Day Trip Bear Viewing

Brooks Camp and Falls – Katmai National Park: $800

Late June, all of July, first half of August, September, and even in October we provide regular flight service to Brooks Camp in Katmai National Park to watch brown bears fishing for salmon in pristine Brooks River. This trip provides access to some of the most famous brown bear viewing in the world. Plan on at least six hours for your trip to Brooks Falls. The flight from Homer to Brooks Camp is one and a half hours, crossing the Cook Inlet and then a large, beautiful section of Katmai National Park, passing volcanoes, glaciers and waterfalls. You will have three hours on the ground, starting with a short “Bear Etiquette” orientation by a National Park Ranger. After that you will be free to walk the dirt road and flat gravel trail to Brooks Falls while viewing bears playing on the beach and fishing in the river en route. At the falls, there are viewing platforms giving you an up close view of bears snatching fish out of the falls. It is a short hike (about 1.2 mile) back to the beach for your scenic flight returning to Homer.

Take a look at live cameras situated on Brooks Falls: Falls, Falls (lower), Riffles, Salmon (underwater), and also on the lower part of Brooks River by the bridge at the Naknek Lake: River view, and River Watch. There is also a camera up high on Dumpling Mountain, overlooking the Camp and Naknek/Brooks Lakes.

For more information, see the last three entries in our Blog on how to see more bears while avoiding infamous crowds that invade the place mid-day. On TripAdvisor, Yelp, and Google our passengers have been posting about how we do this differently and getting them the best views of the bears.

For weather forecasts at Brooks, see King Salmon, about 35 miles away and the cameras with links above for an idea of what it looks like there right now. The two river cameras are best for that, make sure it says “Live” and not “HIGHLIGHT”

Please note: ALL bear viewing reservations are done in writing: either by email which you can start by going to Reservations page or by text messaging our phone (907)299-0284. We can tell you on the phone what is available at the moment but the reservation will be an email or text message specifying time to meet us at the dock, what to bring and other important details. The only exception can be if we talk on the phone the day of the flight.