A Trip To Brooks Falls Alaska

The top item on my Bucket List, is a trip to photograph the bears feeding on salmon at Brooks Falls in Alaska. So, I’m wondering what a trip there would actually be like and what equipment should I take and not take? What was your experience there and did you come away with great shots? Also, best time to go and how long should I stay for and of course how much roughly would it cost me all toll? I live in New Hampshire.

We have kids in AK and visit every couple years. My son in law is also a photographer. I’m headed up in July. We talked about a trip to Brooks Falls so he did some extensive research. The photos you get at Brooks Galls will be just like every other bear/salmon photo. We were encouraged to look for other opportunities. We decided on Rust’s Flying Service for a photo trip to Redoubt Bay. You can shoot from pontoon boat relatively close to the bears and at eye-level. We heard a lot of good things about that area so we’re giving it a shot. Your time on the viewing platform at Brooks Falls will be limited during peak times. I experienced that when I saw the pandas at the SD Zoo. I didn’t like that experience and didn’t feel like paying a ton of money to repeat it with the bears at Brooks Falls. Good luck and let us know how you make out. I’ll do the same.

I got to brooks a lot. you will have to google the prices on these things. There are 3 ways to do it: day trip, camping(most cost effective), or stay at the lodge. Brooks Lodge lottery window for this summer is past (google can tell you about it). Camping is just like it sounds. the park service has a camp ground with hard sided food storage, outhouses, and an electric fence. bring your own tent and food. check reservations.gov for availablity. Day trips are generally float plane access from Homer (Beluga Air is the best), Anchorage, King Salmon.

To get there via commercial flight fly to King Salmon on AK air and then hop a Katmai Air seatfare from there to Brooks Camp.

at the falls there are two platforms. one is right at the falls and is where everyone wants to be on and it is capped at 40 people. the riffles platform is downstream a bit and access to it is not limited. if there aren't 40 people you can stay on the falls platform basically all day. If the 40 person limit is hit they go to 1hr rotation and as soon as you're done you put your name on the list to go again and go watch bears at the lower platform until they call your number.

Brooks is an amazing place to photograph bears but it is no secret and so there are people there and it sometimes gets crowded by alaska standards. I've had it both ways..totally crowded and also had it with just a handful of people. It is the ONLY place to realistically and reliably get the bear snatching the salmon out of mid air.

Check out the explore.org webcam to get a feel for dates etc. I bet they have it broken down into highlights by month on their youtube channel.

For "the" shot you want a camera with a fast framerate. the faster the better. Focal length depends on what you want for your finished project. there are lot of people with a lot of glass at brooks but something in the 100-400 seems the most popular no matter what brand. 500 if you got it. 600 gets a bit long.

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@DrewHH

Shots 1 and 2 are ok, but everybody has those. I REALLY like #3. That one is great.

Are you going to Redoubt Bay Lodge or Redoubt Mountain Lodge?

We're going to Redoubt Bay. We're hoping to get some pics that are different than what we would get at Brooks Falls.

That is an interesting place. I spent summers of 2004 and 2008 out there. There are a lot of fishermen in the day time but to be able to go out after dinner and have Wolverine Cove mostly to yourself is magical. What I would do with my groups out there is take them out to the cove early in the AM and then explore the rest of the Lake/Big river during the day and then take them bear viewing again after dinner to avoid crowds. If they have a jet boat and a good guide you should be able to get up the south fork of the big river and there is always some cool stuff up there. One time I took my boat all the way down the big river to Cook Inlet! that was a bit scary.

The cove itself is interesting because a lot of the action happens vertically. The bears move up and down the walls. very cool. Your guide should be able to point out the shooting lanes and position the boat in such a way to keep others out of your shot.

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Thanks for the tips. I'll post and let you know how it goes.

drewhh wrote in post #18868557
I got to brooks a lot. you will have to google the prices on these things. There are 3 ways to do it: day trip, camping(most cost effective), or stay at the lodge. Brooks Lodge lottery window for this summer is past (google can tell you about it). Camping is just like it sounds. the park service has a camp ground with hard sided food storage, outhouses, and an electric fence. bring your own tent and food. check reservations.gov for availablity. Day trips are generally float plane access from Homer (Beluga Air is the best), Anchorage, King Salmon.

To get there via commercial flight fly to King Salmon on AK air and then hop a Katmai Air seatfare from there to Brooks Camp.

at the falls there are two platforms. one is right at the falls and is where everyone wants to be on and it is capped at 40 people. the riffles platform is downstream a bit and access to it is not limited. if there aren't 40 people you can stay on the falls platform basically all day. If the 40 person limit is hit they go to 1hr rotation and as soon as you're done you put your name on the list to go again and go watch bears at the lower platform until they call your number.

Brooks is an amazing place to photograph bears but it is no secret and so there are people there and it sometimes gets crowded by alaska standards. I've had it both ways..totally crowded and also had it with just a handful of people. It is the ONLY place to realistically and reliably get the bear snatching the salmon out of mid air.

Check out the explore.org webcam to get a feel for dates etc. I bet they have it broken down into highlights by month on their youtube channel.

For "the" shot you want a camera with a fast framerate. the faster the better. Focal length depends on what you want for your finished project. there are lot of people with a lot of glass at brooks but something in the 100-400 seems the most popular no matter what brand. 500 if you got it. 600 gets a bit long.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/JQ73​k1 otis by Drew Hamilton, on Flickr

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/28hy​CDM Sushi by Drew Hamilton, on Flickr

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/iEFu​Sc Thinking about fishing by Drew Hamilton, on Flickr

Thank you Drew! Amazing images and great info. Thank you so much for taking the time to share both. Much appreciated!

Drewhh: Not a fisherman, and haven’t hit Brooks yet, but that second shot really gave me a chuckle ߘ. It is SO emblematic of the Ϣbehind the scenes” of *most* of my own bear encounters/shoots to date; we just wind up hanging in the same space. Heh.

Love the tips here; Brooks/Katmai is very high on my todo list.

Lol... I bet those fisherman aren't going to be very happy if the bear felt threatened and charged the boat.

the odds of that happening are VERY slim. in a bear's mind a group of that many humans is a force to be reckoned with and they just go about their business.

Made my trip to Redoubt Bay last Sunday and was NOT disappointed. Although the lighting was very harsh. I think I got some pretty good pictures. (See my website in my signature.) Here is a sample.

nice work. The sun has been brutal everywhere in southcentral alaska this year. just this weekend we are getting the first actual rain in 6 weeks. Did the guides comment that the water was high out there?

Yes, it was higher than normal. The smoke from the fires wasn't too bad at Redoubt Bay, but the Anchorage area was heavy with smoke. The heat was killer the first part of the week -- upper 80's.