Everything to know about Katmai National Park

Why you should go to Katmai

Volcanoes and bears embody the wild heart of Katmai, located on the Alaska Peninsula. Within the borders of the national park and preserve lie 14 active volcanoes and North America's largest population of protected brown bears—some 2,000 of the photogenic creatures.

Visitors can hike, kayak, and canoe in Katmai. They can fish waist-deep in rivers as clear as glass. And they can watch the best fish catcher of them all, the great Alaskan brown bear, sometimes diving underwater for its prey, sometimes catching salmon in midair. 

Katmai’s other allure is extreme volcanism. The 1912 eruption of Novarupta—the world’s largest volcanic event of the 20th century—discharged 30 times more magma than Mount St. Helens in 1980. Ash from the explosion drifted all the way around the planet, global temperatures cooled, acid rain burned clothing off laundry lines in Vancouver, British Columbia—and on Kodiak Island, just across Shelikof Strait from Katmai, it was dark as night for three straight days.

Leading a 1916 expedition sponsored by the National Geographic Society, botanist Robert F. Griggs ascended Katmai Pass from Shelikof Strait. “The whole valley as far as the eye could reach was full of hundreds, no, thousands—literally, tens of thousands—of smokes curling up from its fissured floor,” he wrote. The smokes were fumaroles steaming 500 to 1,000 feet into the air. Griggs, who named the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, spearheaded the campaign to include Katmai in the National Park System.

Where to find the best views in the park

Dumpling Mountain is the easiest place to enjoy a panoramic view of Katmai. The tundra-covered summit is 4.6 miles northwest of Brooks Camp, site of a summer visitors center and the hub of park activity. The view takes in all three arms of Naknek Lake as well as the distant Alaska Range.

Those with well-honed wilderness skills can paddle eight miles across the Iliuk Arm of Naknek Lake and bushwhack their way up 4,730-foot Mount Katolinat for even more stunning views of the park.

Best trails

Short, flat and wheelchair accessible, the Brooks Falls Trail offers a 1.2-mile hike through boreal forest to a pair of bear-viewing platforms along the Brooks River. Hikers should be aware that bears are frequently encountered along the route.

Two other short, easy trails start from Brooks Camp. The Cultural Site Trail meanders through an archaeological zone that includes the remains of several prehistoric settlements and a replica semi-subterranean dwelling similar to those that Katmai’s long-ago residents called home, while the Brooks River Bridge Trail leads to bear-viewing platforms overlooking Naknek Lake.

Starting from the bridge’s south end, energetic hikers can follow the 23-mile Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes Road to the Robert F. Griggs Visitor Center and the valley’s volcanic wonders. Brooks Lodge offers a drop-off/pick-up shuttle service ($55 one way) to the visitors center. 

Best spots for seeing wildlife

Brooks Falls is world-renowned for bear viewing, especially during the summer when dozens of brown bears are attracted by the salmon run. An annual tradition since 2014, Fat Bear Week gives the public a chance to watch the bruins in person or on the Brooks Bear Cam and vote on which bear has done the best job of plumping up for winter hibernation.

There’s also great bear watching from June to September in mudflats, meadows, and salmon streams along the park’s Pacific coast, especially Hallo Bay, Swikshak Lagoon, Geographic Harbor, Moraine Creek, and Funnel Creek.

Ranger Matt Johnson, the park’s interpretation and education program manager, says the Brooks area is also good for spotting river otters, porcupines, eagles, and merganser ducks. “It’s fun to watch the mergansers,” says Johnson, “because the mother always keeps the ducklings in line. The wilder she quacks, the closer together they get.”

Katmai’s offshore waters attract a wide variety of marine creatures, from sea lions and sea otters to migrating humpback whales and orcas. Meanwhile, the park’s lakes, rivers, wetlands, and shoreline offer ideal habitats for many migratory bird species that breed, give birth, and raise their chicks during the summer.

How to visit the park like a Nat Geo Explorer

“We definitely had a lot of bear encounters,” says National Geographic Explorer and photographer Katie Orlinsky, who joined archaeologists and other scientists on a 2018 journey across Katmai that followed in the footsteps of the historic Griggs Expedition of 1916. “And we were there in early June, long before salmon primetime.”

After getting dropped at several spots in the Katmai backcountry by bush plane, Orlinsky and her colleagues backpacked and pack-rafted their way across the park’s remote wilderness, searching for artifacts that Griggs and his team might have left behind.

For Orlinsky, the most startling thing about the trek wasn’t close encounters of the bear kind but the incredible variety of terrain they tramped across. “We had everything from beach and grassy marshes and rocky terrain with petrified trees to river crossings and pretty deep snow where you’d be wearing snowshoes.”

Her advice for anyone visiting the park is to explore beyond the Brooks Falls area. “The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes is incredible, especially if you can see it from the air in a small plane and then explore the valley on foot.” Last but not least: “Always be bear aware.”

Best activities and excursions

The rare opportunity to observe and photograph brown bears in the wild is the park’s premier attraction. Several bear-viewing platforms along the Brooks River render closer encounters of the bruin kind. Staying several days in the lodge or campground at Brooks Camp enables return visits to the great bear show.

For those who can’t overnight in the park, Katmai Air and Rust’s Flying Service are among the aviation outfits with bear-viewing daytrips from Anchorage in floatplanes that touch down on Naknek Lake beside Brooks Camp. From Homer, Smokey Bay Air and Alaska Bear Adventures offer bear-viewing daytrips to the Katmai coast.

During the summer season, Katmai Trading Post in Brooks Camp rents fishing gear, as well as canoes and kayaks for paddling Naknek Lake and beyond. Brooks Lodge offers a natural history guided bus tour to the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, as well as guided fishing trips and flightseeing over the volcanic Alaska Range.

Katmai is a paradise for experienced backpackers and paddlers with advanced wilderness skills. Backcountry camping is allowed everywhere in the park beyond a 1.5-mile radius around the Brooks Camp/Brooks Falls developed zone. Bear-proof food storage containers are mandatory for all backcountry camping, and bear spray or a portable electric fence are highly recommended. Backcountry permits are not required but overnight hikers are encouraged to file a trip plan at a park visitors center.

While there are no established long-distance hiking routes, Katmai does have an epic paddling trail. The 80-mile Savonoski Loop starts and ends at Brooks Camp. A full week is recommended for a watery passage that includes the Iliuk Arm, Savonoski River, Lake Grosvenor, a portage through boreal forest, and the North Arm of Naknek Lake.

The park is open in winter. “But I don’t know a lot of people doing that,” says ranger Matt Johnson. Visitors would have to charter their own plane or strike off from King Salmon on cross-country skis or a snowmobile. “There are no established trails into the park and it’s a long way. It’s not easy or recommended.”

Best family-friendly experiences

Katmai is not an ideal park for families with smaller children, but older kids and teens relish the wildlife, outdoor adventure, and dramatic wilderness landscapes. Bear-watching at Brooks Camp is the number-one family activity, but there’s also scope for short hikes, fishing, and canoeing/kayaking in the same area.

Other family-friendly activities include evening ranger talks at Brooks Camp and the ranger-led excursion to the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes and its volcanic wasteland. Like other national parks, Katmai offers a Junior Ranger Program with various activities listed in a booklet that can be downloaded before your visit. Matt Johnson also recommends the park’s Junior Angler and Junior Paleontologist programs.

Where to stay

The National Park Services operates Brooks Camp Campground in the heart of the park and Fure’s Cabin (built in 1926) on the Bay of Islands. The campground is open May 1 to October 31; the cabin is available year-round. Reservations for both can be made at Recreation.gov.

Privately run accommodation includes the popular Brooks Lodge near the best bear viewing, as well as Katmai Wilderness Lodge on the coast, and remote fishing outposts like Grosvenor Lodge on Lake Grosvenor, Royal Wolf Lodge on the Nonvianuk River, and Kulik Lodge on Nonvianuk Lake.

Essential things to know about Katmai

Access: With no road access, the best way to reach the park is flying. Alaska Airlines has two daily (one-hour) flights from Anchorage to King Salmon, where passengers can transfer to daily floatplane service with several air carriers to Brooks Camp (June to mid-September). Air charters can transport visitors to other areas of the park including the coast and remote fishing lodges.

Alternatively, you can hop the new daily Katmai Water Taxi from King Salmon to Brooks Camp (June 1 to late September), a journey of around 45 minutes via the Naknek River and Lake Naknek.

When to visit: June to September is when accommodations, transportation, and other park services are fully available. The park is largely inaccessible during the snowy winter and rainy spring. Bear watching, an increasingly popular pastime, is best in July when the sockeye salmon spawn. Rain and wind are common during the summer, when daytime temperatures can range from 30°F to 80°F; the average low is 44°F.

Fishing: An Alaska state sport fishing license is mandatory for all nonresidents age 16 and older. Catch and release is encouraged. Anglers should be aware that fishing can attract bears and they should always keep at least 50 yards away from the animals.

Pets: Pets are not allowed anywhere in the park. Service animals must be kept on a leash and under the owner’s complete control at all times in order to avoid encounters with bears and other wildlife.

Accessibility: Given Katmai’s rugged terrain and remote wilderness, accessible services are only found at Brooks Camp, where many of the structures, two campsites, and bear-viewing platforms are ADA compliant. The visitors center offers a limited number of all-terrain wheelchairs while the park brochure has braille and audio description versions.