When To Visit
From June 1st to September 30th, Lake Clark Resort offers lodging and tours for adventurers wishing to explore The Last Frontier. While we offer the same tours every month, certain months are better for certain activities. We give a heads up for which months are best for which activities.
June
In June, the mountains are still snow capped and the alpine lakes have recently lost their ice. This makes for great flight seeing tours of the National Parks. The salmon are not yet in the streams, so the majority of our bear viewing takes place via wheel plane on the coastlines of Lake Clark National Park and Katmai National Park. At this time, the bears are grazing on grass as well as digging for clams when the tide is low.
July
In July, the salmon have made their way into the streams of Katmai National Park, and most importantly the brown bears have gathered in large numbers at Brooks Falls. This is the best and busiest month for viewing bears at brooks falls. Since the salmon have arrived, the fishing also picks up at this time.
August
In August, a majority of the bears leave brooks falls to venture into Katmai National Preserve. For the best bear viewing this time of year, we take our clients by floatplane into the northern area of Katmai National Park to watch bears from the river banks. August is also a great time for sport fishing as salmon are laying their eggs at this time. Our tundra tours become more eventful as wildlife is more easily spotted since the berries in the tundra are ripening at this time.
September
In September, bear viewing is at its best as the bears are fat from a full summer of eating salmon. The bears can be found at various rivers and lakes In Katmai Preserve, and a fair amount of bears return to Brooks Falls for the run of the silver salmon. Bear viewing at Brooks Falls is amazing at this time as the summer crowd is gone and there is no wait list to enter the platform and often no time limit! This is also the best month for fishing as the trout, char, and grayling are plump and colorful after eating so many salmon eggs. The tundra tours in September are spectacular as caribou, moose, black bears, grizzly bears, wolves and other animals can be spotted on the colorful and vibrant tundra.
