The next day was entirely dedicated to watching wildlife. We were in the area around Kodiak Island some 500 km south-west of Anchorage. The weather was perfect and the wildlife was prolific. Bears everywhere.
Katmai National Park, opposite Kodiak Island, was first designated a national monument in 1918 to protect the area around the Novarupta volcano. This was formed during the eruption of 1912. The biggest eruption of the 20th century it created the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, a 100 km2 pyroclastic flow up to 200 m deep. The park hosts 18 volcanoes of which 7 have been active since 1900 including the centre-piece Katmai stratovolcano. Since the initial establishment of the park, it has become increasingly well known for its abundance of wildlife. This includes many brown bears that feed off the sockeye salmon.
Our first trip out in the morning was mostly about watching a single brown bear. This was at Kukak Bay in the Katmai National Park. He was catching salmon in one of the many small rivers emptying into the bay. Watching from the RHIBs seemed ideal. The animals took truly little notice of us so we could easily get quite close.
In the afternoon we went round to the other side of Kodiak Island. The island is big. Second largest in the United States and bigger than Cyprus. Two thirds of the island is designated as the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge – home to the Kodiak bear and all five types of Pacific Ocean Salmon. We saw more bears there. Also, a Sitka deer, enormous star fish, a fox, loads of seals and a Bald Eagle with two youngsters.
