Brooks Falls: Katmai National Park Bear Viewing Tours

Most visitors venturing into Katmai National Park for the day come for the bears! Brooks Falls is famous for the site of brown bears bulking up for winter by feeding on salmon trying to make their way upstream.

You can visit Katmai in a day from Anchorage, Homer, or King Salmon to see the bears. If you're looking to stay longer, book into Brooks Lodge for a multi-day bear viewing experience. You can also opt for a lodge package that includes the Valley of 10,000 smokes.

Kodiak View All

Bear viewing on Kodiak Island & the Katmai Coast

Season: Sep 18 to Sep 23 $6000 per person 5 nights / 6 days

On this six-day, all-inclu­sive sum­mer­time expe­di­tion, you’ll head to gor­geous Kodi­ak Island with Dan M Lee and Jes­si­cal Hay­dahl, two pro­fes­sion­al pho­tog­ra­phers spe­cial­iz­ing in Alas­ka. Your small group tour includes two brown bear view­ing fly-outs and a marine wildlife tour. You’ll come away not only with bet­ter tech­ni­cal skills, but you’ll also learn how to think out­side the box in order to cap­ture the sto­ry behind the image, and how to document  ...more

Season: Jul 20 to Jul 24 $5,650 per person 4 nights / 5 days

The Ayaku­lik Riv­er area is remote Alas­ka at its best — a fly-in-only area of West­ern Alas­ka with abun­dant wildlife and some of the most beau­ti­ful scenery in the state. Dur­ing this work­shop with pro­fes­sion­al pho­tog­ra­phers, you’ll cap­ture stun­ning shots and expe­ri­ence off-the-grid river­front camping

Season: Sep 14 to Sep 17 $7,850 per person 3 nights / 4 days

Stay at a lux­u­ry lodge near the Kodi­ak Nation­al Wildlife Refuge and spend each day view­ing Kodi­ak Brown Bears with your pro­fes­sion­al pho­tog­ra­ph­er guides. And you’ll be there for the famous Fat Bear Week, when bears are fat­tened up from hav­ing gorged on salmon all summer.

Season: June -  September $6,252+ per person 6 nights

Immerse your­self in a mul­ti-day Alaskan adven­ture that promis­es incred­i­ble views and jaw-drop­ping bear view­ing in Kat­mai Nation­al Park, along with a warm cama­raderie that only a small group expe­di­tion can cre­ate. Explore from your home base on the Island C, a research ves­sel that gets you close to the action while pro­vid­ing com­fort­able lodg­ing and deli­cious meals.

[{"slug":"kodiak","title":"Kodiak"}]

Multi-Day Guided Tours That Visit Katmai National Park

Season: June - August
$9995+
9 Days
Visits: Anchorage, Seward & Kenai Fjords, Homer, Katmai National Park & Preserve
Land Package Type: Adventure Tours

Majes­tic bears in the wild and mas­sive rivers of ancient glacial ice are two things many peo­ple envi­sion when they think Alas­ka.” And this 9‑day trip takes you through south­ern Alas­ka to see both, includ­ing a heli­copter ride to expe­ri­ence dog sled­ding on a glac­i­er, and a flight to prime bear-view­ing coun­try in Kat­mai Nation­al Park. Enjoy oth­er icon­ic Alaskan adven­tures like a wildlife cruise and explor­ing the charm­ing town of Homer.

[{"slug":"kodiak","title":"Kodiak"},{"slug":"katmai-national-park-and-preserve","title":"Katmai National Park & Preserve"}]

From Homer

Season: May 27 - Sept 8 $1495+ 8 hrs

See Alaskan Coastal Brown Bears in the wild on a float­plane trip to Kat­mai Nation­al Park. Vis­it Brooks Falls or join a guid­ed tour to oth­er remote loca­tions with­in the park. Both trips pro­vide 5 hours on the ground with the bears. Found­ed in 1991, Emer­ald Air Service’s mis­sion is to increase the under­stand­ing and appre­ci­a­tion of the unique ecosys­tem that sup­ports bears.

Season: Year Round $895 Bear Viewing, $585+ Flightseeing 45 min - 5 hrs

Watch bears dig­ging for clams, wan­der­ing the sedge grass, or nurs­ing their young – all in a short flight from Homer to Kat­mai or Lake Clark Nation­al Park. Smokey Bay’s bear tours last about five hours total — includ­ing flights and about three hours on the ground. On any giv­en day there will always be a morn­ing out­ing (leav­ing at 8 a.m. at the lat­est) and pos­si­bly one that leaves around 2 p.m.

Season: June 1 - Sept 15 $1699 per person 4 - 8 hrs

For many Alaskan trav­el­ers, bears are the ulti­mate high­light. Pair a mag­nif­i­cent sight­ing with a gor­geous heli­copter flight­see­ing ride and you’ll have an unfor­get­table expe­ri­ence. On this unique tour from Homer, you’ll take a heli­copter ride out into one of Alaska’s gor­geous nation­al parks to wit­ness these spec­tac­u­lar crea­tures in the wild.

Season: May 15 - Sept 15 $685+ 3 hrs -11 hrs

Spend sev­er­al hours or a full day watch­ing bears in the wild on a quin­tes­sen­tial Alaskan adven­ture with a fam­i­ly-run com­pa­ny. Start with a scenic flight out of Homer over Kachemak Bay and into Kat­mai or Lake Clark Nation­al Park. Once you land, your pilot/​guide will take you to an opti­mal spot to watch and pho­to­graph these mag­nif­i­cent crea­tures in their nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment, hunt­ing, play­ing, and relax­ing. Spend any­where from 1.5 to 9 hours on the  ...more

[{"slug":"kodiak","title":"Kodiak"},{"slug":"katmai-national-park-and-preserve","title":"Katmai National Park & Preserve"},{"slug":"homer","title":"Homer"}]

From Anchorage

Season: July 1 - Sept 30 $1250+ per person 6 - 12 hrs

View­ing brown bears in their nat­ur­al habi­tat is one of the most amaz­ing things you can do in Alas­ka. If it’s high on your list, book a flight-see­ing/ bear view­ing trip with Trail Ridge Air, know­ing that per­son­able pilots will take you to where bears splash and fish, and where vis­i­tors run out of words to describe their amazement.

Season: May to Mid September $995+ 6 - 10 hrs

Take off by sea­plane for an all-day bear-view­ing expe­di­tion. Fly past glac­i­ers and vol­ca­noes to the brown-bear coun­try of south­west Alas­ka. Your Sea­plane Bear Safari will take you to Brooks Riv­er Falls in Kat­mai Nation­al Park, home of the world ’ s largest salmon run. You can also fly 70 miles south­west of Anchor­age to Lake Clark Wilder­ness Pre­serve for amaz­ing bear view­ing and lux­u­ri­ous accom­mo­da­tions at the Redoubt Bay Lodge. Rust’s, which has  ...more

Season: May 10th – Mid September $1075+ 6.5 to 10 hrs

Hop aboard one of Regal Air’s planes depart­ing from Anchor­age and after a short, scenic flight you can be watch­ing enor­mous brown bears swat salmon from Alaska’s rush­ing waters. Tours vis­it one of two des­ti­na­tions: Lake Clark Nation­al Park or Brooks Falls in Kat­mai Nation­al Park.

Season: June 1 - Sept 18 $1350 Day Trips from Anchorage Day trip & multi-day excursions

Brooks Lodge offers their own bear view­ing tours which are less expen­sive than most, and give you more time at Kat­mai Nation­al Park to watch bears feast­ing on sock­eye salmon from sev­er­al view­ing plat­forms. A com­mer­cial flight from Anchor­age takes you to King Salmon where you’ll switch to a small float plane for a quick 20-minute flight to Brooks Camp. After a brief safe­ty ori­en­ta­tion, you can watch bears from sev­er­al view­ing plat­forms, join the  ...more

[{"slug":"kodiak","title":"Kodiak"},{"slug":"katmai-national-park-and-preserve","title":"Katmai National Park & Preserve"},{"slug":"homer","title":"Homer"},{"slug":"anchorage","title":"Anchorage"}]