Tour Summary

After departing at 8AM from Lake Hood, Anchorage, you will fly over Cook Inlet, the Alaska Range, remote islands, before landing on either Brooks or Naknek lake in Katmai National Park and Preserve. Katmai is home to the world’s largest population of Alaska brown bears and the famed Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. A forty square mile, 100 to 700 foot deep ash flow deposited by Novarupta Volcano in 1912. It should be mentioned that the smokes smoked out many years ago and the few smoking vents are only visible in an relatively inaccessible part of the park.

While the Katmai bear viewing at Brooks Falls is self guided, Katmai National Park Rangers provide an initial briefing upon arrival and are available throughout the park for questions. An on-site wait list for the Lower River bear viewing platform may be implemented when visitation reaches capacity to ensure quality bear viewing. What this means is that sometimes the bear viewing is crowded and the ranger may ask you to move to another platform. There is plenty of room in Katmai overall to see bears.