Tag: Brooks Camp

The Route: Katmai National Park- Brooks Falls and The Valley of 10,000 Smokes
Days: 2

Getting There:

Ravn Alaska airlines – $608/person after fees/taxes for roundtrip flight Anchorage to King Salmon.

Katmai Water Taxi – $195/person roundtrip King Salmon to Brooks Camp. Found it easier to book over the phone as online doesn’t clearly tell if return water taxi is available or not until after you’ve already booked the first way of the trip to Brooks Camp and paid the total fee for both departure and return.

• A staff member of Katmi Water Taxi will greet you at the airport and shuttle you to the Gold Creek Lodge. This is a stunning lodge that offers dining and lounging along with private cabanas and a dock for wildlife viewing. A great option for those unable to stay or not wishing to stay in Brooks Lodge as packages can include the water taxi to and from Brooks Camp each day. https://www.alaskasgoldcreeklodge.com/

• Float planes are also available through Katmailand for roughly $240/person. I found the float planes to be less convenient due to lower weight capacities and unable to fly in poor weather.

Katmailand – packages are also available through Katmailand as well. A one-day Brooks Falls only trip from Anchorage is $895. This includes lunch/dinner at Brooks Lodge and discounts on items in the gift shop but it doesn’t permit one time to hike within the park or go on the Valley of 10,000 Smokes tour. There don’t appear to be packaged options for those want two days in the park to do both the Valley tour and the Falls.
http://www.katmailand.com/packages/daytrip-from-anchorage-to-brooks-lodge

The Visitor Center:

This is your first stop after the water taxi or float plane drops you on the beach. Put you gear in the gear cache and food in the food cache, both located on the right after walking up from the beach, and then go into the visitor center building on the left. Bathrooms are on the opposite side of the caches on the right.

Park rangers are stationed at the entrance and watching as people get off of the water and float taxis to shepherd you to the visitor center. You can’t enter the remainder of the park without attending the bear aware talk/video given at the visitor center. Don’t lose the pin you get at the end of the talk– they’ll make you attend the talk again!

Main bear-aware take-aways:

• No food allowed anywhere except designated areas. Don’t allow bears to associate humans with food!
• Don’t leave your belongings unattended. Don’t allow bears to associate humans with toys. They really are that smart!
• Remain 50yards away at all times. This may mean that you have to turn around and try the trail again later. This may mean stepping to the side off of the trail and letting a bear pass if rounding a corner and accidentally coming close to a bear.
• Never run! This ignites the instinct for the bear to chase you. Just stop and step to the side or start inching backwards and wait to see what the bear does. If anything, make yourself bigger to appear more threatening.
• Hike in groups as bears find multiple people more threatening than one and will more-likely walk away than attack if startled.

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Things to Do:

Brooks Falls – bear viewing deck is free; 1hr viewing limit per person regulated by park rangers

• Roughly 20-25min walk from visitor center to platform. 15-20min from Brooks Lodge to platform. Keep curving right whenever faced with a fork. You’ll come upon a sign on the right that will tell you to take the trail on the right after about 5min. All are well-maintained, wide dirt paths.
• Note: the walk is long not because of distance but because of bear-aware practices. Don’t walk quickly! You honestly might encounter a bear and/or a mom with cubs crossing the path or in the treeline next to the path. Keep 50yards away. Plan for “bear jams” as you wait to safely continue on the path.
• FYI: salmon don’t run much in warm water so bear/salmon activity is weather dependent.
  https://www.nps.gov/katm/index.htm
  https://www.nps.gov/katm/learn/photosmultimedia/brown-bear-salmon-cam-brooks-falls.htm

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Valley of 10,000 smokes tour – daily 9am-4:30pm. $88/person without lunch and $96/person with lunch (vegan option available). Purchase through Katmailand (aka Bristol Adventures)

• Drive a few hours with a park ranger who tells you the history of the Valley of 10,000 smokes and how it was this location that got President Eisenhower to Katmai into a national monument.
• Optional 3-hour round trip hike down to the valley itself. Amazing and well-worth it. Beautiful sight to see. Try to spot bear or lynx tracks along the way! Possible to do on your own without the ranger if you want to explore more paths or move more quickly than the rest of the group.
  http://www.katmailand.com/valley-10000-smokes

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Fishing – though I didn’t do this on my trip, several people that I met were going on guided and unguided fishing trips. Some just waded into the water next to the walking bridge that starts the trip to Brooks Falls. The cool thing about this activity is that you could find yourself fishing right next to bears who are fishing themselves. Remember to maintain those 50yards away and be ready to break your line and/or wade out as needed!

Dumpling Mountain – 4mi to the summit; 8mi roundtrip. 1.5mi to the first overlook. This first overlook is beautiful and enough. Venture to the summit if you have time or a broader view of the water and landscape.
https://www.hikingproject.com/trail/7044247/dumpling-mountain-trail

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Places to Stay:

Brooks Camp – $18/person, entrance fee included

• Food and gear caches
• Designated eating sites
• RULES:
  • Not allowed to bring anything food related except plain water while outside of designated eating areas
  • Cannot fly with bear spray or buy onsite
  • Cannot fly with fuel, lighters, or lithium batteries; these you can rent onsite
  • Can rent bear canisters onsite
  • Can buy food water onsite & Brooks Lodge
  • Keep electric fence gates closed at all times to attempt to keep bears out of the campsite.

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Brooks Lodge

• Lodging — details can be found on the website.
• Buffet Restaurant
  • Breakfast Buffet $17
  • Continental Breakfast $12
  • Lunch Buffet $24
  • Lunch Soup & Salad only $18
  • Dinner Buffett $40
  • Linch Soup & Salad only $20
  • Coffee, tea, bread, and dessert included in each option listed above

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Backcountry camping

• As long as your tent is set up outside of a 1.5mi radius of the campground and lodge, you’re golden.

My Personal Experience:

• Saw a mom and her three cubs on the beach while walking to Brooks Campground right after finishing the bear-aware talk. They weren’t kidding about bears being everywhere!
• Very little bear activity at Brooks Falls platform itself due to unusually high temperatures over the last few weeks in Alaska.
• A woman almost fainted from a mixture of low blood sugar and heat while at Brooks Falls and had to be wheel-chaired out.
• Encountered a bear walking along the beach essentially passing no less than 30yards away from me to continue parallel to the pedestrian path. A tourist was nearby. I was sure this was going to end in that stereotypical way when dealing with certain tourists as he inched closer and closer with his camera… Luckily, it did not. We both survived and no antagonizing of the bear occurred. Whew!
• That same tourist immediately turned around when I informed him that the Brooks campground was half a mile away from the Visitor Center. Apparently that was too far.
• Too bad for him, because he missed some serious action that occurred on that walk to the campground:
  • Bear #1 chased away bear #2 on the beach literally right next to me as I was walking along the trail to the campground. Maybe 20ft separated me on the trail from them on the beach to my right. My heart was pounding. At first, all I heard was multiple legs running and several grunts and I could see nothing. Once I could make out through the tree-line that there were two bears running in my general direction on my right I thought they were both running at me. Once bear #1 stopped running and bear #2 kept walking past me, I came to understand that bear #2 was not wanted there. Only problem was that after bear #1 had scared off bear #2, it promptly turned around and went back in the direction that I was going.  So here I was, on the trail roughly 20ft to the left of a near bear-fight with one bear ahead of me and one bear behind me… :/ Continuing toward bear #1 was the only way to the campground and turning around back toward the visitor center meant heading toward bear #2! So, not knowing what to, I just hung back, kept my distance, ensured that bear #2 was still walking away, prayed that neither of them noticed me, and then slowly continued forward to the campground. My only thought was that I needed to get behind the electric fence that deters bears from entering the campground and there I would be safe. Well, turns out that the one bear was actually a mama bear protecting her cubs whom she had perched in a tree right next to that electric fence!
• Able to catch a video of a young bear absolutely failing at fishing. His technique was far from stellar! Check out my Instagram post for the video.
• The Valley of 10,000 Smokes was fascinating to learn about and amazing to witness in person. The hike was not very technical but very rewarding with amazing views and a chance to go down right to the water. A path branches off to the right that allows one to see where the three nearby rivers combine. We spotted bear and lynx tracks throughout the hike and even some semi-fresh bear skat! I was taught by a member of the group that one can approximate a bear’s width/height by measuring the width of the bear’s front paw print and then adding an inch to that. A dollar bill is exactly 6in and a handy trick to help with measuring.
• Plenty of bears on the beach, swimming in the water, and wandering near the bridged walkway on the way to Brooks Falls. One even walked right underneath where I was standing!! Good thing I caught that on video!
• Hiked to the first overlook of Dumpling Mountain. After experiencing how close these bears are willing to get to humans on the trail, I was very nervous to hike alone. Listened to a podcast with several people talking to give bears the illusion of a pack. If it didn’t deter them it certainly helped my psyche! Trail is easy to follow but not greatly maintained or very wide so wading through tall plants is required.