Katmai National Park and Preserve

Katmai National Park and Preserve covers about four million acres of the Alaska Peninsula, and the Park Service estimates that about 2,200 brown bears live in it. It had 34,479 recreation visits in 2025, and 98.5% of them came between June and September. Its headquarters are in King Salmon, about 290 air miles south-west of Anchorage.

Katmai began as a national monument in 1918, created to protect a valley buried by a volcanic eruption, and became a national park and preserve in 1980. We read the figures below on 29 October 2026 on the park's own pages, the concessioner's and one air operator's sites, Recreation.gov, explore.org and NOAA's normals.

How do you reach Katmai when no road goes there?

Visitors reach Katmai almost only by plane or boat, because no road connects the park to the rest of Alaska. The Park Service says you cannot drive to Katmai, Brooks Camp or King Salmon from Anchorage. The usual route is a scheduled flight from Anchorage to King Salmon, the park's headquarters town, then a floatplane or water taxi into the park.

The Park Service names Alaska Airlines and Aleutian Airways on the route; we could not read either airline's schedule or fares. Small aircraft also fly straight into the park from Anchorage, Kenai, Kodiak and Homer.

The distances are the park's own figures and the flight times are the operators'. The Park Service lists air taxis from Anchorage, Dillingham, Homer, Kenai, King Salmon and Kodiak, and prices none of them. It adds that the list is not an endorsement. One operator, Katmai Air, printed its 2026 fares: $1,489 per person for a round trip from Anchorage to Brooks Camp, and $500 from King Salmon, taxes included.

The Park Service advises adding a few extra days on each side of a trip for weather delays. Katmailand refunds a day trip that cannot fly because of the weather, and other flight bookings cancelled 30 or more days ahead are refunded less $100 per person.

What does a Katmai trip cost when the entrance is free?

Katmai charges no entrance fee: the Park Service says an entrance pass is not required. There is no car fee either, since no car can get there. The park is not on the 2026 list of eleven parks with a $100 surcharge for non-residents, and the backcountry needs no fee or permit.

The money goes on flights, a bed and food. At Katmai Air's and Katmailand's 2026 prices, a day trip from Anchorage for two adults costs $2,978 in flights, or $3,068 with two lunches at the lodge. Two nights in the campground add $78 to the same flights, for $3,056 before food.

One night at Brooks Lodge for two, with three buffet meals each, comes to $4,557.60 with the flights. None of these totals includes a hotel in Anchorage, insurance or days lost to the weather.

The $250 non-resident America the Beautiful pass has no use at Katmai itself, since nothing is charged at the entrance. Our guide to national park fees for international visitors lists the parks where it pays off.

When are the bears at Brooks Falls?

Brooks Camp's prime bear-viewing months are July and September, the Park Service says. In July many bears fish at Brooks Falls itself. In September most of them are at the mouth of the Brooks River. In June and August, the park's FAQ says, few bears, if any, can be seen at Brooks Camp.

The bears follow the salmon. Each year 200,000 to 400,000 sockeye jump Brooks Falls, and the Park Service says the fish draw bears from roughly late June through September. Bears may still be around at any time between late May and December.

Visits follow the same calendar. July was the busiest month in 2025, with 13,500 of the year's 34,479 visits, ahead of August with 10,533 and September with 5,248.

Brooks Camp is not the only place to watch bears. On the Pacific coast, bear viewing is possible from June to August, and at Hallo Bay bears graze on sedge meadows, mostly in June. Only air taxis from King Salmon, Homer, Kodiak or Anchorage go there, and floatplane landings on the coast depend on the tides.

How close can you get to a bear at Brooks Camp?

Brooks Camp's rule is to stay at least 50 yards, or 46 metres, from any bear at all times. The same 50 yards applies across the park. Denali National Park asks for 300 yards, so do not carry one park's rule to the other.

Every visitor to Brooks Camp must begin with a short bear safety talk on arrival; Katmai Air calls it "Bear School". Outside designated buildings and picnic areas, nobody may carry food, even gum, or any drink except plain water. Nobody may leave bags or clothing unattended, and anglers stop fishing when a bear comes within 50 yards.

The Falls Platform holds 40 people. When it is full, a waiting list limits visits to an hour at a time. The Riffles and Lower River platforms have no capacity or time limit. From 15 June to 15 August nobody may go within 50 yards of the river for 100 yards around Brooks Falls. That closure is often extended to 30 September.

Never run from a bear, the Park Service says; bears can run faster than 30 miles per hour. Bear jams can also hold up walkers at the bridge over the Brooks River.

How does the Brooks Lodge lottery work?

Brooks Lodge, the only lodging at Brooks Camp, fills its rooms by a random lottery run by the concessioner, Katmailand. The 2027 lottery is closed. Katmailand takes entries for 2028 from 1 to 30 December 2026, and they must arrive by 5 p.m. Alaska Standard Time on 30 December.

Katmailand contacts winners between 3 January and 10 February 2027, and they pay a 50% deposit within three days. Each party may stay three nights at most if any of them falls in July or September. Katmailand says every late June, July, August and September date fills in the draw; what is left goes on sale from 11 February 2027.

The lodge has sixteen rooms, each with two sets of bunk beds, heat, electricity and a private toilet and shower. With the bed tax a room costs $1,335.60 a night. The 2026 buffets cost an adult $25 for breakfast, $45 for lunch and $52 for dinner, and there is no Wi-Fi.

The Park Service also lists six other lodges inside the park and eight in King Salmon. We read no prices for them.

How do you book the Brooks Camp Campground?

Campers book the Brooks Camp Campground on Recreation.gov, not by lottery, and it is the only designated campground in Katmai. In 2026 it cost $18 per person per night from 1 June to 17 September and $10 in May and from 18 September to 31 October. Each booking adds a $6 reservation fee.

Recreation.gov released the 2026 nights in three blocks at 8 a.m. Alaska time: on 7 January for May and June, 7 February for July and August, and 7 March for September and October. The park had not published the 2027 dates by 29 October. A camper may stay 7 nights in July and 14 in a calendar year, in groups of up to six.

The campground has three covered cooking shelters, food caches, two vault toilets and an electric fence the Park Service calls bear-resistant, not bear-proof. Outside the season, water and a live fence may not be available.

Beyond 1.5 miles of Brooks Camp, campers may pitch a tent anywhere in the park, with no fee or permit. Bear-resistant food containers are mandatory there, and the King Salmon and Brooks Camp visitor centres lend them free.

Which walks start at Brooks Camp?

The Brooks Falls Trail runs 1.2 miles from the visitor centre, and the Park Service calls it the most popular trail in Katmai. The park rates it easy and wheelchair accessible. The Dumpling Mountain Trail climbs above the camp. Trails here are unpaved and often muddy. The figures below are the park's own.

Brooks River is also a National Historic Landmark, the Brooks River Archeological District. More than 900 depressions of old semi-subterranean houses line the river, and the park protects 9,000 years of human history.

What can you see on the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes bus tour?

The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes is the ash-filled valley of a 1912 eruption, reached by a daily bus tour from Brooks Camp along the park's only road. A new volcano, Novarupta, emerged on 6 June 1912 and sent ash as high as 20 miles for 60 hours. The Park Service calls it the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century.

The eruption left about 40 square miles of the Ukak River valley as barren ash. Mount Katmai's summit collapsed into a caldera more than 2,000 feet deep.

Katmailand ran the tour from 5 June to 17 September 2026, leaving the lodge at 9 a.m. with a ranger as guide. The full tour cost $115 with a sack lunch, $100 without, and $65 one way. The Park Service's programme page, last updated in 2025, gives 7 June as the start instead.

The road runs 23 miles to the Robert F. Griggs Visitor Center, and the day takes about seven hours. A ranger leads an optional 3.4-mile hike down into the valley, with 1,000 feet of elevation change. Hikers can ask to be dropped off and collected later; the Valley holds few bears. Neither Katmai Air nor the Park Service says whether the tour fits into a day trip from Anchorage.

Who won Fat Bear Week 2026 at Katmai?

Fat Bear Week 2026 ran from 22 to 29 September, and explore.org's results table shows Bear 89, known as Backpack, winning the final. Backpack took 103,334 votes to 98,253 for Bear 910, and the whole tournament drew 2,503,731 votes. On 29 October the Park Service's Fat Bear Week page had not yet named a 2026 champion.

The 2025 winner, Bear 32, known as Chunk, lost to Bear 164, Bucky, on 24 September. The Park Service counted over 1.7 million votes from more than 100 countries in 2025. The event began as a single Fat Bear Tuesday on 30 September 2014.

Fat Bear Week is an online vote, run by the Park Service, explore.org and the Katmai Conservancy, and watched on explore.org's Brooks Falls webcams. Nobody can time a trip to it at the river: Brooks Camp's services had ended on 17 September. The 2027 dates were not published on 29 October.

How wet is King Salmon in the bear season?

King Salmon, the gateway town, gets its most rain in September, the second of the two bear months, with 3.40 inches. July is the warmest month, with an average high of 65°F. The Park Service warns of windy, rainy and cold days at Brooks and asks visitors to bring good waterproof clothing.

The table gives NOAA's 1991 to 2020 average highs and lows at the two airports. King Salmon gets 21.44 inches of precipitation and 47.4 inches of snow a year, and December is its snowiest month. September averages 56°F by day and 41°F at night.

The Park Service says strong winds are common all year and the Pacific coast is cooler, wetter and stormier. In winter temperatures range from -35°F to 50°F, and most ponds and lakes freeze by mid to late autumn.

What is open at Katmai at the end of October?

Katmai is open all year, but Brooks Camp's Park Service and concessioner services ran only from 1 June to 17 September in 2026. Katmailand gives 18 September as the lodge's last day. Brooks keeps only minimal services to the end of September, and nothing after that.

On 29 October 2026 the park's alerts feed was empty. The King Salmon Visitor Center, next to the airport, keeps hours that vary by season, and the nearest grocery store and post office are in King Salmon. Katmai Air describes its Anchorage to King Salmon seat fares, $494.50 one way, as year-round.

Katmai is on Alaska time, four hours behind Eastern time during daylight saving. Clocks go back one hour at 2 a.m. on 1 November 2026. Our guide to Alaska covers the state's other national parks, including Denali National Park.

The other national parks in Alaska are Denali National Park, Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Kenai Fjords National Park, Kobuk Valley National Park, Lake Clark National Park and Preserve and Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve.