This trip proved a little different from my previous two visits. The salmon runs typically starts sometime in late June early July, but this year the salmon were late. There were salmon in the river and a few big schools of salmon had gone through the system, but the thousands and thousands of salmon typical at this time of year were missing. Consequently, there were fewer bears along the river banks than normal and the bears looked lost at the falls. In the four days I was there, I didn’t see a single salmon jump. The bears would stand on top of the falls and stare at the pool of water below them waiting for flying salmon. They stood patiently for 20 minutes or longer waiting, but eventually gave up and moved on.

The lack of salmon and bear proved disappointing. Shooting at 8 frames per second from the upper viewing platform while salmon met up with hungry bears mid air would have to wait for another year. The bears we did see were mostly down by the lower falls, walking along the shores of Naknek Lake and a few could be found walking along the banks of Brooks River. In years past, the big male bears tend to dominate the upper part of the river with the biggest of the males intimidating the younger ones for the best spot atop of Brooks Falls. Along the lower river you’d find the sows and their cubs. The sows are very protective of their young cubs. They get nervous if any male, big or small, gets near.