KATMAI NATIONAL PARK: Getting There, Living There, Staying There

As all good tales, ours begins like this; Once upon a time there was this place called Katmai National Park. It is located approximately 340 miles South West of Anchorage, and 25 miles due East of the fishing cannery village of King Salmon, located on the Naknek River just off the Bristol Bay Area.


We took Pen Airways from Anchorage International Airport to King Salmon Airport, where we were shuttled to the Katmai Float plane dock located on the Naknek River, just south east of King Salmon downtown (a whopping 5 buildings).


It was about a 25 minute flight from King Salmon into Brooks Camp in the heart of Katmai, there we were greeted by a very nice and polite Grizzly Bear Concierge service...
Gretchen giving off the cheesy "welcome to another national park" shot.
This shot was taken from Dumpling Mountain, the closest ridge overlooking Brooks Camp. Note Brooks Lake on the right, Naknek Lake on the left, Brooks River running from right to left in between.
In the style of "Jurassic Park", there is a nice 2,000,000 Kilowatt Electric Fence surrounding the Campground, keeping us safe while we sleep, (no seriously, you could cook your dinner with the wattage coming off this thing...).

Our home away from home for 8 days.
This is a shot of the Brooks Lodge Cabins (Mom, I knew you would want to see this), they cost approximately 100 times more expensive then our quaint little campground (Campsite, $8 per night; Cabin for 2, $800 a night).So this is the reason for anglers flocking to Brooks Camp for the last 60 years, and the reason Grizzly Bears have flocked here for thousands of years...
Katmai bear, doing what they do...
Mom and Cub.
Solo Bear on the Spit into Naknek Lake.
Little Cub enjoying a fisherman's life jacket...
Sometimes you need to share the trails, a lot of times the bridge across the river would be "closed"...
Posing on the platform overlooking "The Lagoon" with Dumpling Mountain in the background.Final parting shot of our plane leaving That was an AWESOME summer vacation!!!
Back at the Katmai Air Float plane dock (note, that isn't my keg they are offloading, and at $10 a pint, I didn't drink that many cold ones...)