Katmai National Park & Preserve

A landscape is alive underneath our feet, filled with creatures that remind us what it is to be wild. Katmai was established in 1918 to protect the volcanically devastated region surrounding Novarupta and the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. Today, Katmai National Park and Preserve also protects 9,000 years of human history and important habitat for salmon and thousands of brown bears.

Weather & conditions

Located between the stormy north Pacific Ocean and the even stormier Bering Sea, the Katmai region is often a battleground between weather systems. When you visit, be prepared to encounter all types of weather. On average, wet and cool conditions predominate in spring, summer, and fall. Winters are drier and colder.

What this latitude gives you

From 58.6° north, anything above declination +31.4° is circumpolar here: it never sets, so it is available on every clear night of the year. Anything below declination -31.4° never clears the horizon at all.

At this latitude the sun does not drop 18 degrees below the horizon around the June solstice, so there is no astronomical darkness at midsummer at all. Plan deep-sky work for the months either side of it.

We do not hold a measured Bortle class for this site, so treat the sky as unknown until you have taken a reading of your own.