Well, I finally did it! I crossed something off my Alaska bucket list that’s been on there since before we even moved here and it took 4 years of living here to get it done. On our last little escapade around Alaska, I figured out a way to get myself to the iconic Brooks Falls and it did NOT disappoint! Before we dive in, I need to give a little background on Brooks Falls. Brooks Falls is located in Katmai National Park which is a skip, hop, and a jump (or a plane ride or boat ride) straight across the bay from the tip of the Kenai Peninsula. This location is an iconic bear viewing spot in Alaska because each year, bears gather here to bulk up on the salmon run and get ready for hibernation. The bears in Katmai National Park are some of the biggest brown bears in the world. You can even vote each fall on who you think is the fattest bear during "Fat Bear Week" on the Katmai National Park website. It is one of the least visited National Parks in the country because it is so remote but getting there is half the fun, honestly. I’ve sat down to plan this trip so many times, doing so much research and, I’ll be honest, it started to seem so illusive! Granted, I know a few people who have done it and there’s so much information out there about visiting Brooks Falls. The problem is there are just so many different ways to do it! And with it being such a big trip, I wanted to make sure I did it just right. The first decision about our trip was kind of made for us. There are two ways to spend time at Brooks Falls and that is to either stay there at the lodge or make it a day trip. The lodge has been in operation since 1950 and consists of 16 rooms, or cabins that sleep 4 people each. These cabins are $955/night and open for reservations at the beginning of the year and sell out insanely fast. There is also a campground near the lodge surrounded by an electric fence. It costs $12 per person per night during peak bear watching season and is limited to only 60 people at a time so this books out extremely fast as well. Due to the ages and size of our party, and the fact that the last time I checked, everything was booked out until 2024 ;) we had to plan a day trip. The second decision to make was whether to bring the whole family. I absolutely love exploring and adventuring with my young kids but ultimately, we decided it was best for them to sit this one out. When visiting Brooks Falls, there is no food allowed on the trails. It's a bit of a walk from the beach/lodge area to the platforms and it’s not rare for the trails to close down for even an hour or two if a bear decides they want to take a nap or hang out close to the trails. My youngest is 2 years old and I wasn’t about to have a toddler be stuck on the trail with no snacks or juice to hold him over until who knows when…My husband graciously volunteered to stay behind with the kids while I planned the trip to go with my parents. The third decision to make was where we were going to book our trip from. There are multiple ways to get to Katmai National Park and we knew we wanted to fly. There are so many companies that fly to Katmai. Visitors can fly from Anchorage commercially to King Salmon and then either get a chartered flight to Katmai, or take the ferry. Or there are day trips that fly directly from Anchorage. We chose to get a day trip flight out of Homer and there were a few reasons for that. Last year, we actually did a bear tour to Lake Clark National Park out of Homer and we experienced, first hand, the way that the unpredictable weather can affect flights to the area. Because we knew there was a risk of having flights rescheduled, we decided we wanted to do a trip in Homer because, well, spending time in Homer is a little more interesting and new than hanging around Anchorage like we have done many times :) So we planned a trip to Homer with a very loose schedule in case we needed to switch around anything but it turned out perfectly. We spent 4 nights in Homer and booked the earliest flight in the week that we could with Northwind Aviation. The tour companies are very good at communicating when things come up but it does take a certain amount of patience and understanding on the customers’ behalf. Weather can look great in Homer but on the other side of the bay there’s a whole different weather system. Originally we were supposed to check in at 6:30 AM. The night before, they called and pushed it to 7:30 and then in the morning they pushed it to 8:30 and it was 9:30 when we were wheels up! Or rather, floats up. It was so cool to take off of the lake in a float plane and land at the beach in Katmai. Speaking of our flight, remember how I said getting there is half the adventure? The flight from Homer is 2 hours and it was so beautiful! We flew past views of volcanos and rivers and lush green mountains…we even saw a bear from the air before landing at the beach. We walked from the beach to the lodge where we had to take a quick lesson at Bear School to learn all the safety protocols before venturing off on our own. Katmai National Park is home to over 2,000 brown bears and as many as 50 bears live around Brooks Falls at any given time during the summer. Even though it is definitely a tourist destination, the rangers in the park are dedicated to not interfering with the lives of these majestic animals which means limiting human interaction as much as possible. Experiencing Brooks Falls puts visitors in one of the most dangerous places on earth when it comes to being around apex predators so going through Bear School is a must to make sure you, and the bears, stay safe. Once we got to the lodge, we had to put all of our food in the food cache. So before heading out to the falls, we scarfed down a quick sandwich in the small, electric-fence enclosed picnic area, and then we walked out to the falls! The 20 minute walk from the lodge to the falls is a little eerie after getting out of bear school ;) but it was fascinating. The first little platform you get to overlooks the famous Brooks River. We saw fisherman and bears but we also looked down right under the platform and saw the salmon! As we made our way to the next platform, we noticed all the fresh bear scat all along the trails, which was pretty wild. The next platform you get to is at an area called the “riffles”. While you can see the falls from here, this platform is a little bit down from the falls. It has no occupancy limit or time limit as opposed to the Falls platform, which is limited to 40 people and 30 minutes of viewing. Once we arrived here, we had to put our name down on the list for the falls platform and we were actually given a buzzer much like waiting for a table at a restaurant. We were there during peak season along with a ton of other people! We watched bears fish in the riffles while we waited for our name to be called and it took about 2 hours until we got to the top of the list. Time flew though, honestly. We watched a big, ol’ bear known as 747 - because of his size - wander in and take up his post in the river. We watched a new mama bear try to catch fish for her two spring cubs. We watched bears coming in and out of the river walking right underneath the platform and it was incredible. By the time they called our name for the falls platform, we only had about 10-15 minutes before we had to start walking back to our plane. But it was an amazing view. Indescribable honestly, but they say pictures are worth 1,000 words… Time flew by even faster in those 10 minutes and we soon found ourselves walking back to our plane with our pilot, who had made his way up to the falls after being stuck for an hour or so because a bear had decided to take a nap right on the trail. We could see where it had bedded down for a bit as we were walking back. But our trip wasn’t over yet. We climbed into our floatplane and had the most scenic flight back to Homer with clear skies and epic views of unexplored peaks and glaciers and then islands and volcanos and even a small pod of Humpback whales as we flew back over the bay. While there is no wrong way to visit Katmai National Park, we truly had an amazing time during our trip to Brooks Falls during this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. A couple things to note: (1) The trail to the falls is not as well marked as it could be. Our pilot gave us a great tip in taking all the right hand turns on the way out and all the left hand turns on the way back and we did stumble across some of the tiny little signs they have but we were grateful for the inside tip. (2) I can’t stress enough about how no food is allowed on the trails. No food is allowed outside, even, unless you’re within the small electric fenced areas. This is a rule in place for everyone visiting the park. The food cache was packed with food people had brought in but there is also a restaurant that is open for anyone. We had limited time and didn’t want to waste it by standing around eating so we didn’t really check it out but they do serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. (3) We did fly in but there were also boats along the beach. King Salmon is a very short flight from Katmai but they also offer a ferry. Both ways of travel are significantly impacted by the weather. But I’ve heard of lots of people staying in King Salmon for a few days and taking the ferry into the park each day if they didn’t have the option of staying at the lodge. Keep an eye out for our next post about more of what we did in Homer! If you’re interested in a one-on-one chat to help plan a custom trip to Alaska, check out our options here! Make sure to pin so you can come back to this post! Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram or TikTok for some of our day-to-day adventures and until next time, get out and explore where you live!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWe're just a military family enjoying where we live, one PCS at a time. Follow us as we explore our current home, South Carolina, and beyond. The world is our backyard. Archives
June 2024
Categories
All
|