This is a vast, diverse land where lakes, forests, mountains and marshlands all abound in wildlife. The Alaska brown bear, the world's largest carnivore, thrives here, feeding upon the red salmon that spawn in the many lakes and streams. The park-preserve contains part of the Alagnak Wild River, one of many wild streams renowned for superb sport fishing.

Here, in 1912, the Novarupta Volcano erupted violently, forming the ash-filled "Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes" where steam rose from countless fumaroles. Today only a few active vents remain.

The area we now know as Katmai National Park & Preserve has been a very popular place for millennia. Archeologists have discovered remains of nomadic hunters' camps dating back 9,000 years in the interior lake region of the Park, while impressive coastal sites show that marine sea mammal hunters were established along the Katmai Coast by 7,000 years ago. Large Native villages persisted along this Coast until Russian contact in the late 1700s, and were not completely abandoned until after Novarupta's cataclysmic eruption.

• Brooks Camp -
• Lake Grosvenor -
• Nonvianuk Lake -

• Visit Brooks River to see brown bears congregate to feed on sockeye salmon, from the safe vantage of two bear-viewing platforms.
• Try your hand at the world-class sportfishing of the Katmai coast.
• Hike the Dumpling Mountain Trail.