August trips to Katmai National Park

As soon as the pink salmon show up around the 3rd or 4th of August, our trips to see the bears finds us at one of our favorite spots on the southern coast of Katmai National Park just across from Kodiak Island. The scenery is outrageous! We pass Cape Douglas, which is the start of the Aleutian Mountain Range and you’ll see beautiful blue-green glacial lakes. We go to a bay called Geographic Harbor named after the National Geographic Society who did the first exploration of Katmai Volcano from there. We land next to our open boat and take a short ride to shore then walk about 1/2 mile to get to one of our favorite spots, just back from the banks of a beautiful little river where we sit quietly.

The river is full of pink and chum salmon and it’s not uncommon to see 10 or 15 bears on the river right in front of us. The beach is full of clams and bears are excellent clam diggers. If you were to choose a place in all of Alaska to watch bears, this is the place. Words cannot describe how beautiful it is here!