• 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.

Features

  • Large male brown bear fishes at Brooks Falls

    Live: Brooks Camp Bearcams

    What's for dinner? Salmon of course! Watch Brooks Camp's iconic brown bears as they fatten up on salmon for the long winter.

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  • bear catching a salmon on Brooks Falls

    Brooks Camp

    Brooks Camp is the most popular bear viewing location in the park. Click here for more information about planning your visit.

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  • Fish Processing

    A Wilderness Untouched?

    For at least the last 9,000 years—before the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes and before Brooks Camp was a haven for bears—Katmai was a home for people.

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  • Download the park newspaper, the Novarupta

    Extra! Extra!

    Read all about Katmai! Download (PDF, 4.96 MB) the latest edition of the Katmai newspaper, The Novarupta.

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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.