August 30th, 2026
Our second day in the Katmai was a real adventure. Imagine wading through strong currents in deep rivers, with roaring grizzly bears on either side, and standing around in clouds of biting insects while the huge bears fight to the death in front of you, with the trip lead standing there with flares lit, trying to keep the bears from mauling the group.
You’ve got a very good imagination. That’s not what this day was like.
We traveled North from Geographic Bay to Kuliak Bay in the morning, and dropped anchor a few hours later. The tides were out, so we had a long walk on a very rocky beach to get to the river where the bears would be feeding on salmon. That’s not a lot of fun, slogging along in waders and Frankenstein boots. This area was absolutely beautiful – the river meanders through the valley, with large sections of thick grass along the channels. There were no roads or paved paths to follow – just criss-crossing trails of trampled grass created by the bears. With lots of piles of bear poop. It was just a little bit frightening walking through the trails, since you could not see too far ahead, and we were basically walking through the bear’s subdivision. Luckily, our trip leader knew what he was doing – that was the trust thing he had talked to us about. It worked really well.
We had to cross the river a few times, but it was not very deep, with a nice, sandy bottom. Low tide changes everything. Walking in the tall grass on the bear trails was more difficult, since you were stepping on matted grass, but we all managed, even with all the camera gear and the buckets. Oh…something I forgot to mention – we carry green, lidded buckets along to sit on. You know, like the ones you see at Home Depot, but with a plastic seat as a lid. Awkward to carry, but lightweight, and they work better than portable camp seats, and are better than sitting on the ground.
There were quite a few bears around, but much more scattered than at the previous site, so once we found a mother bear with two cubs, we settled in for a while.
Since it was low tide, there were not a lot of salmon in the river, but we did see the bears catch a few, and then quickly consume the fish. We also witnessed a few exciting interactions when two bears saw the same fish – they moved very quickly through the shallow water. Great for photographers, not so great for the less dominant bear which usually ran for the hills. Or river bank in this case.
Finding a mother with nursing cubs is the real bonus – the little ones are adorable, wandering around while the mother fishes for salmon, exploring the area but not venturing too far from Mom. The also cuddle and cling to each other, making for some really great photos. Seeing the cubs nursing the day before was really special – we did get a glimpse of that once again, but the mother was in the high grass, mostly out of sight.
There was one truth in my leadoff to this post – the clouds of insects. We had our bug nets on all day today – there midges, no-see-ums and mosquitos out in clouds since there were no breezes at all. The nets work well – you just get used to it. Bug spray helps a little, to keep the nasty things off your hands. The adult bears seemed to handle it well, but the cubs did not. The photos look like the lens was dirty – nope, those are bugs flying around the bear.
After returning to the Ursus for lunch, we lounged for a while, and headed back onshore later in the afternoon. The tide was rising, pushing the salmon upstream to the falls, so there was a better chance of seeing more activity from the bears. We were able to land much closer, reducing the amount of hiking on the rocky shore, and then retraced our path along the bear trails in the grass to a very small beach by the falls.
Once we settled in again on our buckets, we waited for the show to begin. There were a lot of salmon moving in but none working their way up the falls. Bears did start lumbering in. First we had the mother with two cubs – a real bonus since the cubs are fun to watch. The mother bear perched herself on the falls, and patiently waited for salmon to appear. Which did not happen.
Other bears wandered through, sometimes appearing out of the tall grass on either side. And some wandered very close to our little cluster of buckets. It got exciting once in a while. The mother exited with her cubs when a big male came downstream – that one started pulling rocks up, looking for fish. Amazing strength. That was fun to watch. Eventually, when the bear activity slowed down, we headed back out to the beach, boarded the skiff, and motored on back to the Ursus. Day two was not quite as exciting as our first outing in Geographic Bay, but it was still amazing – it was an adventure walking through the bear trails in the tall grass, and captured some great shots along the river and at the falls. Plus, we had more cubs.
Peace
