Alaska's Katmai National Park and Preserve

Many visitors to Alaska are nature lovers who are adventurous at heart. If this describes you, I recommend you visit the Katmai National Park on your next trip to Alaska. The Park is located 300 miles south of Anchorage, and offers a rare chance to view Alaskan Brown (Grizzly) Bear in the process of catching and eating salmon as they make their way upstream to spawn. This National Park and Preserve is huge, spanning almost five million acres of remote wilderness.

Approximately 55,000 visitors every year come here, so reservations are a must! Although the Park and Preserve is open 12 months a year, the National Park Service at the Brooks camp only offers service for tourists and visitors from June 1 through September 17. The best months to view the bears in action are July and September. During the month of July, bears are often seen at Brooks Falls (this is within walking distance of the camp.) Because encounters between visitors and bears do occur, you must take a class to learn about bear behavior and how humans should act around them before you are able to got to the Brooks Falls viewing platform. This is for your protection!

Brooks Lodge is open from June 1 - September 17, and here you can get a buffet style breakfast, lunch or dinner and buy some essential items in the store (stock is very limited). Their toll free phone number is 1-800-544-0551. Prices for meals are more expensive than in Anchorage, with breakfasts starting at $10, lunch's $15 and dinner's $15-30. Showers are available at the lodge for a fee.

Katmai Park is very remote, and it's not accessible by car. The only way to get there is to charter a plane or boat. Most visitors book a commercial flight from Anchorage to King Salmon, and then they catch a private carrier float plane to Brooks Camp. Last year it cost around $165 for roundtrip airfare from King Salmon to Brooks Camp.

The park is home to some of the world's largest salmon runs and as such brown bears are abundant. The latest estimate for brown bear in the Park is 2000 plus, aided by the summer salmon runs which are a magnet for the grizzly. There are three viewing platforms in the park that allow visitors uninhibited viewing of the grizzly bears salmon catching activities. The platforms are placed so that they do not affect the bears behavior, and the visitors get a birds eye view of the grizzly in it's natural state. Only 40 visitors are allowed on the platforms at one time, and they are monitored. When there is a waiting list, they limit the viewing time to one hour.

Accommodations can be either at the Brooks Lodge, or camping. However, in order to camp in the back country one will need to obtain a permit first. Brooks Camp Campground is on the shores of Naknek Lake, and is a short 1/4 mile to the Visitor's Center. The campsites do fill up quickly during the prime bear viewing months, so make your reservations early. There are only 18 campsites, and the park only allows a maximum of 60 campers each night. The nightly camping fee is $8.00. The campground does have a few facilities such as a food and gear cache, fuel storage locker, potable water, cooking shelters, electric fences and outhouses. There are not individual cooksites, but rather a common area that all campers use. For the 2008 season, reservations can be made as early as February of that year. Call 1-877-444-6777 for more information.

You never want to keep food near your campsite, and if you are visiting any time before June 1 and after September 17, you will need to provide your own equipment, and a bear resistant container is essential. It is paramount that food, beverages and garbage are stored in bear-resistant containers. The King Salmon visitors Center allows you to check out, at no cost, bear-resistant containers.

If you love to fish, (especially fly fish), this is the place for you! Some of the best fly fishing areas in all of Alaska are here. The Park is well known for it's sport-fishing, where you can catch a trophy rainbow trout, red and silver salmon, Dolly Varden, and lake trout. You can also enjoy boat tours, camping, viewing the wildlife and of course taking all those pictures!

Weather in Alaska is hard to predict. It is often said if you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes and it may change. You will need to be prepared for both warm, sunny weather, and chilly, rainy weather. Bring a raincoat to be safe, and pack some sweatshirts and sweaters. The average temperature is only in the mid 40's, and cool breezes often make the summer temperatures (normally in the 50-s and 60's) seem much cooler than the thermometer reads.

A trip to Alaska's Katmai National Park and Preserve is certainly a once in a lifetime experience. Download Katmai Podcasts by visiting this link: http://www.nps.gov/katm/photosmultimedia/katmai-podcasts.htm