Today was all about an excursion we decided was an absolute must-do, and we are sure glad we did. It was most definitely an experience of a lifetime. We took off on a float plane (super cool by itself) and headed to Brooks Falls in Katmai National Forest to see the brown bears. Our excursion was run by Bald Mountain Air. Two planes went out, and ours was piloted by the owner, Gary Porter.
I thought I would be nervous about flying in the float plane, but it was awesome. I’d rather land on water any day than on a landing strip. So much fun.
Brooks Falls is the most famous place in Katmai to see bear. It is the place you have probably seen on the Discovery Channel with bears lined up to catch fish as they are jumping up the falls.
The walk to the falls is about a mile and a half. Often, there are bear on the trails, and this can cause delays in the trek. There were numerous reported bear sightings on the trails while we were there, but we didn’t encounter one on the trail. We did see some right next to the trail and on the beach near where the planes land.
It didn’t take long before we began seeing bears. We were on bridges and viewing platforms at the riffles and the falls — the two biggest but not the only areas where the bears fish for salmon.
When you get to the viewing platforms, you put your name in for the falls viewing platform. While you wait, you can go to the platform for the riffles, which is right below the actual falls.
I believe 40 are allowed at a time on the falls viewing platform, and you are given 30 minutes. Trust me, the rangers know when your time is up — but we set an alarm. They apparently had some trouble the day before with crowd timing and control, and it turned out to be a real mess for some people who never got to the falls platform after paying a lot of money for their excursion. So when we were there, they were all over it!
You can sign up for another 30 minutes if you want to, but the day was getting late, and we wanted to get back in time to be prepared to get back on the float plane. Plus, the experience is so incredible that it will last a lifetime. Another 30 minutes and 500 more pictures wouldn’t have make a difference!
One of the rangers told us that people can hear amazingly well when their names are being called to go to the viewing platform, but when their name is called to LEAVE, they can’t hear anymore. We didn’t want to be like those people.
There are bears of all ages fattening up on the salmon run at Brooks Falls this time of year. Some bears fish from the riffles and some fish from the top of the falls. Not every bear is able to fish from the top. There’s a lot going on there, and I’m sure it takes a strong, fit bear to handle it.
This was most definitely without a doubt one of the major highlights of our trip. We almost didn’t take this excursion because it’s definitely on the pricey side. But we are both so very thankful we did. It was truly an utterly amazing experience.
If you are ever in the Homer, Alaska area, I urge you to save the money for an excursion such as this. You won’t regret it. We used Bald Mountain Air, but there are numerous other companies that go out, too. Indeed, when we landed at Katmai National Park (which is only accessible by boat or plane), the beach was lined with float planes. I planned to get a picture when we got back, but most of the planes were gone already except ours (and there was a mama bear and cub not too far away on the beach from our plane).
We consider ourselves to be so fortunate to have been able to experience this amazing adventure, and it only rained a little bit here and there — a huge plus!
