KATMAI NATIONAL PARK, Alaska – Noah Westbrook has a wicked cool job. He drives the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes tour bus in Katmai National Park. As you may or may not know, living and working in Katmai National Park means living and working around a lot of brown bears. Around 2,200 brown bears, to be exact.
The bears of Katmai National Park, despite being the same species as grizzly bears, don’t actually fall into that category. According to the National Park Service, brown bears live in costal areas of Alaska, feeding heavily on marine-derived food sources. Grizzly bears, however, typically lack marine-derived food resources, as they usually live more inland. Grizzlies are often a bit smaller than brown bears, but that doesn’t mean they should be taken any less seriously.
The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes is a stunning landscape inside the park, created by a large volcano that emerged on June 6, 1912.