katmai bears 20 july

one of the highlights of our journey was planned way before we even left texas.  we had made one reservation on this entire trip and that was to visit the salmon eating brown bears (also known as the grizzly bear) along the brooks river at brooks falls in katmai national park.  katmai is nearly 300 miles south of anchorage, around the size of wales and designated mostly wilderness.  the worlds largest brown bear population is found here, roughly 2,000 along with 14 active volcanoes.

the day started with an early 5 mile bike ride from mary and andrew’s to rust’s flying service located just north of anchorage’s international airport on lake hood, the worlds busiest seaplane base with ~190 flights/day.  there we met our pilot, dale, a 38 yr veteran pilot who hails originally from montana.  our plane mates were astrid and pascal, a young couple on vacation from switzerland, on their way to visit the same bears in katmai.  i'll let the photos do the talking....here is our day...

our plane

astrid, pascal and aly

heading to katmai

our 1st bear...in camp...we hadn't even gotten on the trail

our 1st fishing bear

this guy is HUGE

each has his own spot and is waiting for the salmon to swim upstream

that water is COLD!

this bear started towards the fishermen as one of them had a fish on his line...he had to release the fish...once the fish was gone, the bear took off towards the falls for fishing himself

chasing salmon in the water

looking for fish

and yet still looking

ah ha!  finally caught one

a little skirmish letting the other know this is his fishing spot

needless to say, the bear on the left kept his spot

he's had a few fights

look at those claws

fishing from the top or the bottom of the falls

it's better down below

the bears behind aly...maybe 30 yards to the middle of the river

we had our mosquito nets up for the camera

sleeping standing up after a long day of fishing

mama comes with her 3 cubs for a bit of fishing

look how cute

she tells them to stay while she goes out fishing

and she means STAY!

off she goes

they will learn someday

so they climb to safety

she returns and off they go fish-less

that is mom's claw

WOW!

our plane home after ~3 hours walking through the forest and visiting brooks falls

the plane before ours, taking off

sights on the way home

lots of glaciers

and glacial lakes--look at the beautiful water color

and rivers

and swamps

and finally back to anchorage...

we had been gone all day...from 8am until 5pm.  it was a 2.5 hour trip down, about 3 hours with the bears and about 3 hours back to anchorage...

what a GREAT day!  we feel very lucky to have seen so many bears...we probably saw a dozen during the day and will cross this off our bucket list!  wow!  highly recommended!!