Katmai’s nearly 4.1 million acres offer enough scenic splendours, get-away-from-it-all tranquility, and wildlife viewing to satisfy the most demanding lover of the outdoors. But the park has two additional special features: volcanoes and brown bears. Fifteen volcanoes rise in the park, some of them still steaming. In the lands below roam some 2,000 brown bears, one of the continent’s largest protected populations of these storied predators.

The only way to reach Katmai is by plane. Most people arrive on scheduled jets from Anchorage, which land in King Salmon, a bush town just outside the park’s western border that houses park headquarters and a visitor centre.

No visitors to Katmai should miss watching brown bears snag migrating salmon at Brooks Falls, nearly one kilometre hike from Brooks camp.