at 08:54 PM