This Remote National Park Is As Big As Yellowstone and Yosemite Combined-and It Has Some of the Best Bear Viewing the World

"In the picture, a large brown bear stands at Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park and Preserve as a sockeye salmon, attempting to make its way over the rapids, lands in the predator's powerful jaws. The alignment of the photo is striking, but the moment itself isn't exactly serendipitous. Each summer, a high concentration of bears congregate along the Brooks River as salmon migrate upstream to spawn, creating easy pickings for the mammals who need to pack on the fat ahead of hibernation."

"Over the years, hundreds of thousands of people have made their way to this part of the Alaska Peninsula-specifically, to Brooks Camp, the park's main visitor hub-to see and photograph the extraordinary event in person. There's even a popular livestream of the falls, as well as an annual Fat Bear Week competition, a tournament-style bracket where the public votes for the bear that "best exemplifies fatness and success in brown bears.""

A large brown bear at Brooks Falls catches a sockeye salmon as fish attempt to leap upstream. The scene occurs yearly when salmon migrate to spawn, drawing high concentrations of bears to the Brooks River to feed and build fat for hibernation. Hundreds of thousands of visitors travel to Brooks Camp on the Alaska Peninsula to view and photograph the bears, supported by a popular livestream and an annual Fat Bear Week public-voting competition. Brooks Camp operates at full capacity only from June 1 through mid-September, and access requires boat or float plane travel. Katmai is vast, remote, and logistically demanding to reach.

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