I had a close encounter with an Alaskan Brown Bear!
- dduriga
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
Yes, I did have a close encounter with an Alaskan Brown Bear, one that I will never forget. I also hope I will never experience it again!
I took a photography trip to the world famous Brooks Falls located in remote Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska.
If you have seen photos or videos of bears catching fishing as they tried to jump up a waterfall, this is the place.
To give you a taste of the amazing site, this is a video I took of a bear strolling in front of the falls.
We traveled each day from King Salmon via a boat across Naknek lake and one day by seaplane. I will never do that again!
When you arrive the first time on the beach you are greeted by a National Park Ranger. Everyone must have a mandatory safety briefing on bear safety. Thank goodness for this!
We spent several days at the falls and had an amazing and rather uneventful time.
There were times I was 10 feet or less away from a bear. However, we were up on wooden platforms and they were more interested in the salmon.
We did have a couple of bears that decided to sleep in the middle of the trail blocking our movement. There were also a couple of bears on the beach that prevented us from getting to our boat.
Then it happened!
We were making our way down the trail to the visitor center that led to the beach for our ride home.
We noticed this large female, in the picture, taking her afternoon nap in the sun on the beach.
We were then greeted by a National Park Ranger and noticed barricades were placed preventing beach access.
The National Park Ranger explained there was a subadult bear trying to walk down the beach. However, the female was preventing this from happening.
We made our way over to the visitor center to wait for the areas to clear of bears. (We were not allowed in the visitor center. It was during Covid and they were only allowing one person inside at a time. That is where I wanted to go and stay safe.)
Then we heard a commotion and a National Park Ranger telling us to get up against the building. Shortly after the young bear came around the corner and seemed just as surprised as us to see each other.
There was a part of me that was scared to death and kept saying in my head please bear, don't eat us. The other part of me is saying, no one will ever believe me so you better record this.
We were safe as there were several National Park Rangers with weapons monitoring the situation. They do a wonderul job of ensuring visitors are safe. Visitors must also do their part to stay safe.
You can see the encounter in this video.
Despite this rare encounter, Katmai National Park and Preserve is an amazing place. They also have wonderful educational programs.
Katmai National Park and Preserve also does a great job promoting their bears. I highly recommend checking out their web cams at https://www.nps.gov/katm/learn/photosmultimedia/webcams.htm
This site also has cameras and shows highlights from the previous year. https://explore.org/livecams/brown-bears/brown-bear-salmon-cam-brooks-falls
These cameras are addicting and are placed at various points along the river. You can watch as they catch the fish at the falls or watch them go snorkeling in the lower parts of the river. Please note these cameras are only operational when the bears are feeding in mid June to around September.
Also check out their Fat Bear Week they have every year in the fall. This is a head to head competition to crown the bear that gained the most weight during the summer. It is always a blast.
You can place your vote each week to help crown the new champ. This is also a great event to get kids involved, they love it.
They also have great swag with proceeds benefiting the National Park.
Check it out at https://katmaiconservancy.org/fatbearweek
There are several Facebook pages dedicated to this event as well. The National Park Service and the National Park & Preserve among others have pages.
Brooks Falls is an amazing experience. I highly recommend traveling to see nature at its finest. You are completely safe there. With every experience in the wilderness, one must do their part to stay vigilant of the surroundings. It is called the wilderness for a reason.
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