After you spend enough time in a place you get to learn its patterns of light and weather, and this time it paid off in photographing beautiful Katmai double rainbow reflections in Naknek Lake. At the Brooks River in Katmai National Park, I keep my eye out for rainbows that usually appear around 11 PM. Earlier in the day, the skies can be windy and gray, with a light drizzle. This provides excellent soft light for photographing the many brown bears that live here, however that grayness is not so great for landscape photography. This changes though on most evenings when the sun begins to set around 10 – 11 pm.
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This past summer was rainier and colder than in my previous years in Katmai. I could tell this was a different year the minute the floatplane landed on Naknek Lake to drop me off in late June. The rivers were very high at it was cold. Our plan was to take a second floatplane and get dropped off in the headwaters of American Creek to packraft down it, across Coleville and Grosvenor Lakes, and then portage back to Naknek Lake.
Upon arrival, I learned that a fisherman had drowned on American Creek a few days earlier. The authorities had not yet found his body. The other two members in his party were able to hike out and find help after a harrowing swim down the whitewater stream. This, coupled with a National Park Service (NPS) closure of some rivers in Katmai and Alagnak National Parks due to dangerous river levels, was all I needed to re-think our plans of paddling American Creek!
We changed our plans to instead fly into a remote lake in Katmai National Park and explore it and some other lakes by it via packraft. No whitewater paddling was needed to find solitude, adventure, and lots of big trout with this alternative trip plan.
One night before heading out on the packraftt trip sunlight from the west lit up a rainstorm to the east. I knew a rainbow was in store. Finally, some colorful light after a week of greyness! Naknek Lake beach was peaceful and I had it all to myself, except for a mother bear sleeping with her two spring cubs in the cool sand. Sure enough, a nice rainbow began to form. The Katmai double rainbow reflections in the glassy water reached all the way to my feet. I lined up the end of the rainbow with the NPS supply boat with the end of the rainbow.
Late evening rainbows at Katmai are something I look forward to each year. Since they happen so late in the day, when the sun angle is low, they reach very high in the sky. When Naknek Lake is calm the mirror reflection is a welcome bonus. When I experienced these Katmai double rainbow reflections it felt like a welcoming present back to the park.
