Katmai National Park Katmai National Preserve

Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes

Katmai was declared a national monument in 1918 to preserve the living laboratory of its cataclysmic 1912 volcanic eruption, particularly the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. Since then most surface geothermal features have cooled, but protecting brown bears has become an equally compelling charge. To protect these magnificent animals and the varied habitat, the boundaries were extended over the years, and in 1980 the area was designated a national park and preserve. Katmai looms so vast that the bulk of it must elude all but a few persistent visitors. To boat its enormous lakes and island-studded bays, to float rushing waterways, to hike wind-whipped passes of imposing mountains, or to explore its Shelikof Strait coastline requires great effort and careful logistical planning.

This unseen Katmai lies beyond our usual experiences of fishing from Brooks Camp, walking up to Brooks Falls, and riding the bus out to the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. We come to Katmai to sample but an edge of its enormous raw natural force, a sampling itself constituting a rare and endangered opportunity.

Grizzlies and Brown Bears

Katmai’s awesome natural powers confront us not only as volcanoes but as brown bears. In summer, North America’s largest land predators gather at streams to feast on salmon runs, build weight from this wealth of protein and fat, and prepare for the coming long winter. Alaska’s brown bears and grizzlies are now considered one species. Generally, grizzlies are those living 100 miles or more inland. Browns are bigger than grizzlies thanks to their rich fish diet. The Kodiak brown bear is a subspecies geographically isolated on Kodiak Island in the Gulf of Alaska. Mature male bears in Katmai may weigh up to 900 pounds.

Mating occurs from May to mid-July, with the cubs born in dens in mid-winter. Up to four cubs may be born, at a mere one pound each. Cubs stay with the mother for two years, during which she does not reproduce. The interval between litters is usually three years. Brown bears dig a new den each year, enter it in November, and emerge in April. About half of their lifetime is spent in dens. Because each bear is an individual, how that bear will act in given situations cannot be predicted with any precision. These great and awe-inspiring bears symbolize the wildness of today’s Katmai.

Volcanoes

The 15 active volcanoes lining Shelikof Strait make the park and preserve one of the world’s most active volcanic centers. These Aleutian Range volcanoes are like pipelines into the fiery cauldron beneath Alaska’s southern coast, a cauldron that extends down both Pacific Ocean shores. This Pacific Ring of Fire boasts over four times more volcanic eruptions above sea level than elsewhere in historic times.

Nearly 10 percent of the 400-plus eruptions took place in Alaska; less than two percent in the rest of North America. Plate tectonics theory attributes this to collisions of the plates making up the Earth’s crust. The ring of fire marks edges where crustal plates bump against each other. A map of earthquake activity superimposed on a map of active volcanoes will show violent earth changes ringing the Pacific Ocean from South America around to and down the Indonesian archipelago.

Major eruptions deposited ash across the Katmai area at least 10 times in the past 7,000 years. Under the now quiet floor of the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, and deep beneath mountains around it, molten rock is still present. The most visible clues to this are the steam plumes rising occasionally from Mounts Mageik and Martin and Trident Volcano. The plumes show the potential for new eruptions to occur. Trident erupted in 1968, and Four-peaked Mountain awoke from 10,000 years of dormancy in fall 2006.

A volcanic eruption capable of bringing major change could occur at any time in this dynamic landscape. Since the great 1912 eruption, the resulting massive deposits of volcanic ash and sand have consolidated into tuff, a type of rock. In the valley, streams rapidly cut through these ash deposits to form steep-walled gorges. The thousands of fantastic smoking fumaroles that greeted the scientists entering the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes after that powerful eruption have now cooled and ceased their ominous smoking. But the fiery cauldron – whose intense heat and pressure can be forcefully released to alter the landscape in mere hours – still lurks near the surface in the park’s part of the volcanic Aleutian Range.