Kat's River View - Katmai National Park, Alaska

This view carries a name worth knowing: Kat's River View, dedicated to CamOp Kat, who led explore.org's camera operator team for many years. The camera was one of her favorites, and it is easy to understand why. It looks toward the place where the Brooks River meets Naknek Lake in Katmai National Park, Alaska, a quieter kind of fishing ground than the famous falls, and a popular spot for female bears and their young who are still learning to hunt.

The meeting of river and lake has a wide, open calm. Bears appear, disappear, and work the water at their own pace. Cubs try, fail, and try again under a mother's watch. Between those scenes, the landscape does much of the talking: light on the lake, a shift in the weather, the slow movement of a wild shore. It is a stream meant as much for joy and relaxation as for wildlife drama, which is exactly how Kat hoped people would receive it.

Stay with the view for a while and the dedication feels right. Some cameras thrill you; this one also lets you exhale.

The stream is provided by Explore Bears. Settle in, as Kat once did, and let the river and the lake do the rest.