Southwest Alaska

Katmai & Bear Country

The world's greatest gathering of brown bears, watched from the water's edge.

When to Go: July & September (salmon runs)
Estimated From: ~US$1,300 per person, per night

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Katmai is where the salmon run and the great brown bears gather — the densest concentration on earth. We fly you in by private charter, to the coastal bays that floatplanes alone reach and a wilderness camp where the only schedule is the run. Brooks Falls itself is a public platform on a ranger's waiting list; we build your days around it rather than pretending otherwise.

Access · Not Itinerary

Signature Moments

Brooks Falls at the Run

Brown bears fishing the falls, watched from privileged, private vantage.

A Floatplane into Katmai

Fly in over the volcanoes to a coast few ever reach.

Coastal Bears on the Flats

Bears clamming the tidal flats with a private guide, at a respectful distance.

Curated Journeys

Curated Journey Archetypes

Wildlife · Private

The Great Bear Gathering

Brooks Falls and the coast at the height of the salmon run.

Designed to your pace Explore

Adventure · Slow

The Wilderness Bear Camp

A fly-in camp at the edge of the run, days paced by the bears.

Designed to your pace Explore

Nature · Active

The Volcano Coast

Katmai's volcanic backcountry and bear-rich coast, privately guided.

Designed to your pace Explore

A Note From Forest Travel Forty years, one hundred and twenty countries,
and a single way of working.

By Juan David Travel Agent, Forest Travel Updated September 2026

July or September? The answer changes the whole trip

July is the month of the falls; September is the month of the river. In July the salmon stack up below Brooks Falls and the bears fish standing on the lip — as many as forty animals have been counted around the falls at once. By late July the salmon disperse and the bears go with them. September brings bears back in large numbers, sometimes more than July, but spread along the river hunting spent salmon: only the dominant males hold the falls. If you want the photograph of the bear on the waterfall, travel in July. If you want bears without a queue, travel in September.

Why you watch Brooks Falls against a clock

Because the platform holds forty people, and once it fills, rangers run a waiting list and cap your visit at one hour. In July, at midday, the wait to get up commonly exceeds an hour and a half. So we build the day backwards from that: arrival on the first floatplane of the morning, the pressure hours spent at the lower platform and the lower river, and a return to the falls once the midday shift has emptied out. The capacity is not negotiable with anyone; the timing is, and that is where the trip is won.

How do you actually get to Katmai?

There is no road: it takes two flights. The first is commercial, Anchorage to King Salmon, about an hour. The second is a floatplane, King Salmon to Brooks Camp, roughly thirty minutes over lakes and volcanoes, with a typical baggage limit of 50 lb (about 23 kg) per person. That second leg answers to the cloud ceiling, not to the clock. We charter the floatplane privately rather than buying seats on a shared flight, so the day never waits for someone else's seats to sell and the departure can move when the weather asks it to.

The falls or the coast?

Brooks Falls is the spectacle; the Katmai coast is the encounter. At Hallo Bay or Geographic Harbor there are no platforms and no shifts: you walk sedge meadows and tidal flats with a guide while the bears go about their lives at middle distance. Access is by floatplane from Homer, as a day. In May and June the bears graze sedge and dig clams on the flats; from July to September they fish salmon. A well-built stay buys both: the river for its density, the coast for its intimacy.

What has to be booked two years out?

The bed, not the flight. Brooks Lodge — the only roofed accommodation at the camp — is allocated by lottery. For the 2028 season, applications are received 1–30 December 2026; entrants are contacted between 3 January and 10 February 2027; and whatever rooms remain open to public booking on 11 February 2027. Anyone deciding in spring is not coming through that door. We come through the other one: private fly-in lodges outside the camp, from which the river is visited as a day and the rest of the day is yours.

How many nights does it take?

Three in the area at minimum, four if the trip rests on a single card. The reason is not the itinerary, it is fog: access flights are cancelled on visibility, and a two-night programme has no room to absorb a lost day. At three or four nights, a grounded day stops being a disaster and becomes a change of plan. Adding the coast asks for one more.

What does the park require of anyone watching bears?

A mandatory orientation on arrival, and two distances. Every visitor to Brooks Camp attends a bear-safety talk where rangers explain how to move and what to do when a bear blocks the trail. After that the rule is 50 yards (about 46 m) from any bear, and 100 yards from a sow with cubs. There is no exemption for a private client, and we do not look for one. What we buy here is time, timing and logistics — never proximity.

And if you travel before the salmon?

June buys something else: coast, long light and fewer people. Before the run, coastal bears graze sedge and dig clams on the tidal flats, snow still draws the volcanoes, and the floatplanes fly with more margin. It is the month for anyone who would rather walk open ground than share a railing. What June does not give you is the waterfall photograph.

Where does it start?

Our published reference for Katmai starts from around US$1,300 per person per night for accommodation and ground services: four nights puts the base near US$5,200 per person. Private floatplanes and coastal viewing days sit on top of that, because they are quoted by flight hour rather than by night. We give the starting point before we design anything, and the total only once dates and aircraft are settled.

What does Katmai pair with inside Alaska?

With what Katmai does not have: mountain, ice and sea. Denali and the Interior adds alpine scale and tundra wildlife; Kenai Fjords adds tidewater glaciers and whales from the water; the Inside Passage closes the journey by sea, through temperate rainforest and coastal towns. Two weeks will hold Katmai plus two of those three without repeating a single kind of landscape. See the whole in Alaska, or the approach in our adventure journeys.

More of Alaska

Keep exploring Alaska

Each a starting point — our advisors weave them into a single, seamless journey.

Alaska

Common Questions

Questions, answered.

July for bears fishing on Brooks Falls, when the salmon run concentrates them at the waterfall and as many as forty have been counted around the falls at once. September for numbers without the queue — bears return in force but spread along the river after spent salmon, with only dominant males holding the falls. June is the coastal month, when bears graze sedge and dig clams on the tidal flats before the run.

No permit is needed to stand on the viewing platform, but access is rationed by capacity, not paperwork. The falls platform holds forty people; once it is full, rangers run a waiting list and limit visits to one hour, and July midday waits commonly exceed an hour and a half. Every visitor also attends a mandatory bear-safety orientation on arrival at Brooks Camp.

By two flights, because there is no road. Anchorage to King Salmon is about an hour on a commercial service; King Salmon to Brooks Camp is roughly thirty minutes by floatplane, with a typical 50 lb baggage limit per person. We charter the floatplane privately so the schedule follows the weather and your day, not a shared flight's seat count.

50 yards (about 46 m) from any bear, and 100 yards from a female with cubs, at all times. Those distances apply to everyone, private client or not. What an advisor changes is when you are on the platform and how long you have there — never how close you stand.

Roofed accommodation inside Brooks Camp is allocated by lottery years ahead — applications for the 2028 season run 1–30 December 2026, with results between 3 January and 10 February 2027 and leftover rooms released publicly on 11 February 2027. For anything shorter than that horizon, we work through private fly-in lodges outside the camp and build the river as a day trip.

Our published reference starts from around US$1,300 per person per night for accommodation and ground services, so four nights sits near US$5,200 per person before flying. Private floatplane charters and coastal bear-viewing days are quoted separately by flight hour. We share the starting point openly and confirm a total only once dates and aircraft are fixed.

Begin in Katmai & Bear Country

None of this is fixed.

Every journey here is a starting point a private advisor reshapes entirely around you — your pace, your people, the Katmai & Bear Country only you would recognise.

Design My Katmai & Bear Country Journey

Katmai & Bear Country

Signature Moments

Brooks Falls at the Run

A Floatplane into Katmai

Coastal Bears on the Flats

Curated Journey Archetypes

The Great Bear Gathering

The Wilderness Bear Camp

The Volcano Coast

Keep exploring Alaska

Denali & the Interior

Kenai Fjords & the Peninsula

The Inside Passage

Questions, answered.

When is the best time to see bears at Katmai?

Do you need a permit to see the bears at Brooks Falls?

How do you get to Katmai National Park?

How far do you have to stay from the bears?

How far ahead should a Katmai trip be booked?

How much does a private Katmai trip cost?

None of this is fixed.