Katmai National Park and Preserve Map
Facilities
Brooks Camp, the park's summer headquarters on the shores of Naknek Lake, 35 miles from King Salmon, is the hub of activity at Katmai and its most developed area. The camp features a lodge and restaurant, a campground, a store, kayak rentals and Brooks Camp Visitor Center (907-481-1781). Float planes from King Salmon load and unload passengers right along the shore at Brooks Camp. A trail and floating bridge leads to the most popular attractions in the park; a series of three bear viewing platforms overlooking the Brooks River. The last deck, at Brook Falls, is the prime viewing area, where visitors can photograph the salmon making spectacular leaps and a 900-pound brown bear at the top of the cascade waiting with open jaws to catch it. Thanks to an incredible sockeye salmon run, in July there might be a dozen bears here with two or three of them atop the falls.
Departing from Brooks Camp is the only road in Katmai. The 23-miles dirt road winds past wildlife-inhabited meadows and river valleys and ends at Three Forks Overlook, which has a sweeping view of the Valley of 10,000 Smokes. A park concessionaire runs a daily bus tour to Three Forks Overlook and back, stopping along the way to pick up hikers and backpackers who use it to reach the backcountry.Scattered throughout the park and on the outside coast are a number of fly-in lodges that offer all-exclusive package trips. Many of them cater to sport anglers and include boats for traveling on the large lakes and up rivers. Some are designed exclusively for bear viewing.
Fees
There are no entrance fees in Katmai nor are permits required to enter the backcountry. There is a nightly per-person fee for Brooks Camp Campground. Reservations for both camping and day use must be made prior to any visit to Katmai through the National Recreation Reservation Service (877-444-6777, 518-885-3639; www.recreation.gov).
Accessibility
The park is open year-round but the concessioner services at Brooks Camp, the main access point for the park, is offered only June through mid-September. King Salmon can be reached by commercial airline from Anchorage while Brooks Camp, 30 air miles away, is only accessible by small floatplane. Bear viewing tour packages to the park, even one-day tours, can be arranged from Kodiak, Homer and Anchorage.
Denali is reached at Mile 237 of the George Parks and at its entrance area is Riley Creek Campground, the Alaska Railroad station, the Denali Visitor Center, the interesting Murie Science and Learning Center and Wilderness Access Center (WAC), which serves as the park's transport hub and campground-reservation center. From the entrance the 92-mile Park Road heads west through the heart of Denali, passing Eielson Visitor Center and five backcountry campgrounds including Wonder Lake Campground where on a clear day campers enjoy a reflection of Mount McKinley on the mirrored surface of the lake. The road ends at the old mining settlement of Kantishna, now the site of several wilderness lodges.
Visitors with vehicles can only drive to a parking area along the Savage River at Mile 14 of the Park Road. The rest of the Denali is reached by the park's wonderful shuttle bus system. Buses begin leaving the WAC at 5:30 a.m. with many making the run out to Wonder Lake, providing one of the best wildlife viewing experiences in Alaska. Day hikers can get off the bus anywhere along the Park Road and at the end of their trek can flag down any bus for a ride back to the park entrance. Campers have their own bus.
For many visitors Denali is the opportunity to escape into the backcountry for a truly Alaskan experience. Thanks to Denali's rigid restrictions and permits, backpackers can trek and camp in a slice of the wilderness all their own, even if it's just for a few days. The park has few trails; most hiking is cross-country over open terrain such as gravel river beds and tundra ridges.
Other activities at Denali or just outside of it include sled dog demonstration, even during the summer, rafting the Nenana River, mountain biking on the Park Road and flight seeing. In Talkeetna the National Park Service maintains its Mountaineering Ranger Station (907-733-2231) for climbers from around the world who arrive to scale North America's highest peak. In the winter activities include dog mushing, cross-country skiing, snow machining and Northern Lights viewing.