For day two at Katmai we booked a bus trip out to the Valley of 10,000 Smokes - which is pretty much the only place the road goes from Katmai. I was pretty excited to check out the geologic aftermath from one of the largest eruptions in the 20th century (1912 to be exact!). After a leisurely breakfast at the lodge, we headed down the trail to meet up with the bus. We had to make sure to leave a little bit of extra time after all the warnings of bear closures.
Sure enough - it was closed because a bear was taking a swim! We actually walked up in time to hear the Park Ranger telling everybody that this was Holly (Bear 435), one of the more famous bears at Katmai. She adopted an abandoned bear cub while she had her own younger bear cub - pretty unheard of in the bear world! She apparently decided both of the cubs were old enough this year to strike out on their own and was enjoying a leisurely swim in Brooks Lake all by herself.
I honestly didn't realize bears would swim around so long for fun. It reinforces the fact that I think bears act like big, overgrown dogs. Who may try to kill you in most circumstances...
There were so many people walking around camp with *gigantic* lenses on their camera, I was having a bit of lens envy. I've really only ever seen people taking photos of birds with those kinds of magnifications, but the birds were getting absolutely no attention here. So I took some photos of the ducks that were swimming by all slowly trying to strike up some interest. Poor guys just don't stand a chance to be noticed with the bears around!
And since I was zooming in on the ducks, I also happened to notice this bee feasting on the fireweed. My first thought was that I should follow him back to his hive and steal some honey - fireweed honey would be the best! Then I remembered the last bee I took a photo of tried to attack me and I decided I had enough of the nature photography for a now...!
Once we made it safely across the bridge, we headed off on our tour. Each tour has a park ranger that rides along and narrates different stops along the way. Our tour guide kept telling us how lucky we were because the first tour she was assigned to was completely fogged in. She said she was standing in this spot describing the mountains and forests that no one could even see. What a way to start a new job!
Our awesomely rugged tour bus. The drive out has three river crossings and the bus handled them like a champ. Definitely not your ordinary school bus. Plus there were seat belts! Is that a thing yet in school buses or just because we were fording streams?
One of my friends at work, Tiffany, happened to book a trip to Katmai at the same time we did. Which also happened on our Juneau trip in April! I feel like I rarely see Tiffany in Anchorage, but we like to vacation in the same spots apparently - I should ask her where "we" are going next! :)
Now that is a huge pile of volcanic ash! Novarupta, the volcano that formed/erupted in 1912, spewed out lava and ash for days. The ash is solidified now and is up to 700' thick in places. The ash layer and lava engulfed the rivers turned them to steam - which created thousands of steaming fumeroles, thus the name! It took decades for the mass to cool down, but unfortunately, there is no longer any smoke. But they still kept the Valley of 10,000 Smokes moniker. :)
In that same amount of time, the rivers have managed to carve their way back down through the volcanic rocks and create some pretty cool gorges. We hiked down to the valley floor to find the "waterfall" - which was basically a roaring river dumping out into a calmer stream. More of a hydraulic jump than a waterfall if you ask me...!
Look at all that ash! And I have no idea why it weathered the way it did at the top, but it looked like a giant Hershey Kiss to me. Or I was hungry from the hike down and wanted chocolate. Who knows?
Our friends even took a picture of us at the waterfall! It's rare we get a photo together these days. Plus we looked much happier here than the sweaty mess we had become on the hike back up to the visitor's center. The sun actually came out and warmed this valley up quite a bit!
(As a side note - did I mention we are going to Texas in a few weeks? I'm going to melt!)
Tiffany and Stephanie tried to walk up and down with us, but we were a little too slow for them. These two are hiking champs! Thankfully, they were happy enough to hang out with us at the bottom and top. Sorry we're so out of shape, ladies!
We actually spent a lot of time at the river. The way the water was roaring in the air was almost hypnotic. Matt kept shooting slow motion videos trying to see what was actually happening at slower speeds. I kept zooming in and trying to freeze the foaming water. It looked so neat!
Then I was trying to figure out how to capture the flowing water without a tripod. I managed to get a decent image while holding the camera as still as I could. 1/6th of a second sounds pretty fast until you are trying to hold a heavy camera steady! Luckily I managed to get one that was in focus. Woo!
(Please excuse my photography nerdiness...)
On the hike back up, the fireweed was lit up in the sun and definitely made the hill look like it was on fire. It also made me worry that summer is wrapping up - these things only go red when fall is approaching. It's too soon! :(
Overall, the tour day was awesome! I wasn't sure how it would compare to hanging out and watching the bears, but being able to hike though such cool geology definitely won me over. And we still got to see the bears when we got back to camp. Next up - fishing with the bears tomorrow!
Not sure how ready I am for that...!