About five years ago I discovered the Explore.org wildlife cameras, specifically the Brooks Falls, Katmai National Park, bear cameras. There are several of them focused on different areas of the river and falls (you can find them at https://explore.org/livecams/brown-bears/brown-bear-salmon-cam-brooks-falls), and they can be addictive. I'm living proof of that! Over the past 5 years, I can't tell you how many hours I've spent watching those bears do all sorts of silly things. I can tell you who some of the bears are (many of them have names given to them by the rangers or by people who comment on the website), I can tell you who had cubs and when; in other words, I've devoted a lot of time and brain space to these bears. Never in my imagination did I think that I would be able to see them in person. Too expensive, I said to myself, hard to fly when you need oxygen, plus myriad other reasons that it wouldn't be possible.
Last Wednesday I arrived in Homer and started looking at the tour book to see what things I really wanted to see while I was here. At the bottom of one of the pages was an ad for Bald Mountain Air with day tours to Brooks Falls. What? I said to myself. I thought you had to go for several days and stay in the lodge. I had no idea there were day trips to get there. Oh well, I figured, they are probably all booked up, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. I called them, and lo and behold, they had one opening for Sunday the 21st. Well, I didn't have a set schedule, I could find things to do in Homer for a few days, and I jumped at the chance to go. It was expensive, but I decided it was worth it to dip into savings for this. At that point, I was so excited that I called my sister to gush, and texted my sons (the ones in the US, sorry Drew!!) with the exciting news.
It was hard to wait, but finally I woke up this morning and just started grinning, because today was the day! It was sunny and warm, and I was READY!!
8:30 AM: be at Bald Mountain Air to take our 10 passenger Otter, with pilot Doug.
Beautiful scenery on my side of the plane on the way to Katmai.
10:45 AM: land on Naknek Lake. I recognize the surroundings from the bear cameras.
11:00 AM: Bear School at the park with a ranger. There was a video about bear safety, and a talk afterwards that is required for anyone wanting to go further than the visitor center. (Eat some of the snack food you brought while you watch the video – no food on the trails). Get your National Parks Passport stamped!
11:30 AM: find a group to walk with (safer in numbers) and get to the bridge across the river. First bear sighting from the bridge, a sow with 3 cubs, but over there are two sleeping on the beach, and two more swimming up the river, and wait, on the other side of the bridge, there are 6 bears in the river fishing for salmon, and most of them have one in their paws. Holy cow, there are bears everywhere!
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| Mama and 3 cubs |
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| Mama eats first! |
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| There are 6 bears in this photo -- click on it and it will enlarge! |
12:45 PM: tear yourself away from the bears on the lower river and hike (wait. two bears are coming down the road toward the bridge so we have to wait for them to wander off the other way) to the Riffles (a spot just a little way down from the falls, it has a big viewing platform and it is here we must wait our turn to go to Brooks Falls, which can only fit 40 people at a time on the viewing platform. There is a bear not 30 yards from us who is halfheartedly catching and eating salmon. It's almost like he is really full, but knows he must keep eating! Sometimes he only takes one or two bites before he lets the salmon go.
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| Looking for another fish. |
1:15 PM: it's our turn to go to the falls, a short walk on a boardwalk to the viewing platform. Two bears are there, one in what is fondly called the Jacuzzi because of the way the water flows from the falls there, and another in the J – I don't know how it got it's name, but that's what it is called. Salmon are jumping at a good rate – every time I try to count there are at least a dozen in the air attempting the jump – and the bears are catching them at a pretty good pace.
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| this one tried to pounce on the fish! |
2:00 PM: leave the platform for the hike back to the visitor center and the plane. Oops, can't leave yet, there are two bears just off the path, so we have to stay on the enclosed boardwalk for about 10 minutes till they mosey off in the other direction.
2:20 PM: back to the lower river and the bridge, but there is a mama with one cub cavorting below us, so we stay to watch as long as we can. A huge school of salmon is gathering at the bridge, getting ready to make the assault on the falls. (And my feet ache, it's been a lot of standing and walking, and I want to sit down for a while.
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| Salmon stacked up waiting for the next run1 |
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| Mama and baby pretty close up! |
3:15 PM Back at the plane for the trip home. It's been a fabulous day, one I will remember for the rest of my life!
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