Katmai National Park and Preserve

Katmai National Park on the Alaska Peninsula is best known for Brooks Falls, where brown bears congregate each July and again in September to catch sockeye salmon leaping upstream through a narrow canyon. The park's platform system allows visitors to observe bears at close range in relative safety, creating one of the world's most concentrated wildlife photography opportunities. The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, created by the 1912 Novarupta volcanic eruption, preserves a stark ash-covered landscape within the same park boundaries.