Brooks Falls at Katmai

After the morning of Sockeye slaying... (read the post before) I was able to hop on a plane and go with another group to Brooks Falls. I have wanted to go on this trip since last year and so excited to go. It is a park dedicated to bear viewing. With eight other people, we hit the trail, about a mile through the forest to the observation decks. At each deck there was a park ranger taking names as you get on the deck and off. I asked, "when was the last time someone didn't make it off the deck."  They said in the 80's...Yikes! It was incredible. We saw 9 bears on the falls at one time. As one would leave after catching a fish, another would pounce in and try to take it away. They would perch themselves against the current, duck their heads under water to look for fish and swat at salmon jumping against the falls. I watched them for two hours. It was like watching a sporting event, i wanted this snaggle-toothed, skinny bear to get a fish so bad and when he did, the crowd went wild. When it was time to leave, we got the the first bridge we crossed and the park ranger said we had to wait because there was a mama bear and cubs within 50 feet and we had to wait until they passed. At that bridge there were about five bears blocking the gate and because they are protected and meant to be there, we had to wait another hour until basically, they felt like wandering off. We got back to the plane and passed over some beautiful scenery. The Valley 10,000 Smokes, a range of beautiful and huge volcanoes  producing so much ash, the sky remains grey. I got back to a beautiful dinner prepared by Christina and a camera full of stories. Miss you all.