Brooks Falls, July 5th and 6th
The day had finally arrived. Brooks Falls. This overnight trip was the keystone of the entire trip to Alaska. Sure there were other things we wanted to see and do but this was fairly central. Over 18 months before this trip when we were thinking of going to Alaska, we found out about this place that has probably the best bear viewing in the world. We made a call to ask how far ahead we would have to make a booking. When they told us that they had two nights in June and one night in July (the following year). That was it. You normally booked two years ahead. So we made a booking! And hence the dates for our trip were decided and totally dependent on this one booking.
Brooks Falls is in almost every nature documentary about bears or salmon. If there is a photo of a bear catching a fish, it is likely at this location. Another David Attenborough moment.
A stupid o’clock start and a flight to a place called King Salmon. This flight was interesting in terms of security. Anyone who has traveled by air in America would know that they are a little paranoid. Well, this was not your typical US airline flight. When we checked our luggage they asked us if we had guns, knives or sharps on our person. Then we walked through the lounge and onto the plane. No shoes off, no jumpers off, no computers out, no x-ray, not even a metal detector. Sarah felt quiet undervalued as a person. Did they not value her tourist life?
After arriving in King Salmon we transferred to our float plane. The flight was great. 
We raced across the lake at huge speed, then felt the surface tension break and the plane go up. As if the flight wasn’t enough, right there on the beach, where we were unloading the plane, were two bears sleeping. Welcome to Brooks Falls! Home of the Brown Bears. Brown Bears live within 50kms of the coast. Grizzly Bears live inland. Other than that they are the same.
We all had to go to a bear safety lecture.
“Don’t get closer then about 50m, don’t carry ANY food (not even chewing gum), make noise when you walk and never ever ever run away (as they might decide you look tasty)”.
We dropped our great in our room and rushed out to go bear spotting. Sadly we couldn’t get out to see the bears right away. We hit what is called a ‘Bear Jam’. The trail was blocked by a bear. A big guy went for a wander through camp and we all had to scurry (slowly) backwards to the safety of a building. This was a really good look, slightly closer than 50m. We loved it.
The place was really well regulated. You were free to go where you wanted but had to follow the rules. Rangers stood at all the ‘hot spots’ and called out instruction. Fishermen could go anywhere but if they caught a fish they had to stop, double bag it and head immediately back to the freezing room. If they had a fish on the line and a bear saw it, they had to cut the line. Some tended to think their fish were a bit too valuable and were slow to cut the line. But we didn’t see anyone get eaten.
The ‘Bear Jam’ cleared and we got to walk up to the actual falls. There are three sections. The main platform, Brooks Falls, is where the dominant males hang out. It’s also where the fish jump.
The second, Riffles, is below the falls and is where the lower ranked adults feed.
And the third, known as the Lower Platform, is where the mums take the cubs. Off we went for a mind blowing experience.
The walk up to the falls was amazing. beautiful forest.
This experience was amazing. We have done some good wildlife viewing at various times and were used to and happy with, seeing animals from far away while not doing little more than sleeping. This place was something else altogether. Closer than at a zoo but all the animals were active. At one point there were 12 bears in our field of vision, and they were all hunting.
We saw a few catches too.
The dominant bears ruled the top falls and would stand in a prime spot for an hour at a time. To the big guys, hunting meant standing patiently and waiting for the fish to come to them. One very big and healthy bear was standing on the top of the water fall (about 1.5meters high) waiting for a fish. He snapped at a leaping fish, nearly got it but slipped and fell down the water fall. It was highly amusing. He landed in a deep hole, fully underwater and came up with a shocked expression. Sulkily, got up and climbed back up the falls. The wait started again.
We saw another guy catch a fish in the ‘spa’ pool. A bigger guy saw this and decided he wanted the fish so chased him off into the bushes. They both came back a while later, one with a gash on his side, the other, licking his lips.
On the way back we got caught at yet another bear jam. This time a mother and her three year old cub (more of a teenager) were napping right on the path. The deal was to wait for them to wake up and move along.
A while later another mother and her two spring cubs (tiny little cubs) came along. It was fantastic watching how carefully she checked the area in every direction before she did anything. Bear cubs are always in a lot of danger, biggest danger being that males will kill cubs. 
The other two woke up from their nap and saw the mum and cubs. The mum with the little ones was trying to skirt around but the teenager was trying to be tough and ran after the babies. Seconds later, teenager came running from the bushes, tail tucked, with other mum in hot pursuit. The teenager ran to hide behind mum and peek over her back. It was actually pretty funny, him thinking he could take the cubs, not so sure about big mum though. They went in different directions after that, but we could hear then grunting and “woofing” (the sound they make to show threat, it is basically a quick exhale).
We also heard full bodied Brown bear roars. It was a fantastic sound, so powerful and angry. The Brooks Falls area is favoured for fly fishing as well as wildlife viewing. The bears hunt in the rivers and the estuary as well as at the falls, and when they hear a fish on a line fighting, they go for it.
While caught at yet another bear jam we saw a bear sound asleep. It didn’t move for 20 minutes, until a man across the creek got a bite and the fish started flipping around. Within seconds the bear was up and running across the lake. It covered about 100 meters in about 15 seconds – through water. (Bears can outrun a racehorse in a sprint and can easily cover 50 meters in 10 seconds). The guy broke his line and back-pedalled. The bear got there and just looked disappointed that the fish had gotten away. A few minutes later the same thing happened again, though this time at a whole group of people, including kids. The people weren’t in any real danger as the bears don’t know about the human connection to this easy snack, which is lucky…but still.
And that one SUPER PHOTOS!
Another awesome moment occurred when we were at the lower platform. Suddenly five bears came barrelling down the river. Simultaneously three bears caught fish. One scarfed his down then went after another bears fish. He got that one as well. Then, mere seconds later, two bears went after the same fish. It was one of those classic ‘two baseball players going for the catch and crashing into each other’ moments. The bears were not impressed to say the least. Both missed the meal and got a little too close for comfort. A full blown fight broke out. It was a bit nasty, but purely awesome. Both were fine and once they got a bit of space between them and shook off they were cool, all signs of aggression gone and back to looking for fish.
After an unbelievable two days, we went from never seeing wild bear to having our minds blown. We saw some great things, met some lovely people and ate some average food. Parting was made a little less sad when Sarah got to sit up the front with the pilot. She enjoyed the view from the front.
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