Alaska: Katmai National Park

Have you ever wanted to share walking paths with one of North America’s largest carnivores? Welcome to Katmai National Park, where the wildlife runs the show. A large population of brown bears live in the area and are drawn to the Brooks River by the salmon run in July. Normally fairly solitary animals, the abundance of food leads to a temporary truce among predators. This means that you have the chance of seeing a lot of brown bears in a relatively compact area.

Some bears fish at the top of the falls...

The park is huge, but the prime bear viewing area is relatively small - about a 1-mile stretch along the Brooks River, from Brooks Falls (where you get the photos of leaping salmon snagged out of the air by bears perched atop the falls) down to Naknek lake. Bears wander the area freely, swimming and fishing in the river and the lake, napping in the forest, and often ambling along the same trails to the waterfall that their human guests take to the viewing platforms.

For some, the bear viewing begins as soon as they arrive via sea plane

You arrive at Brooks Camp by seaplane, from the tiny town of King. Some people come on a day trip: land in the morning, see the bears, fly out in the afternoon. Any way you get here, it is incredible, but If it is at all possible it is worthwhile to stay at least one night. You have two options - book a cabin (fairly pricey, often booked up a year or more in advance during prime bear-viewing season) or reserve a spot at the campground. The campground has a “bear-resistant” electrical fence (I overheard one ranger saying “we absolutely can’t call it bear-proof”). Reservations can be tricky - on the first Monday in January, at 8am Alaska time, they open the online reservation system. You have to log in to the website, add the dates you want to your cart, and check out. And do it faster than 99% of the other people who also want to go in July during bear season, as they only allow 60 campers in the campground. I spent 3 days doing practice drills so I would be ready to snag a few days during my July vacation, and it paid off! I got 3 nights during prime bear-viewing time.

Bears: interested in salmon, and also in fly fishing

Eagles (and less-photogenic gulls) also come to the falls to either catch their own salmon or eat scraps left by the bears

An introductory information session (aka "bear school") is mandatory - what not to carry with you (anything that smells good - food, especially), how to walk in the woods (make noise so bears will know you're coming - I spent a lot of time walking trails alone and saying "I am not sneaking up on you, bears"), what to do if you see a bear (get out of its way, look big, make noise, throw things if necessary). And you will see bears! I saw them in the river, but I also saw them on the way from the campground to the dining hall, from the dining hall to the showers, from the showers back to the campground... They are everywhere, and thanks to sensible travelers, patient rangers and the fact that they are all so stuffed full of salmon, there has never been a bad human-bear interaction at the camp.

But the bears are in charge - a bear napping in the middle of the trail will close the trail, and it remains closed until the bear feels like moving. These "bear jams" are fairly common and often relatively short, but I did get caught in one for about 45 minutes, and finally ended up slogging through a marsh to get past the place where the bear was sleeping before I could get back on the trail.

Juveniles mock-fighting (still scary when it is happening near you!)

Once you get to the falls, you view them from a series of viewing platforms. The platform closest to the falls can get pretty crowded in the middle of the day - rangers rotate people on and off on an hourly basis so everyone gets a turn, but those staying at Brooks Camp can arrive early in the morning and stay late in the evening, which is a definite advantage.

One of the best things I did was take a guided walk in the river wearing waterproof waders (I do not look terrific in waders) to see the bears from a salmon's-eye view. It was incredible to be so close to them, and to get a completely different perspective from what you see on the viewing platforms.

If you go: July is prime bear season, but the bears are not at the falls or in the river all the time. While most people on day trips see a lot of bears, you are much more likely to see what you're looking for and have time to linger and enjoy them if you give yourself a few days. Practice with the campground reservation system before they reservations open, and if you can't get the dates you want, check back frequently as people do cancel and spots do open up.