Watching Brown Bears Fish for Salmon

Brooks Falls lies inside Katmai National Park, reached by floatplane from Anchorage via King Salmon in Alaska. From raised platforms you watch brown bears stand at the top of the falls, snatching leaping sockeye salmon mid air. Dozens of bears fish the same stretch of river each summer, close enough that you can hear the splash. Come in July, when the sockeye run peaks and the falls are crowded with bears. Bears fishing salmon are also reliably watched at Lake Clark, on Kodiak Island, and along the Katmai coast.