Trip Report: Alaska Katmai National Park Day 1

So, COVID has sure been a big bundle of joy for me and everyone else, hasn't it? I can't say I haven't thought to myself "WHY did I quit my office job where I could be working from home right now?" a couple of times over the last year and a half. I rarely go a few days without being exposed to someone with COVID, and with me not knowing how to drive and not feeling comfortable in other people's cars prior to vaccinations, I hadn't left about an eight block radius of my house in over a year (and the city is kind of a disaster with shut businesses and daily protests and homeless crisis when shelters and public spaces are closed). I have always thought of myself as pretty extroverted and social, but I have actually kind of enjoyed my time to myself. But the not being able to travel thing was rough on me. Travel helps keep me centered and has kind of become ingrained in who I am. I need my adventures and I get this odd, indescribable sense of just being "off" when I haven't traveled in a bit. I had to cancel my trip to France near my birthday and my trip to Oaxaca for Day of the Dead in 2020, and I am still uncomfortable with international travel right now due to a myriad of reasons I won't get in to right now. So needless to say, this year's travel focus had to be something epic, but also something in the U.S. that felt safe to me.

Let me back up even more. You know I love animals, of all kinds. I have gone far out of my way to see monkeys, traveled to the Galapagos, run around in the Amazon rainforest, flown across Australia to go hang with quokkas after seeing photos of them on the internet, and am still on my quest to see the elusive pink dolphin. About 8 years ago or maybe more (I forget when I started watching), I got hooked on watching these brown bears in Alaska at a place called Katmai National Park through this website called Explore.org. Originally, I had come across an article on the internet about these bears you could watch real time online 24 hours a day and about Explore.org's mission and I checked it out. It was both fascinating and relaxing to watch these same bears doing... well... bear stuff. I watched them at home and then found that having the bears on my work computer in the ER and occasionally flipping back to see what the bears were up to helped me get through the night. Over the years, I have watched a mom bear adopt another bear's cub and raise the cub as her own. I have seen a baby cub die. And I have watched baby cubs grow up to be adult bears and now have babies of their own. I have also viewed hours worth of ranger-led educational talks about these bears. Co-workers would check out what the bears were doing and I would, of course, fill co-workers and friends in with bear stories and facts (whether they wanted to hear them or not). My favorite bear has always been an older male bear named Otis who just seems to be content eating and napping and has a laid back personality. There has always been something comforting about Otis, and his consistent presence on my screen has gotten me through many very difficult nights at work now for almost a decade. Going to burst in to tears at work? Flip on bear cam, watch Otis peacefully stare in to the water for fish, and feel a calm wash over me. For years, I have had this goal to go to Katmai National Park before Otis disappears. I remember one of the doctors in the ER saying "We won't let you go until you can promise not to try to hug Otis." And I was never completely sure I wouldn't at least try a little bit :)

Katmai National Park is in a secluded area of Alaska that is home to 2,000+ brown bears. The closest airport is a little place called King Salmon and Brooks Camp can only be reached via float plane or boat. The cost of getting there is the same as most international destinations I want to visit, so it always took a backseat to somewhere I could fly to that I could spend more time. There are cabins with two bunk beds fitting four people that go for like $900 a night and that are booked out two years in advance and are run by a private company. But there is also a campground that is run by the National Park Service that goes for $12 a night. The camp usually holds 60 people and spots are snatched up within seconds every year they become available the first week in January. But last year, the park had to be shut down due to COVID and this year they initially opened at only 25% capacity (15 people a night). In early June, the National Park announced they thought they could open the campground to another 15 campers a night. As soon as I saw this, I knew THIS was my year to make this dream come true.

I was giddy at work the night before the extra 15 camp reservation spots a night went on sale. I had a grid with nights that would work best with my work schedule. I reset my internet router and checked and double checked my login and connection. And was on at 8am Alaska time when the spots appeared online. I managed to find 5 nights in a row (7 nights is the most you can have at a time), but it was the last day in July into the first week in August. That is an iffy time for bears in the area. Brooks Falls lies on the Bristol Bay salmon run, the world's largest salmon run. These Falls get a large run of salmon that try to jump the falls to spawn, which brings the bears. Historically, bears hang out in June and July and then go off to smaller streams in August before returning to the Falls to eat dead and dying salmon in September before heading in to hibernation. But I had done my research and found that more bears had been seen in August the last several years and this year was slated to be a solid salmon run. Needless to say, I booked it.

Watching the commercial fishing reports, it looked like this year's salmon run was about two weeks late! I crossed my fingers that this could potentially put me at Brooks Falls for the peak of the salmon run. Now all I needed was Otis to show up at the Falls to make the dream a reality. But Otis is a very old bear, estimated to be 25-26 years old. He has lost several teeth and kind of just gums and chews his salmon. But he still puts on the pounds like a champ (has been "Fat Bear" champion multiple years in the past). After watching the cameras for so long, I knew sometimes bears just disappear for hibernation and are not seen again. And I know some time probably sooner rather than later, this will happen with Otis. I was really worried when we didn't see him when he normally arrives. Weeks later, we had now past the latest date he had aver arrived at the Falls. People were thinking he had passed away, but I kept thinking that everything else seemed to be falling in place for this trip, and this would too. But as my trip departure date got later, I started to doubt myself. Three days before my departure, I spent the afternoon chasing a baby seagull who couldn't fly and got scared off the rooftop that my balcony looks over at. Finally returned him to his happy parents and come upstairs to take a quick peak at Bear Cam and I see Otis slowly walking up the river. He is skinnier than ever and moving slow, but he is alive and back!!! Maybe I called my mom crying, I was so happy to see him with the knowledge that everything fell in to place and my dream of going before he disappeared was really going to happen.

July 31st, I took a red eye flight from Seattle to Anchorage. Had a several hour layover at Anchorage airport, but got breakfast and tried reindeer sausage. Then caught my hour long flight to King Salmon, where I was picked up by Katmai Air and taken to their office where bags get weighed and you catch your float plane. I had worked hard to get six days worth of clothes, camping gear, and food under 50 pounds. I was close, and they were nice about it. They call your name and put you on planes heading for Brooks Camp. Most people were just flying in for the day and returning a few hours later. Most float planes fit 10 people, but they called me and a couple last, and we got this awesome Cessna float plane fitting the three of us and the pilot. The views out of the plane were beautiful with lots of blue water, mountains, greenery, and wilderness. Helped put in to perspective how remote the park is. But the best thing is seeing a glimpse of the Brooks Falls as you fly in, knowing those tiny dots are BEARS!! The plane landed about 30 minutes later on the shore of Naknek Lake and all have to head directly to Bear School, led by a National Park Ranger. This ensures that everyone is given the rules about the park and safety, both for the humans and the bears. Bears have the right of way and humans must try to get out of the bears way and give it 50 yards of space (100 yards if it is a mom with cubs). Eating is only to be done in the lodge or the two designated eating areas within the park. Only water is to be carried on the trails, no gum, candy, or anything scented. Make some noise while walking, as bears do NOT like to be surprised. And if you encounter a bear, speak firmly and calmly to it and step off the trail/back away slowly WITHOUT RUNNING. Afterward passing Bear School, you get a fun bear pin and most head to the Falls as they have a limited amount of time before the plane flies them back. I grab my camp permit from the Ranger Visiting Center and head down the trail to the campgrounds. As instructed by a ranger, I look both ways on the beach to ensure no bears are using it, as the beach is the "highway' for some bears to get to the river and up to the falls and you don't want to be on the trail right next to the beach if a bear wanders on to it. I see one swimming in the lake way further down, so make my way to the campground and find a perfect spot that has a nice breeze of the lake with noise of the waves, right on the other side of the bear wire and away from most other tents. They warn you multiple times that the camp is bear-resistant, not bear-proof as occasionally bears can get in to the camp. There is plenty of room to spread out, since the campground is only at half capacity, due to COVID precautions (30 people a night instead of 60). There is a gear storage shed and food storage shed, both which are clean and well-organized for a bunch of campers. There is also a fuel cache, where people can also leave unused campstove fuel behind as most of us have to purchase it at the store as you can't have it on the float planes. After my stuff is put away and my tent is up, I decide to head back to the Lodge area to see how late the store is open so I can grab camp fuel. As I come off the trail from the campground, my heart races a bit as a bear darts ahead of me, disappearing in to tall grass. It starts sinking in that this is just normal... close encounters with bears. I have several hours before the store closes, so I decide I will just take a quick look around to familiarize myself with the layout of the camp and park. First, you cross a long bridge over the lake where it meets the lower river. It is a really peaceful setting with mountain views and lots of little islands with tall grasses, and, of course, occasional bears popping their heads up or standing on two feet as they walk and bob around in the river. There are a few different viewing platforms to step on to, as you are instructed to keep moving on all walkways until you get to the viewing platforms in order to minimize areas of potential human disruption to bears. It is interesting to watch the salmon start gathering here below this bridge as you walk along. The salmon hang out until there is enough of them to start migrating up river towards the falls. They like the water to be a certain temperature, and go up the river in groups... safety in numbers.

Once over the bridge, you stay on the road past a grassy meadow overlooking another mountain and then a short distance more to the trailhead to the Falls. The clouds are now gone and it is nice and sunny. I am hyperaware of every movement of grass, after seeing several bears I intially did not see until they popped out or rolled over. A small bunny hops out on the trail and scared me half to death. Ha! A winding gravel travel brings me to a gated walkway, as you start hearing the bears bellowing at each other in the distance and I can smell the scent of bears. Before I left, I had wondered what they smelled like and was told they were a bit smelly. I actually didn't think they smelled that bad (but I may be biased, in favor of the bears)... I thought they kind of a smell of wet grass and musk. I arrived at "The Treehouse", a covered area that connects to both the most popular Brooks Falls viewing platform and the Riffles viewing platform, which is slightly down river from the Falls. A ranger greeted me and put my name on the list for the Falls viewing Platform and let me know I could head to the Riffles platform and they would let me know when it was my turn in about 30 minutes. I head down the walkway to the Riffles Platform and see the bears at the Falls from a distance. It was spectacular. There were so many bears, fishing the Falls, wrestling, playing down river, sitting on rocks... bears constantly on the move. I instantly can tell Otis is at the Falls, just by his color and posture. And then a short 20 minutes later, they called me to let me know it was my turn for the Falls platform. The waitlist was done for the day, so I could stay out as long as I wanted. Walking down the walkway to the Falls platform, there are huge bears wandering down hills and under me without even looking at me or paying any attention whatsoever to me as the sound of the Falls gets louder. When I get to the platform, it is not too crowded (less people allowed on the platforms this year, making it less crowded but potentially longer waits) and I find a spot right up front. There really are no words to describe how I felt to be able to see something live and up close that I have watched for so long on a little screen. I was worried there wouldn't be many bears while I was there, thinking "even one bear is more than I have ever seen" and here were probably 60 bears in one spot. I saw so many bears I could identify, famous bears to me. I knew their back stories from the many years of viewing them online. I said hello to my dear, sweet Otis. I watched bears fishing on the lip, mom bears teaching their cubs to fish, and saw small spring cubs and their moms wander right next to and under the viewing platform. IThe "nanny tree" where moms send their cubs up a tree so they can fish is also right off the viewing platform. So many bear cubs this year, I can't even tell them apart. There are so many, the cubs even got confused as a mom would show up and wrong kids would come out of the tree! It was truly overwhelming. Partially just overjoyed to have some joy after the last year and a half, overly grateful that my life is such that I can have such an experience, fascinated that these bears and humans can come in such close contact with on another safely, all of it. The Park Ranger that was taking names for the waitlist is now standing nearby and I am grinning from ear to ear. He laughs and said something like "Pretty great, huh?" and I LOST it. Just started sniffling and crying in pure joy. Ranger Mo was so very kind and did not make me feel embarrassed or silly and just sweetly told me that my reaction was why he does what he does for a living.

What was meant to just be a few minutes turned in to hours, and I stayed until around 6:15pm, so I could make it back for camp fuel before the store closed, so I didn't have to suck on dry macaroni noodles, oatmeal, or coffee. I made myself dinner and met a few people in camp before settling in to sleep while there was still light (Alaska summertime, but as a night shifter, I am used to sleeping with light). I planned to get up early every morning to watch the sunrise and head to the Falls platform before it got busy as all the day-trippers arrived. I listening to the waves of the lake and heard other campers saying "bear on the beach!" as I briefly wondered how likely it was that a bear might get through the bear wire before zonking out. I was too exhausted and I was now sure there would be plenty more bears tomorrow.