I recently returned from a trip to Alaska, where my main goal was to photograph the Alaskan brown bears during the annual salmon run in Katmai National Park. First, to get this out of the way, grizzly bears are a sub-species of brown bears. The bears in Katmai are considered brown bears and not grizzlies. Per the park’s website the difference is somewhat arbitrary, but grizzlies don’t have access to coastal food sources (like salmon) and tend to be smaller.
The destination for this trip was Brooks Falls. Every July the salmon make their run up the Brooks River from Naknek Lake to Brooks Lake to spawn. The waterfall in the river slows them down, making it a great spot for bears to scoop them up with little effort as they consume as much food as possible to prepare for the next winter.
The challenge is actually getting to Brooks Falls. From Anchorage you can take a short flight to the town of King Salmon on the Alaska peninsula. From there you take a float plane to Brooks Camp. That flight takes 30 minutes and lands on Naknek Lake. They back the planes up to the shoreline, allowing the passengers to disembark by walking on the pontoons and onto the beach.
Upon arriving at Brooks Camp, your first job is to attend “Bear School”. This is required each year for everyone in the camp and provides instructions how to stay safe in bear country. It is important that the bears never associate people with food, so no food at all is allowed outside of specific areas within the camp itself. You get a graduation pin on completion of the course and are now free to go check out the bears.
You don’t have to go far to find them. This mama bear brought her cubs into Brooks Camp itself, sending them up a tree for safety while she went and ran some bear errands. She came back a little while later to collect them and I managed to capture a photo of one scrambling back down the tree.
The Bridge
Brooks Falls is a 1.2 mile hike from the camp. The first step is to cross the bridge over the river. They recently replaced the old float bridge, which was frequently closed when bears were in the area. The new bridge is elevated so you can cross any time – although they did close the exit on our second day when a mama bear and cubs were exploring the area.
We consistently saw bears as we walked across the bridge and it was nice to capture them in a different environment than further up the river.
After crossing the bridge, the rest of the hike is along a well maintained trail. Bears do frequent this trail (as evidenced by the large amount of scat observed along the way), so the park recommends that you walk in groups and make noise as you go. We never had an incident on the trail. You eventually reach another raised boardwalk as you approach Brooks Falls. Here you give your name to the ranger who manages the access to the falls platform. Forty people are allowed on the platform at once, and your viewing time is limited to an hour after which you can re-enter the queue.
The Riffles
They manage the waiting list well. Once you check in they give you a pager, allowing you to go down to the viewing platform at “The Riffles” and watch the bears there while waiting for your turn at the falls. While less dramatic than the falls, the riffles are often more fun. There is no time limit or waiting list, so you can hang out as long as you like. A lot of the females, sub-adults and cubs can be seen in the riffles and they tend to be a lot more active than the dominant males at the falls. Here are some of the scenes I captured from the riffles:
Brooks Falls
Finally it was our turn to head up to Brooks Falls. This is the prime viewing location with a waterfall, huge dominant males, and jumping fish. There are two tiers on the platform and both provide good views. Tripods aren’t allowed during high season so I made do with my monopod. In terms of equipment, I took most of my shots with my Canon 5DSR camera using the 100-400 lens and a 1.4x extender. This combination provided plenty of reach and was sometimes even a little too long when bears came near the platform or I wanted to show more of the scene.
The main attraction is watching the bears catch fish. The falls are the prime fishing spot because they form a natural barrier slowing down the fish. The experienced bears can simply wait for the fish to come to them, expending very little energy. I focused much of my attention on the bears fishing from above the falls, as I wanted the classic shot of them grabbing a fish in mid-leap. I didn’t quite get that, but I did see him pull a fish out of the falls.
The bears in the back of the scene caught a few fish as well.
The most dominant bears claim the prime fishing spots and hold them based on their position in the bear pecking order. Every once in a while one of them decides to stir things up, creating some opportunities to photograph some bear-on-bear action. Most of the skirmishes involved more posturing than actual fighting, but each of the bears has plenty of scars indicating that things sometimes escalate.
Even without taking photos, it was interesting and fun to just watch the bears. You can pick up some of their personality traits and see the different ways they handle things. Sometimes it seemed like they simply got bored and decided to instigate something just for fun. I’ll leave you with a couple more photos. I’ll do my best to answer any questions in the comments.
