Katmai National Park - Episode 1

Well, this is it, the pictures from our big trip to Katmai National Park. That was, without a doubt, the highlight of our 3 months in Alaska. The plan was to fly in a small bush plane from Homer, Alaska to Katmai NP (1 hour and 15 minutes), spend a few hours on the ground among the big brown (grizzly) bears there and then fly back to Homer. As is frequently the case in Alaska, things didn’t go exactly to plan. I’ll explain as we go through the pictures.

I had a lot of pictures to post for this adventure so I’m doing it in 2 batches. This group is about 35 photos. I’ll post another 35 or so in about a week to finish the story.

First, a little background. Katmai National Park is a wilderness area. That means there are no roads, no permanent structures (not even an outhouse), no electricity, no cell service, and, oh yes, no runway for the plane. The plan was to land on the beach at low tide!! Sounds cool, doesn’t it?? Let's go!!

This is our trusty airplane. It’s a 1976 Cessna 206. It had 6 seats and room in the tail for our gear. The guy in the background with the grey cap is our pilot/guide Mike. He’s giving us a flight safety and bear viewing briefing. You’ll notice that we are all wearing clunky rubber boots. They supplied the boots for the mud and streams we had to cross. Kathy is on the left and the other 3 people were a group of 20somethings from Houston, 2 girls and a guy.

Here’s a shot of Kathy as we were about to taxi out. Kathy hates heights and small planes so I have to give here a lot of credit for making this trip. Of course, it was her idea. The pilot sat us where he wanted to for weight and balance. Kathy was up front with him (lucky!!), I was in the second row with the other guy, and the 2 other girls were in the back. Yippee, let’s go!!

This is a view of the airport at Homer. In the distance is a narrow strip of sand called the Homer Spit. It’s loaded with touristy stuff like RV parks, fishing boats, restaurants, gift shops and a hotel. As a side note, we were watching the crew of one of the charter fishing boats cleaning fish for their customers one day. They were incredibly fast. I timed one guy cleaning Halibut. He completely filleted a Halibut in 40 seconds!!! I couldn’t believe it so I timed him on several other Halibut. Sure enough, he was in that 40 second range on every Halibut. I wouldn’t want to get in a knife fight with him…..

Here’s a view of the Kenai Mountains from 10000 feet. Notice that there’s still some snow left on July 11.

I took this looking over the pilot’s shoulder. I held the camera up between him and Kathy without looking through the viewfinder. Photographers call this a Hail Mary shot, like a Hail Mary pass. Unfortunately the autofocus system focused on the dashboard instead of the mountain dead ahead. It kind of looks like we’re going to crash into it. I’m sure Kathy was enjoying the view.

After we flew around that mountain in the last shot this was the view out the window. This is the northeastern corner of Katmai NP. All that snow is part of the icefield of an active glacier.

This is called 4 peaks glacier. As the name implies, the glacier is surrounded by 4 mountain peaks. The mountains capture winter rains off the ocean, cool it and enormous amounts of snow fall here. The snow compresses to form the icefield which feeds the glacier.

This is a view of a glacier that people rarely see. It’s taken from the top looking down. The greenish water at the bottom is glacier run-off. It contains large amounts of finely ground rock called rock flour. The deep blue water in the distance is the north Pacific Ocean.

Here’s another view of the mountains in the northeast corner of Katmai NP. You can see that we’re moving away from the glacier.

Here’s another Hail Mary shot. Now, pay attention. That’s the Pacific Ocean on the left. That green grass on the right is a huge meadow where the bears are. That little dark grey strip in the middle is out “runway”. It’s rough gravel that’s exposed at low tide. Along the right side of the gravel you might notice some light colored objects. That’s driftwood (huge trees) brought in by the tide. Mike’s job is to stay on the gravel without dumping in the ocean or hitting the driftwood. Close your eyes Kathy!!!

The beach is getting closer. Mike’s doing a good job, so far. You can see the driftwood better now. Keep those eyes closed Kathy. Here we go!! GERONIMO. (notice the fog bank rolling in, in the distance)

Dang, we made it. Thanks Mike!! Look at the tire tracks in the beach. You can see how he lands close to the water but then steers up higher on the beach. This keeps the plane from being washed out to sea on the incoming tide. Obviously this maneuver takes a bit of practice. Mike’s been flying since he was a kid. He’s been flying in Alaska for 20+ years and landing on beaches for about 7 of those years. He hasn’t lost a passenger yet. That’s what he said anyway…

OK, here’s the set-up. Now that we landed he gave us another briefing (how not to be eaten by 1000 lb. bears) before he opened any doors in the plane. Then we walked over a bluff adjacent to the beach and into that big green meadow you saw a few photos back. Keep in mind that we were on foot, not in a vehicle. There were no guns or bear spray allowed. The only protection we had was a marine flare (waterproof) that Mike carried. He claimed that the bears are really afraid of the bright light and sound of the flare. I hope we don’t have to find out the hard way.

As soon as we walked over the bluff this monster popped up. Jeeeez, his head looked like a microwave oven with ears!!! What do they feed the bears in this place??? Sorry for the poor photo quality. This guy scared the crap out of me. I thought the landing was exciting until I saw this guy pop up so close to us.

After the bear looked at us from the grass he wanted to show us how big he is so he stood up. The grass he’s standing in is about chest high so you can see how tall he is. I think you would need an 8 ft stepladder to pat him on the head. Again, sorry for the poor photo quality. I hadn’t settled down yet.

This guy is showing us his big teeth.

Nice bear, nice bear…

One point I want to make about the bears up here in Alaska. They are called brown bears up here but biologists have compared their DNA to the grizzly bears in the western US and they are identical. The brown bears in Katmai and on Kodiak Island are referred to as coastal brown bears (sometimes, Kodiak Bears) because of their proximity to coastal areas. The only difference is where they live, what they eat and their size. Grizzly bears in the western US grow to about 400-500 lbs. A 500 lb. grizzly is pretty rare. They feed on roots, berries, insects, grubs, carrion, small animals that don’t get out of the way fast enough, and they steal food from other predators. They spend a lot of time foraging for enough food to eat.

Coastal brown bears have a pretty much unlimited supply of food so they get massive. In the spring they feed on sedges (native grass), in the summer when the salmon are running they gorge on fish and in the fall they eat berries until they can’t walk anymore, then they go to sleep for the winter. It’s basically non stop eating from March to November. What a life.

This guy is the size of a Ford Focus!!! You think I'm kidding..... (I found out later that the record for a coastal brown bear in Alaska is 1400 lbs, 11 ft long. Now that's a bear)

Here come the judge… Doesn’t he look all fuzzy and soft?? (except for that big scar on his nose)

Rub my belly! Watch out for the 5 inch claws.

The guides call this guy lefty because his left ear is missing. I wonder who was big enough and tough enough to take his ear off. He was one of the biggest bears we saw that day.

We came upon this sow (female bear) with 2 little spring cubs. She had already nursed them and they were finishing their afternoon nap. We spent over an hour with her and the cubs getting great shots. These cubs were born in the den in January or February during mom’s winter sleep. These were taken in July so the cubs are about 6 months old. I’d guess they weighed about 20 lbs. or so. They were really cute and they had a great babysitter.

Tell me this doesn’t scream “CUTE”. They were checking us out.

Mom’s taking a bath after her nap. Bears love water but the cubs didn’t go in.

I guess the cubs are smelling her to make sure she’s their mother.

Take a close look at the belly on this bear (behind her front leg). See how close it is to the ground?? Now compare that to the belly in the bear picture I posted on August 9 (kissing bears) That was an inland brown bear. It’s not as well-fed as the coastal variety. Keep in mind that this picture was taken before the salmon run began. This bear will get a lot fatter by fall.

This gives you a good idea of what the terrain looks like in this portion of Katmai NP. The short grass in the foreground is the sedges the bears feed on this time of year. They don’t seem to like eating the tall grass in the background.

Don’t mess with my kids!!!

Notice the grass hanging out of their mouths. It’s funny to watch bears graze like horses or cattle.

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Put em up ma. You don’t look so tough…

Another bear was approaching so everyone got very alert.

The cubs spent a lot of time playing.

Bye everybody. See you in Katmai episode 2.

This ends the first half of our Katmai photos. In episode 2 I'll show more bear photos and I'll tell you about our adventure on the flight back to Homer. It was quite eventful. Don't miss it. Until then, happy trails.

Dennis & Kathy