Hanging with Bears in Katmai National Park

 

A swimming Katmai bear, heading our way!

It was another spectacular visit to Katmai National Park in Alaska. Known for its bears, it did not disappoint. We had many close bear encounters, and we even got to see a number of swimming bears. One swam all the way across Kukak Bay. I couldn't blame him, as it was one of the hottest days of the summer for this part of Alaska. We had another playful bear that rolled over in the shallows, giving us a good view.

We explored Kukak Bay in the morning. This is one of the more famous bays on the outer coast of Katmai National Park. People will fly in on float planes to come watch bears here. Early in the morning, Christian and I paddled our kayaks out for a recon of the shallow bay at the back of the bay. It was a beautiful morning with calm water, but no bears. Then, after breakfast, I took out a shorewalking group. The tide was going out, so the landing was tough. No one topped their boots, and everyone walked slowly so they didn't slip on the shallows. The bugs were incredibly bad, so I kept everyone moving. We didn't have any bears in the meadow, at the typical viewing spot, so we kept walking across the back of the meadow. We had a wonderful encounter with a bald eagle, perched up on a big rock. Then we had a bear walk our way, but decide to go for a swim. Another bear almost surprised us as we were getting picked up by the skiff. And then we zipped across the bay and had a wonderful bear encounter with a bear playing in the shallows.

In the afternoon we moved over to Geographic Harbor. This beautiful bay was named after a National Geographic expedition into this area after the big Novarupta volcanic eruption of 1912. We can still see deposits of volcanic ash as we look up the huge mountains around the bay. But we are really here to look for big brown bears. And we lucked out again. I drove a skiff tour, and one of our guests suddenly pointed up at the cliff and said, 'bear!' We stopped, and sure enough, a golden brown bear was looking out at us, surrounded by wildflowers and berries. After a quick look, the bear went back to foraging, and we watched for the next thirty minutes. Eventually the bear came up over the rise and walked down to the shoreline. It promptly went for a bath, and actually started swimming towards us. Luckily it veered off and cast us a few glances from the rocky shoreline. It was a wonderful bear encounter.

Just when we thought the day couldn't get any better, we found ourselves surrounded by fin whales, out in the Shelikof Strait, with unusually calm conditions. We quickly decided to load up everyone for night time skiff tours, and went out for the next hour with the second largest whale in the world!

A beautiful brown bear up in a meadow, surrounded by wildflowers.

A big Katmai brown bear hiding stalking behind some wild fireweed in Geographic Harbor.

On one our hottest days of the year, this bear decided to cool off by rolling around in the shallows.

Time to come down to the water for a cool drink. Wooops, that is sea water. Probably not good to drink. Even for a bear.

It can be hard to spot a bear in the bushes. Sometimes you hear them break a twig, or snap a branch. We were lucky with this one. The sun was hitting it just right.

A big bear lumbers down the shoreline of Kukak Bay, Katmai National Park.

While we were on land searching for bears, we came across this beautiful eagle.

We had a unique opportunity to take skiffs out in the middle of Sheilakof Strait and found ourselves surrounded by fin whales.

We watched this bear from the skiff for a while. It put on a good show for us, flipping over rocks.

This fin whale popped up very close to us. The mountains of Katmai National Park shone in the background. Pretty cool that this was 9pm at night. We've gotta use all the light we have.

Our skiff, heading out in Kukak Bay, on the search for the famous bears of Katmai.

Some of the geological formations in the back bay of Geographic Harbor are pretty mesmorizing.

At low tide, our trek took us across the mud flats. It was easy walking until we got to this little outflow. The black cotton soil in the middle of the stream turned into boot-sucking-mud real fast. These were not the only two victims of the BSM.

Walking along the shoreline at Kukak Bay can be difficult. You have to navigate slippery, algae covered rocks, tide pools, and mud. My group helped each other and persevered.

Taking our time across the low tide zone at Kukak.

We aren't the only ones walking across the mud flats here.