Visit Alaska's world famous land of bears and explore the spectacular volcanic Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes as we travel to the Alaska Peninsula for this seven-day bear viewing, paddling and hiking adventure.

Having appeared in magazines and films around the world, Katmai's brown bears are renowned Alaskan icons. The world's largest run of sockeye salmon up the Naknek River creates an ideal feast for brown bears - attracting more than 2,000 of the bruins to the lands of Katmai National Park and Preserve. This is one of the world's premier brown bear viewing trips.

This remote Alaskan adventure takes you more than 50 miles across a series of interconnected lakes and rivers. We'll paddle this vast region of glacial lakes and rivers and explore the site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recent history. Opportunities also abound for incredible rainbow trout fishing in this rugged wilderness.

Prime bear-viewing, river travel into Alaska's remote and rugged wilderness, exploring the devastation of volcanic might and great fishing for rainbow trout make this one of the premier Alaskan adventures. Let Backcountry Safaris plan your once-in-a-lifetime trip today.

RELATED KATMAI NATIONAL PARK LINKS

• ISOLATED PARADISE: An Administrative History of the Katmai and Aniakchak NPS Units, Alaska
• Space Shuttle photo of the volcanoes of Katmai National Park
• Katmai Video Clip, Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes
• University of Alaska, Volcanology Group
• The Bears of Katmai: Alaska's Famous Brown Bears (Book)

NEW for 2008
After 6 years of offering this as a 7 day trip for 2008 we have added 3 additional days to allow more time for bear viewing and sport fishing. The itinerary below is being updated please come back soon or call for more informations.

ITINERARY
Arrival — Fly in to Anchorage International Airport. Plan to arrive at least a day before your kayak trip's departure date. Anchorage offers many fine hotels and bed and breakfast lodging options. We can provide you a list of recommended lodging options or arrange for you to stay at the downtown Anchorage Ramada Inn at a discounted guest rate. Let us know if you would like us to add a hotel stay to your reservation at our discounted rate. The Ramada Inn offers free airport transfers to and from the airport.

Day 1 — Fly to King Salmon: Our trip begins as we fly by bush plane to Lake Grosvenor. We set up camp then venture out by boat and on foot to explore this region. Fishermen in our group will want to cast a line and try to land some of the area's feisty rainbow trout and pike.

Day 2 — Bear viewing: The water turns to milky gray as we leave the Grosvenor Lake and paddle the braided waters of the Savonoski River. We may catch a glimpse of Tundra swans nesting in the area. The pace of the river quickens as we enter prime brown bear habitat on the Savonoski.

Day 3 — Naknek lake (Iliuk Arm): The rushing waters of the Savonoski carry us into Iliuk Arm as we make our way for a 20-mile paddle to Brooks Camp. We'll keep watch along shoreline looking for bears that frequent the area.

Day 4 — Naknek Lake: Hike up Margot Creek to view and photograph bears.

Day 5 — Brooks Camp: We'll view the world famous brown bears of Katmai as they fish for salmon leaping up Brooks Falls. This is the site of Alaskan brown bear images seen around the world on magazine covers and in nature films. We'll spend most of a day looking for some of the the 40 to 60 bears that congregate in the Brooks Camp area. Bring lots of film for this incredible opportunity to photograph bears in close view as they clinch salmon in their paws and gnash their mighty teeth into their prey.

Day 6 — Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes: We finish our trip with a visit to the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. Our trip by van will take us to the barren moonscape lands laid to ruin during the cataclysmic eruption of Novarupta Volcano in 1912. The eruption was the largest volcanic explosion of the 20th Century. The valley gets its name from numerous steam vents once found throughout this ashy region in the aftermath of the eruption.

Day 7 — Fly back to Anchorage