A Visit to Alaska's Valley of 10,000 Smokes

Part 2. One of the Greatest Volcanic Eruptions of the 20th Century

Tim Dolan

Katmai is home to the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. For years, this site of the massive 1912 volcanic eruption was thought to have been Mount Katmai, which is a dormant volcano. It turns out that the actual eruption occurred on the valley floor. The vent is named Novarupta, and it is now an unremarkable pumice-filled crater. 

The 1912 eruption caused so much ash to be ejected that villages of indigenous people who lived on the coast of the Alaska Peninsula were buried. The people who lived in these villages had to be relocated to new sites. The people of one of the villages named their new town after the Captain of the Steamship who moved them. This village still exists and is named Perryville. 

The closer you get to the source of the ash the more ash that would fall. We saw pictures of buildings buried in ash on Kodiak Island, which is about 25 miles across the Shelikof straits from Novarupta. These pictures were more than 90 miles from the site of the eruption. We were told of high altitude atmospheric effects like rings around the moon and diminished sunshine as far as away as New York City.  [The Smithsonian Institution's Astrophysical Observatory sites in California and Algeria reported that the eruption dimmed the skies over both sites. Editor.]

The only road in Katmai National Park is the one we would travel from the Brooks Camp to the Valley. Our transportation, a bus, was brought in by barge from King Salmon. It stays on the East side of the Brooks River. The entire road is on that side of the river. To board the bus we have to walk across a floating bridge. The bridge is removed and stored during winter. It is replaced at the beginning of each summer. To get to the falls, you have to cross this bridge and then follow a trail up the river. You may also observe bears on a park service platform built near the bridge. The bridge and lower observation platform are located where the Brooks River flows into Naknek Lake  If there were bears on the bridge or anywhere near the trails we had to use, we had to wait or backtrack depending upon what the bears did. The next picture shows the bus and the lower observation platform.

Figure 1. The presence of two bears prevented us from using the floating bridge until they decided to go somewhere else.

After the bears left, we got across the bridge and boarded the bus to the Valley. The road to the valley is along the side of a glacial moraine. The trip itself was quite interesting. The valley is about 22 miles from Brooks camp. The trip along the road proved to be a great opportunity for taking pictures unrelated to the bears.

The trip is run as part of the Brooks Lodge. It is run once per day during the summer. Campers may take it one way and then complete the round trip some days later. 

Fellow traveler Keith Pigeon was able to take a picture (see Fig. 2) of the Brooks Camp, the river and Naknek Lake as well as the bridge and lower observation platform. You can also see the sea planes on the Beach of Naknek Lake. That beach is where the first picture in this series (see Part 1, Fig. 1) was taken. Many thanks to Keith for this photograph.

Figure 2. Brooks River. Photograph by Keith Pigeon.

Figure 3 shows a beaver lodge. The picture was taken when the bus stopped for a rest and a view of the moraine. In the center of this picture is a beaver lodge. The small river that contains the beaver lodge runs in the moraine I was talking about earlier. The stream runs between a series of lakes. The Park Service ranger, who was on the trip with us, explained that the lakes were formed during the glacial retreat. Large blocks of ice on the face of the retreating glacier calved into the mud of the moraine floor. This process repeated itself as the glacier retreated. As the ice blocks melted they left a series of lakes on the moraine floor. We saw many lakes of this type or our flight from King Salmon to Brooks Camp.

Figure 3. Beaver lodge. Photograph by Keith Pigeon.

Also along the road we saw the lynx in Fig. 4. The lynx is a bobcat that is optimized for living in snow conditions. Notice the large feet that appear to be too large for an animal this size. They act as natural snow shoes in the winter. I took this picture through the window of the bus. My wife and I were lucky enough to be sitting in the front seat of the bus on the right hand side. This turned out to be very helpful on the way back.

Figure 4. We saw this lynx through the front window of our bus.

After we saw the lynx, the bus ride out to the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes was un-eventful other than the beautiful scenery. This is spectacular country everywhere you look.

Figure 5 shows the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes from the top of the moraine looking down into the valley. The vegetation in the foreground of the pictures grows up the sides of the valley. The brown terrain in the background is actually volcanic ash. If you look closely you can see what appears to be a crack in the center of the ash. This is actually where a river has eroded away the ash. More details of this with another picture.

Figure 5. The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes.

The lodge building that overlooks the valley is for tourists who do not wish to hike down to the valley. It is also for field lectures when geology students come into the area for field trips. Figure 6 shows a thick ash deposit exposed by erosion. I took this photograph after hiking down into the valley. You can see that the river has cut through the ash exposing the ground below the ash.

Figure 6. Thick ash deposits exposed by erosion.

Figure 7. The confluence of two rivers in the valley, shows the confluence of two rivers that are in the valley. Another shot of the ash being eroded. 

Figure 8 shows a mother bear and four cubs strolling along the same road we were traveling.  These animals had just come out of hibernation and were on their way to the Brooks Camp area. It is very rare to for a mother bear to have four cubs. 

The bus driver had to radio back to the camp that the bear family was delaying our return, and it was the talk of the camp that they were inbound. The bears have priority here. We had to follow those bears about 15 miles down the road. The road was the easiest way to get where the bears wanted to go, and so that is the way they went. 

Many people on our trip were to fly out that day. Having to follow these bears made these folks miss their flights.  Many flights were rescheduled or added to accommodate these bears.

Figure 8. This mother bear and four cubs had the right-of-way on the road.

About My Camera

The photographs were taken with a Canon Powershot Pro1. This is an 8-megapixel camera. It's a good camera, but the shutter is just too slow for a camera in this price range. The photographs of fish being taken out of the air by a bear were only be an accident with this camera. I should have also brought along my old film camera.

Learning More

Administrative history of Katmai. Note that this was written before they learned that the eruption was from Novarupta and not Mt. Katmai: http://www.nps.gov/katm/adhi/adhi.htm

Alaska Volcano Observatory: http://www.avo.alaska.edu/

National Park Service Katmai web site: http://www.nps.gov/katm/

Katmai National Park web site: http://www.katmai.national-park.com/

Katmai Park Maps: http://www.katmai.national-park.com/map.htm

Geology field links for teachers:http://www2.nature.nps.gov/geology/parks/katm/