Katmai National Park is home to a wildlife spectacle unlike anywhere else in the world. It is a place where giant Alaskan brown bears congregate in dense groups to share the bounty of a yearly salmon run, so thick at times that one could walk across Brooks River by stepping only upon the backs of the surging sockeye salmon. Bald eagles, gulls, and wolves also flock to the river in search of fat and protein in the form of salmon flesh.

Katmai is a place of remarkable beauty, with pristine lakes, waterfalls, and snowcapped mountains, creating a picturesque backdrop for this intense congregation of wildlife. It is easy here to lose yourself in the beauty and the action of the wildlife, but it is in those moments of deep reflection, to step back and take it all in, that one can see the greater beauty of our natural world, a world of delicate balance and symbiosis. And, this past July, the precariousness of this balance was illustrated to a group of lucky Backcountry Journeys photographers in crystal clarity.

Just days prior to my departure to Alaska to lead BCJ’s only summer camping trip into Katmai, we received an email from the Katmai National Park Service informing us that the annual return of the sockeye salmon was delayed. Weeks had passed since the anticipated return of the sockeye to Brooks Falls, and yet no fish had appeared. The resident population of brown bears had noticed too. After waking from hibernation a couple months prior and feeding primarily on sedges and grasses, the bears were surely ready for some fish fat. But, when the bears arrived at Brooks River they found only crystal clear waters empty of salmon. For a time they waited, but after long their appetites pushed them to forage elsewhere. This had left the bears hungry, grumpy and intolerant of each other, spurring them to fight and chase each other off of prime foraging sites. The email from Katmai NPS had been sent to let us know of this change in bear behavior and to be sure and follow safe practices while in the park (which we do anyways, of course).

Why the salmon run was so delayed is unknown, but the prevailing theory is that it was caused by changes in weather patterns and water temperatures due to climate change. But, fortunately for our group of photographers, things were about to change dramatically.

Two days before our float plane was scheduled to take off from the town of King Salmon and drop us on the beach of Naknek Lake in Katmai National Park, I received news from a friend who works in the park that the salmon had arrived, and they had arrived en masse. After several weeks delay, the sockeye had come to run the river seemingly all at once. And with the salmon, so too had the bears returned to gorge upon fish flesh, resulting in a density of bears in the river that few had seen before.

Our group of five clients and I arrived in Katmai midmorning of our first day via the gruff but effective service of Branch River Air and their floatplanes. After setting up camp, attending bear school, and equipping ourselves with our photographic instruments, we made our first walk to Brooks Falls to see for ourselves what wonderful wildlife spectacles we might be able to witness.