Large format photos of Katmai National Park · Panoramic photos of Katmai National Park]
You have probably seen images of a brown bear catching a salmon jumpimg mid-air. It is almost certain that the photograph was made at Brooks Falls in July, at the peak of the salmon run. There is an observation platform where you stand just in front of the bears, and a modest telephoto is sufficient to take a good picture. Nowhere else it is as easy to view them, and often inadvertently encounter them on the trail or on the lake beach. Returning to Brooks Falls in the much quieter month of September, the bears feeding on spawned out and dying salmon looked big and fat, with more shinny and full coats. While all visitors spend some time to admire those magnificent animals, it is the eruption at the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes which led to the establishment of the park. I took the four-wheel drive bus on two occasions: for a day tour to an overlook over the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes in 2016, and to backpack in the Valley for a week in 2001. Although bad weather thwarted our attempts to climb the high peaks surrounding the valley, we left with memorable impressions of an eerily unique landscape. See also the pictures of backpacking.
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