Too close to a bear?

Today's epic adventure needs a long post, so we will give you the punchline right away: We. Saw. 47. Bears. Today. No, that's not a typo.

We skipped blogging yesterday because there wasn't much of a story to tell: we drove from Seward back to Anchorage, we did grocery shopping, we washed the RV inside and out and Greg repaired the diesel heater once again. Hopefully the new glow plug should keep the heater working for the rest of the trip.

One of the highlights of the trip was supposed to be a planned excursion to see bears at Katmai National Park. When we planned the trip, we considered two excursions: the famous viewing platforms at Brooks Falls, or a guided hike. We selected the guided hike because we read that in August, there are generally fewer salmon at the falls, so the bears look elsewhere for food. Unfortunately, the high winds canceled the hiking trip, and that tour operator had no availability for several weeks. Greg found openings with another tour operator that went to Brooks Falls. That's what we did today.

If you've heard of Fat Bear Week, then you're familiar with Brooks Falls. Regardless, take a look at the live camera from Brooks Falls from explore.org. (Pro tip: turn off the sound - it's just the noise of the waterfalls).

The flight left from the international airport in Anchorage. In fact, the airport has both regular runways and a seaplane base. There was a small parking lot across the taxiway from the hangar. We parked the RV, looked both ways before walking across the taxiway, then walked to the hangar for our tour. We had an amphibian plane, so we took off from a regular runway but landed on the lake at Brooks Camp in Katmai National Park. The flight was nearly 2 hours long since we were flying from Anchorage. Along the way, we saw mountains, volcanoes, and a few bears.

When we arrived at Brooks Camp, we were supposed to attend Bear School. ("Supposed to" since a few from our group had an unexcused absence from Bear School). At Bear School, a Park Ranger trained us on how to behave around the bears. We were already familiar with precautions for bear country, but we got some additional tips and an explanation of the specific rules for Katmai National Park. In short, it was a good reminder that we are visitors in the land of the bears.

Once we graduated from Bear School, we took the 1-mile walk from Brooks Camp to Brooks Falls. It's an easy walk, with a few heavy metal gates to prevent the bears from walking down to the camp. When we reached the Brooks Falls viewing area, we were excited that there was no wait for the main viewing platform! It was busy with people, but not as crowded as we feared.

The National Park Service has done an amazing job to give a safe separation between the bears at the humans. The humans walk on platforms above the ground, so that the bears can walk below the platforms over to the waterfalls.

More importantly, the bear viewing was fantastic. Normally, peak salmon season is in July. This year the salmon are so plentiful that they are still running strong, so there were still plenty of bears at Brooks Falls. We got to see amazing bear behavior: different fishing techniques, feasting on salmon, and jockeying for position based on bear dominance. Someone on the platform explained to us that the female (named 909) was at the top of the falls because the males at the bottom of the falls were more dominant and would not allow her below, where there are more fish. There is a definite hierarchy among the bears. A male bear arrived and threatened another male bear, scaring him away. The largest male then pushed the new male away. He showed dominance by turning his back and walking away. He had the confidence that he would win a fight, so the intruder backed away.

We also learned that when salmon are still abundant, the bears take only the best, fattiest parts of the fish: they eat the heads, the skin, and the roe (eggs). They toss the rest of the fish for the birds or to decompose. We learned that the bears are less picky later in the season when they will eat the fish meat and even the fish that are dying after spawning.

At the end of our 30-minute viewing time, a Park Ranger called our name, but we were free to visit the other platforms. A bit later, we walked back to Brooks Camp for lunch at the dining room, which was better than we expected for such a remote location. While we were at lunch, Amy screamed and pointed to the window as one bear walked around the camp. We were safely inside, but it was a reminder that we were in bear country. After lunch, we stopped at the visitor center to buy a Katmai National Park patch, and for Greg to ask a ranger about the difference between coastal brown bears, Grizzly bears and Kodiak bears. (Short answer: they are biologically the same but the names reflect how they adapted to different habitats).

We looked at the time and realized we had enough time for one more viewing session at Brooks Falls. We crossed the bridge and were about halfway down the path when we saw a bear walking towards us down the path! We remembered our training. We started talking loudly but calmly at the bear, took a right turn off the path, then walked slowly into the grasslands while facing the bear. The bear continued down the main path while we waited for it to pass. A few moments after the bear passed us, we saw a ranger who was walking patrol behind the bear. The ranger told us that it was safe, and he said that we handled the situation very well. Seems that we graduated Bear School with Honors! (No, we did not take any photos of our close encounter with a bear, for obvious reasons).

There was no waiting when we reached Brooks Falls, so we had about 10 minutes to view the bears before we had to return to catch our flight back. The lighting was better in the early afternoon, and Greg got some of his best bear photos of the day.

On the flight back, we saw a few more bears. We also flew over some ice fields with caribou, including one very large herd.

This wasn't just one of the best adventures of the summer, it was one of the best adventures of our lifetimes. How often can you say that you saw more bears in a single day than in the rest of a lifetime?

Bear count

Today: 47 (coastal brown bears AKA grizzly)
Total: 47