Brown bear in Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska, USA
The summit crater lake of Mount Katmai
Katmai Crater - Mount Katmai, Alaska, USA
Katmai National Park and Preserve
Natural-colour image of Katmai National Park
with the Landsat data overlaid on a digital elevation model (created with data from the ASTER instrument on NASA’s Terra satellite).
Map of Katmai National Park and surrounding area
Katmai National Park and Preserve is a United States national park and preserve in southwest Alaska, notable for the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes and for its brown bears. The park and preserve encompass 4,093,077 acres (6,395.43 sq mi; 16,564.09 km2), which is between the sizes of Connecticut and New Jersey. Most of the national park is a designated wilderness area.
The park is named after Mount Katmai, its centerpiece stratovolcano. The park is located on the Alaska Peninsula, across from Kodiak Island, with headquarters in nearby King Salmon, about 290 miles (470 km) southwest of Anchorage. The area was first designated a national monument in 1918 to protect the area around the major 1912 volcanic eruption of Novarupta, which formed the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, a 40-square-mile (100 km2), 100-to-700-foot-deep (30 to 213 m) pyroclastic flow. The park includes as many as 18 individual volcanoes, seven of which have been active since 1900.
Initially designated because of its volcanic history, the monument was left undeveloped and largely unvisited until the 1950s. The monument and surrounding lands became appreciated for their wide variety of wildlife, including an abundance of sockeye salmon and the brown bears that feed upon them. After a series of boundary expansions, the present national park and preserve were established in 1980 under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.
Katmai_National_Park,_Brooks_Falls,_Alaska,_USA,_mountains,
Fourpeaked Mountain and Mount Douglas from floatplane heading to Brooks Falls area landing on Naknek Lake.
Novarupta lava dome
-Lower_end_of_the_Valley_of_Ten_Thousand_Smokes
Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes
This is the confluence of Knife Creek, River Lethe, and Windy Creek where the Ukak River begins.
Trident volcano
The multiple peaks of Trident Volcano as viewed from the top of Baked Mountain in the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, Alaska. Trident Volcano is composed of a cluster of andesite and dacite cones and is the only Katmai group volcano other than Katmai and Novarupta to have had historical activity. The Novarupta lava dome is visible at bottom, center.
Pyroclastic flow deposits in the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes
Satellite image of the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes and surrounding area
in w:Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska, USA.
Mountains of the Aleutian Range from a floatplane flying to Brooks Camp
Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska, USA, volcanic mountains of the Aleutian Range from a floatplane heading to Brooks Falls area, landing on Naknek Lake.
"My wish is to stay always like this, living quietly in a corner of nature." -Claude Monet
Brown Bear Family, Katmai National Park, Alaska
Triplet brown bear cubs of the year, Katmai National Park.
Coastal-bear-with-3-spring-cubs-hallo-bay-alaska
A mother Coastal Brown Bear and her three cubs in Katmai National Park in Alaska
Cub circle. These little brown bear cubs of the year comforted each other when the presence of other bears (besides their mother) made them anxious. Bear siblings can form lifelong bonds; it’s not unusual to see siblings stay together for a year after their mother kicks them out.
brown-bear-and-two-cubs-against-a-forest-and-mountain-backdrop
-at-katmai-national-park--alaska
Grizzly bear fishing for salmon at Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park , Alaska
Bear catches salmon at top of Brooks Falls
Katmai_National_Park,_Brooks_Falls,_Alaska,_USA
Katmai National Park and Preserve offers spectacular bear viewing opportunities.
It is important that all who visit Katmai respect bears and are armed with the knowledge to stay safe in bear country. The urge to take the perfect photograph or maintain the best fishing hole with your fly rod can be strong, but bears need space to sleep, eat, rest, travel, and play.
alaska-katmai-national-park-banner-mobile
A brown bear searches for salmon along a creek in Alaska’s Katmai National Park.
Brown bear (Ursus arctos), and a reflection in a lake, sunset, Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska.
Brown bear in Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska USA
Brown bear in Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska USA
There are more than 2,000 grizzlies living in this wilderness on the Alaska Peninsula, and each adult can grow to more than 1,000 pounds. That's a lot of weight for Katmai National Park to bear, especially adding the nearly 40,000 humans a year who pay a visit as the Brooks River swells with countless salmon. Bears can be spotted fishing for their fill along the river in the summer and fall, gorging on sockeye to fatten up for hibernation. You don't have to trek all the way to Alaska to observe them, though: Staycationers can get a great view of the feeding frenzy via webcam.
