Take a Guided Brown Bear (Grizzly) Tour at Brooks Falls in Alaska

It's a pretty well known fact that the best place in the world to see brown bears is in Alaska at Brooks Falls in the Katmai National Park. The vast majority of the people who visit Brooks come in for the day during the summer via float plane or water taxi. Most of these day trippers get off the plane, go directly to bear school, then make the 1.2 mile walk to the platform to put their name on the waiting list to get on the main platform right above all the action at the waterfall. While you're waiting you can make a quick side trip to the Riffles Platform to watch the action at the falls from a little distance down river. There are two other bear viewing options most people don't know about at Brooks Lodge. For a small fee (about $6) you can buy a pass to be able to walk off the established trail to watch bears from the water's edge. This is a great if you don't mind walking around by yourself out in the open with grizzly bears literally around every corner. I did this on my first trip and had an awesome experience, but the nerves were through the roof the entore time i was off trail. If this is something you're interested in doing, I highly recommend talking to one of the rangers to get the details about what to do (and not do) when you are off trail. The other option, although significantly more expensive, is to schedule a private river walk with one of the Brooks Lodge guides. I did this on my last visit to Brooks and I highly recommend this option if it fits in your budget. It's still a little sketchy being in an open and unprotected area around all these bears, but having one of the experienced guides there with you is way better than being out there on your own. Nic was our guide on our trip and he did great guiding us around the Brooks Falls area, keeping an eye on all the bears (we were a little early in the season and their were bears everywhere, can't imagine what it is like at it's peak), telling us where we need to move to keep our distance, and providing insights about the individual bears and their behavior. The footage in this video are a quick summary of what was a 4 hour guided trip. I wore a GoPro on my chest and was carrying a Sony Alpha A1 with a Sony 200mm to 600mm lens. It was a pretty steady, heavy rain the entire trip so getting footage with the camera was a little challenging, but hopefully this video will give you an idea of what you can expect if you decide to get a guide next tie you're at Brooks. I'd recommend asking for Nic, dude was awesome!!! BTW....the cover shot is a real clip of what we saw happen when we were with our guide. That group is not with a guide and was way too close to that passing bear...this is one of the the other benefits of going out with a guide, they do their very best to keep you an acceptable distance away from the bears. By law in Katmai National Park, you must stay at least 50 yards away from any brown bear. This distance is strictly enforced, especially when bears are using concentrated food sources like spawning salmon. The park rangers at Brooks Falls take their jobs very seriously and if they see you getting that close to a bear you will definitely get a stern lecture (or possibly more) from them. I know, because I was the recipient of one of those lectures on my last trip when I got stuck on an awkward location by myself without a guide there to make sure I was being proactive in getting to an acceptable location while a bear was approaching. When people don't obey the rules we run the risk of losing access to this amazing resource. Please pay attention at "Bear School" and obey all the rules when visiting Brooks Falls!