Katmai National Park and Preserve

Katmai spreads across the Alaska Peninsula in the southwest of the state, a roadless country of volcanoes, big lakes, and salmon-rich rivers between Bristol Bay and the Pacific. It is one of the largest national parks in the country, and almost all of it is true wilderness with no trails or facilities at all. Most visitors come for one small but famous corner of it, the Brooks River, though the park stretches for millions of acres beyond.

The signature draw is the brown bears of Brooks Falls. Sockeye salmon surge up the Brooks River each summer to spawn, and the bears know it. They gather at the falls, where the fish must leap the cascade, and take up fishing spots along the lip and in the pools below. From raised platforms, visitors watch bears snatch salmon in mid-air, wrestle over prime positions, and pack on the fat they need to survive the winter, growing into some of the largest brown bears on earth. It is a rare chance to watch wild bears behaving naturally, absorbed in the hunt, at close but safe range.

Behind that green, salmon-fed country stands a stark reminder of how this land was made. In 1912 the Novarupta eruption buried a nearby valley under a deep blanket of glowing ash, and for years it hissed and steamed from countless vents. The smokes are gone now, but the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes remains a haunting moonscape of ash, carved by rivers into deep gorges and ringed by volcanoes. Fishing bears on one side and a smoldering volcanic valley on the other make Katmai one of Alaska's most extraordinary wild places.

• By small plane only. There are no roads into Katmai. Nearly everyone flies first to the village of King Salmon on a scheduled flight, then boards a small float plane for the short hop to Brooks Camp, landing on Naknek Lake.
• King Salmon is the gateway. It has the main visitor center, air services, and lodging, and it is where most trips into the park are arranged. Some visitors also reach Katmai on a longer float-plane flight direct from other Alaska hubs.
• Because King Salmon itself has no road connection to the rest of Alaska, the practical approach for almost every traveler is to fly from Anchorage to King Salmon, then take a bush or float plane the rest of the way in. Plan the whole trip around flights, and book well ahead.

• Brooks Camp and Brooks Falls is the heart of most visits, a small camp on the shore of Naknek Lake with a ranger station, campground, and a short trail network. The wooden platforms overlooking Brooks Falls are where the famous bear viewing happens, and everyone who lands here first goes through a required bear-safety orientation.
• The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes lies inland, a stark ash-filled valley left by the 1912 Novarupta eruption. It is reached by a long ranger-led road tour and hike from Brooks Camp, a full-day trip into a landscape that looks more like the moon than Alaska.
• The Katmai backcountry and coast make up the vast majority of the park, millions of acres of volcanoes, tundra, and remote coastline with bears, but no trails or services. This is expert-level wilderness reached by small plane or boat, and most travelers only ever see the Brooks River corner.

• Watch the bears at Brooks Falls from the elevated platforms, the reason most people come. In the height of the salmon run you may see many bears fishing at once, and the sound of the falls with the animals at work is something no screen can match.
• Take the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes tour, a ranger-led road trip and hike into the ash-choked valley left by the Novarupta eruption, a haunting contrast to the green, salmon-rich country around Brooks Camp.
• Join the bear-safety orientation at Brooks Camp, which is required before you can explore. Rangers explain how to move through bear country, keep your food secure, and give the bears the wide space they need.
• Cheer on the bears during Fat Bear Week, the park's beloved fall tradition, when webcams follow the bears as they fatten up and people around the world vote for their favorite before the animals den for winter.
• Try the world-class fishing on the Brooks River and nearby waters, famous for rainbow trout and salmon, always keeping a careful distance from the bears who are fishing the same runs.

Long before it was a park, this stretch of the Alaska Peninsula was home to the Sugpiaq peoples, also known as the Alutiiq, who fished the salmon rivers and lived along the coast and lakes for thousands of years. The Brooks River area holds evidence of human life going back many centuries, and Katmai's story is inseparable from the Native communities whose ancestors knew these waters and volcanoes intimately.

That long history was shattered in June 1912, when the Novarupta volcano erupted with staggering force, the largest volcanic eruption of the twentieth century. Ash fell for days, darkening the sky as far away as distant towns, and the nearby villages of the region were buried or abandoned. Families from communities such as Katmai and Savonoski were displaced and never returned home, resettling elsewhere on the peninsula. The land they had lived on became a blasted, ash-covered ground.

A few years later, a National Geographic expedition led by the botanist Robert Griggs pushed into the devastated country and found a valley full of steaming vents, which Griggs named the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. His accounts helped convince the government to protect the area, and in 1918 President Woodrow Wilson set aside Katmai National Monument to guard the volcanic landscape. For its first decades the monument was valued mostly for its geology.

Over time, attention shifted to the astonishing gathering of brown bears at Brooks Falls, and the protected area grew to safeguard them and the whole salmon-fed ecosystem that sustains them. In 1980 the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act expanded and redesignated it as Katmai National Park and Preserve. Today the descendants of the Sugpiaq peoples remain connected to this land, and the park works to honor that heritage alongside its famous bears and volcanoes.

• The 1912 Novarupta eruption was the largest anywhere on earth in the twentieth century, releasing far more material than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, yet it happened in such a remote place that few people witnessed it.
• Fat Bear Week began as a single 'Fat Bear Tuesday' and grew into a worldwide online event, with hundreds of thousands of people voting each fall for the bear that packed on the most weight.
• The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes got its name from the countless steam vents, called fumaroles, that hissed across the ash for years after the eruption. Almost all of them have since gone quiet.
• Katmai's brown bears are among the largest in the world, and a big male in the fall can weigh well over a thousand pounds after a summer of eating salmon.
• The eruption emptied a magma chamber beneath nearby Mount Katmai, and the mountain's summit collapsed into a deep crater that now holds a lake, even though Novarupta, several miles away, was the vent that actually erupted.
• Brooks Camp sits on land people have used for thousands of years, and archaeologists have found the remains of ancient dwellings near the river where bears now fish.
• Because the park is so remote and roadless, the live Brooks Falls bear cams let millions of people watch the bears without ever leaving home, one of the most-viewed wildlife feeds in the world.

• Katmai has no roads. Access is by small plane, commonly through King Salmon and then by float plane to Brooks Camp, so plan the whole trip around flights and book air services and any lodging well ahead.
• The famous bear viewing at Brooks Falls is busiest in July during the peak salmon run. A reservation and permit system applies to camping at Brooks Camp, so check the park website and reserve early.
• This is serious wild-bear country with strict food-storage and distance rules, and a required bear-safety orientation at Brooks Camp. Follow every ranger instruction, keep your distance, and never approach or feed a bear.
• The season is short and summer-focused, and weather can delay or cancel flights at any time, so build extra days into your plan and pack for cold, wet conditions even in summer.
• Services are limited. Most of the park is trail-free wilderness with no facilities, so come prepared and self-sufficient beyond the small developed area at Brooks Camp.

Katmai has no roads, so you can only reach it by small plane or boat. Almost everyone flies first to the village of King Salmon, usually from Anchorage, and then takes a small float plane for the short hop to Brooks Camp, landing on Naknek Lake. Air services fill up in summer, so book your flights and any lodging well ahead of time.

Katmai does not charge a standard drive-up entrance fee the way road-accessed parks do. Your main costs are the flights in and out and any lodging or guided trips, and there may be permit or reservation fees for camping at Brooks Camp. Check the National Park Service website for current requirements before you go.

The prime bear viewing at Brooks Falls follows the salmon runs. Early to mid-July is the classic window, when the sockeye salmon leap the falls and many bears gather to fish. There is a second good stretch in September, when bears return to feed on spawned-out salmon before winter. That fall period is also when Fat Bear Week takes place.

Fat Bear Week is a fun fall tradition at Katmai. As the park's brown bears fatten up on salmon before their winter sleep, live webcams follow them, and people around the world vote in a friendly online contest to crown the fattest bear. It started small and grew into a worldwide event that draws millions of viewers each year.

Brooks Camp has raised wooden platforms that let you watch bears from a safe height and distance. Everyone who arrives must complete a short bear-safety orientation with a ranger before exploring. During the busiest July days, time on the main falls platform may be managed so that everyone gets a turn, and rangers guide the flow of people around the bears.

This is serious wild-bear country, and the bears are large, powerful, and completely wild. Your safety depends on following every park rule closely: keep your distance at all times, never approach a bear, never feed one, and store all food and scented items exactly as rangers instruct. Attend the required bear-safety orientation, stay alert, and let the rangers guide you. Give the bears space and they will go about their fishing.

It is a stark, ash-filled valley left by the Novarupta eruption of 1912, the largest volcanic eruption of the twentieth century. The blast buried the green valley under hundreds of feet of hot ash, which steamed from countless vents for years and gave the place its name. The steam is gone now, but the valley remains a haunting moonscape of ash cut by rivers, reached by a long ranger-led tour from Brooks Camp.

Because getting there takes real effort, most people plan at least a full day at Brooks Camp, and often two or three, to allow time on the bear platforms and a buffer for weather delays. Adding the all-day Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes tour means at least one more day. Since flights can be delayed by weather, it is wise to build extra days into any Katmai trip.

Brooks Camp has a lodge and a campground on the shore of Naknek Lake, both of which fill quickly and require reservations well in advance. Camping is available through a permit and reservation system. Many visitors also base themselves in King Salmon and take day trips in by float plane. Plan and book early, since space is very limited.

Yes, some visitors fly in for a single day of bear viewing at Brooks Falls and fly back out the same day, weather permitting. Pets are strongly discouraged in this wild bear habitat and are generally not appropriate for Brooks Camp, where bears roam freely. Leave pets at home and check the park website for current rules before you travel.