Grizzly bears at Brooks Falls

Bears at Brooks Falls - all my photos

One of the best places in the world to see Brown (Grizzly) bears is in Katmai National Park in Alaska. The very best place in Katmai is Brooks Falls. This is a small waterfall which blocks the annual salmon migration. The bears accumulate at the waterfall during the salmon run and just wait for the salmon to (literally) jump into their mouths. This trip started with a flight from Anchorage to King Salmon, then another flight in a "sea plane" from the river in King Salmon to a lake close to Brooks falls. This is also the park headquarters for the nature reserve.  After a very interesting flight and landing in the lake, the group of tourists were given a brief introduction of the safety rules. The main rule is never allow the bear to get closer then 50 feet (15 meters) from you! Yes - right - who it their right mind would let a gigantic brown bear get to within 15 meters from you. Well at Katmai, the bears can get pretty close!

Flight to the Falls

Next important safety rule is not to have any candy (sweets and chocolates) with you. We were told to take out any candy we had with us. A lady, who was quite a bit bigger than me (which is quite an achievement) started to unpack the candy she had in her pockets! Enough to stock a small store. The ranger took one look at her and asked if this was all. Well it was not and she unpacked more candy - enough to fill a second store! The final important rule is to not surprise the bears. Make a noise when walking - call out to the bears! After this brief briefing you head out (on your own) and look for bears! So here I am walking along the path in serious bear country heading for the platform at the falls! Serious game tracks could be seen crossing the path. Obvious evidence that there are a lot of bears in the area. Anyway - while walking along this path, and feeling quite nervous, a group of very worried looking tourists come rushing towards me - there is a bear on the path! So what do I do? As a keen wildlife photographer who has come all this way and converted a mountain of hard earned Rands into dollars to see and photograph bears, I checked that I had the correct lens on my camera, checked the camera setting and proceeded to walk in the direction the frighten tourists had just came from. After all, there is bear on the path and I want to see a bear! I felt a bit stupid walking along the path saying loudly "hello Mr Bear - please don't eat me. I just want a photo of you". Anyway to cut a long story short, I did not bump into the bear! I arrived at the falls where there was a viewing platform with a very large group of tourists/photographers, all bustling for a place to put down their tripod. There, in front of the platform was the falls and around the falls were the bears. All very intent on catching a salmon and actively fishing. Fishing could either take the form of standing at strategic spots along the waterfall with your mouth open, literally waiting for the salmon to pop into your month. These were obviously the prime fishing spots and bears lower down on the pecking order were trying to catch fish below the falls.   

Catching a fish the easy way

A "blond" with her cubs

Bear in a washing machine

You could only spend a very limited time on the platform and it was a bit congested. After my time was up and I had to leave the platform I started to walk back along the path. About 200 m from the main platform, I found another platform. No other tourists, no other photographers, but a really great view of the falls and the bears. The bears fishing below the falls would come pretty much straight to the platform when they has caught their fish. A really great place to be! I was literally the only photographer, so I could set up my camera and with a good 500 mm lens, I could get very good photos of the bears on the falls but more importantly below the falls. There was also no time limit to how long I could spend there. From the fighting for a space at the platform not even 200 meters away to my own platform. Great.

Got a fish

Another bear - another fish

Lunch was included in the tour so as it approached lunch time, I crossed the small bridge to the main part of the park for lunch. This is also the area were you could stay. After lunch I needed to visit the "little boys room" (toilet), which was in a different building. Just as I walked out of the dinning hall, someone said to me to stand still. This I did, and watched a very large brown bear walk past me, much closer that the allowed 15 meters away. He paid absolutely no attention to me. He was on his way to go fishing.

I wanted to go back to the falls, but the bridge was closed because there were 2 bears at the bridge. A large group of tourists gathered waiting to be able to cross the bridge. Everyone looking at the bears across the bridge. Something told me to look around me, just in time to see another two bears heading down to the lake not 5 meters away from the last person in the group of people.

Bears at the bridge

All too soon it was time to fly back. While waiting for the plane, the crew who collect the supplies from the plane were also waiting for the plane, and not very far from them was a bear, also sitting and for all intent and purpose, also waiting for the plane.

Waiting for the plane

A really great experience and something which I would love to do again. Maybe include a sleep over in the nature reserve.

Last bear with a fish photo! I have many more!