Fat Bear Season: The Grand Finale of an Alaskan Summer
Dear Traveler,
By autumn, Alaska’s brown bears have spent months in a relentless cycle of feeding—chasing salmon, grazing sedge meadows, and outlasting rivals. All of that effort builds toward one extraordinary moment we affectionately call Fat Bear Season.
Our season lasts just over two weeks, when the bears are at their absolute heaviest, their size and survival strategy on full display. It’s not a sudden transformation, but the culmination of an entire summer of bulking up—revealed in its most dramatic form.
🖥 Fat Bears on Webcam Are Great—But Why Just Watch?
Millions tune in every year to Katmai’s livestreams—10.9 million viewers in 2024 alone, with more than a million people voting online during Fat Bear Week.
The webcams are spectacular. But why limit yourself to a laptop when you could hear the roar of the river, smell autumn on the wind, and feel the ground rumble as a thousand-pound bear splashes after salmon just feet away?
🎬 Most Alaska Bear Viewing Ends Before the Climax
99.9% of all bear-viewing on the Katmai coast and Brooks Falls happens from May through August.
That’s like watching a thriller movie and walking out before the finale. The bears work all summer to fatten up and ensure their survival—and the survival of their cubs—through the winter. Fat Bear Season is the climax of that story. It’s when the months of struggle and feasting leaves its mark.
📸 A Photographer’s Dream
For photographers, this is the pinnacle:
Bears at their heaviest, framed in autumn reds and golds
Bright red salmon flashing beneath waterfalls
Brooks Falls without the summer crowds and ability to use tripods
Long golden-hour light and early sunsets
Potential for aurora borealis
A morning dedicated to finding bull moose in rut, antlers gleaming in autumn color
No other time of year combines these elements so powerfully.
🏔 Why September–October?
Because Fat Bear Season is short. Barely two weeks. Once the salmon fade and the snow starts flying, the bears vanish into hibernation.
That’s why each of our departures is carefully timed to capture this fleeting window—when bears are at their peak, landscapes are aflame with color, and the wilderness feels truly untouched.
🐾 The Best Bear-Viewing Trip in Existence—Period
There is only one trip in the world where travelers can see so much of the bear coast in ten days. From the thunder of Brooks Falls to the hidden coves and wild meadows of Katmai, this journey is truly one-of-a-kind.
The ultimate bear expedition.
🌊 The World Untouched Difference
Every expedition is led by a bear expert with thousands of hours in the field—someone who knows these bears and this coast like no one else
With World Untouched, you’ll:
Travel in small groups of just 8 guests
Explore the bear coast away from summer crowds
Learn from decades of field experience
Contribute to conservation with our 5% Untouched Impact pledge
⏳ Limited Availability
Just as the bears’ feast comes to an end, so does your chance to join them. Five departures. One short season.
Join us in Alaska for the wildest two weeks of the year.
👉 Reserve Your Spot Now
Yours in wild adventure,
The World Untouched Team
