• The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes at Sunset, from the Griggs Visitor Center

    Katmai

    National Park & Preserve Alaska

Happy Birthday Novarupta!

Katmai National Monument was created in 1918 to preserve the famed Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, a spectacular forty square mile, 100 to 700 foot deep ash flow deposited by Novarupta Volcano in 1912. A National Park & Preserve since 1980, today Katmai is still famous for volcanoes, but also for brown bears, pristine waterways with abundant fish, remote wilderness, and a rugged coastline.

Did You Know?

View across Lake Brooks to Mount Katolinat

Because of lack of visitation and facilities in its early years due to its remoteness, Katmai National Monument remained without park service development until 1950. Today, that same remoteness makes Katmai a premiere Wilderness park with its undeveloped primeval landscape.