Katmai National Park and Preserve: History, Highlights, and One- to Three-Day Adventures

Brown bears catching salmon at Brooks Falls is one of the great sights in Alaska, and this guide shows you how to see it well. Katmai has no roads in, a short season, and floatplanes that wait on the weather. This book turns all of that into clear plans for one, two, or three days at Brooks Camp and the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes.

What's inside

• Nine ready-made itineraries: one, two, and three days, each at easy, moderate, and strenuous effort, built around bear school, the viewing platforms, Dumpling Mountain, and the Valley tour, with a backup plan for rain or a grounded flight
• Katmai's history, from the Alutiiq villages of the Brooks River to the 1912 eruption, Robert Griggs, and the national park of today
• Sightseeing highlights, from Brooks Falls and the bridge to Lake Brooks, the Cultural Site, and the coast reached by charter
• A wildlife chapter profiling 14 commonly seen animals, from brown bears and sockeye salmon to red foxes and willow ptarmigan, each with a photograph
• Trip planning for flights, the lodge lottery and campground, food rules, permits, fishing, weather, accessibility, and safety
• 33 photographs and 4 orientation maps

What you'll receive

• EPUB ebook (Katmai_National_Park_and_Preserve_Brian_D_Russ.epub, about 9 MB) for Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play Books, and most e-reader apps. Kindle readers can send it to their library with Amazon's Send to Kindle.
• PDF (Katmai_National_Park_and_Preserve_Brian_D_Russ.pdf, 95 pages including the cover, about 21 MB) for any device, and for printing the pages you want to carry. It opens on the illustrated cover.

Your download link arrives by email right after purchase.

Edition

First illustrated edition, October 2026. Research completed October 17, 2026, after the 2026 season, so 2026 prices are given as a guide; check the park's current alerts and the lodge's schedule before you travel.

Bring rain gear, a long lens, and patience for the bears.

This is an independent guide. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the National Park Service.