National Parks of Alaska Tour Begins!

And what a way to kick it off!

After meeting our fellow travelers and tour guides at a Meet & Greet Dinner at Hotel Captain Cook (with views of the Cook Inlet and Chugach Mountains, ditto for our room), we shuffled off to prepare for an early start the next day. Our group of 26 was split in half for our Monday/Tuesday trips, with one group (ours) going to Katmai, while the other went to Lake Clark. On Tuesday, vice versa.

For those 2 days, breakfast was at 5:00 am, so we could leave early for an Anchorage airport. for 2 day trips to visit Alaska National Parks, we flew ~1,000 miles, on 3 airlines, 6 flights total (putting our 190 mile RT drives for day trips to Guadalupe NP in a different perspective) AND IT WAS WORTH IT!:

On Monday, we flew Aleutions Airways, in a Saab 2000, from Anchorage Internationa Airport to King Salmon. There we transferred to a de Havilland DHC-3T Turbine Otter operated by Katmai Air to fly on to Brooks Camp in Katmai NP.
On Tuesday, we flew Lake Clark Air out of Merrill Field in Anchorage (the busiest airport in the world, when the pipeline was being build), on a Beechcraft King Air 200 to Port Alsworth in Lake Clark NP, where we landed on a gravel runway.

Visits to 4 new National Park Sites from Anchorage:

Katmai National Park and Preserve (#294 & 295) was established in 1918 to protect the volcanically devastated region surrounding Novarupta and the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. Today, it also protects 9,000 years of human history and important habitat for salmon and thousands of brown bears.

The flightseeing tour to Katmai, especially the floatplane to Brooks Camp was very cool. Our first time flying in a Float Plane! After we passed Bear Class, we hiked out to Brooks Falls, where, from elevated viewing platforms, we saw a couple of brown bears feeding on salmon near the falls and got a hoot out of watching the salmon trying to jump the falls. During salmon season, as many as 50 brown bears live along the mile and a half long Brooks River. We actually saw more bears feeding on salmon at the lower river platform (~12?). After 5 hours (and lunch) we headed back to Anchorage. We left at 5:30 am and returned about 7:30 pm. What a day!

Sighted a Bear at Brooks Falls, from the Riffles Platform
SO MANY Salmon at Brooks Falls! as seen from Brooks Falls Platform
Us at Brooks Falls
Mama Bear and Cub, just back from the Falls
Bear near Brooks Falls, walking away from salmon carcasses, after eating the skin (for the fat)
Bear seen from Lower Brooks River Platform, casually selecting salmon from the thousands around him (her?)
Close up of bear eating salmon skin at the lower Brooks River Platform
Bears … playing??? at the lower Brooks River Platform
Float Plane landing on Brooks River
View across Lake Brooks

Lake Clark National Park and Preserve (#296 & 297) is a land of stunning beauty. Volcanoes steam, salmon run, bears forage, and craggy mountains reflect in shimmering turquoise lakes. Here, too, local people and culture still depend on the land and water. Lake Clark preserves the ancestral homelands of the Dena’ina people in this rich wilderness of volcanoes, mountains, alpine tundra and glacial lakes.

There are no roads into Lake Clark, so we again flew in aboard a small plane. We were told, and concur, that it was the highlight of the trip. We flew through Lake Clark Pass and along the Tlikakila River Valley, between two mountain ranges. IT WAS STUNNING! (Maybe Crater Lake National Park is only the most beautiful park in the lower 48?!?!? ) Our 5 hours there included a ~5 mile hike with 3 other couples to a waterfall, lunch, and a visit to the park’s visitor center. This trip we left the hotel at 5:45 am and returned about 3:15 pm. Another amazing day.