What excursions are the best for seeing bear?

[cwpsy]

Taking our first Alaska cruise next year and wondering what excursion would be the best to see bear up close? I know that going on a land trip would be better, but the bank can't handle that yet :) My wife is a little bear crazy, so any help would be appreciated.

[mrsheldon88]

My understanding is that the best chances are on a float plane tour, but I am afraid of small planes, and so I went on the Evening Wildlife Tour in Haines (port was Skagway) and saw a couple of bears feeding right across a small river. It was terrific. Of course, Denali is a good choice, but you can't count on it. We saw a tiny little moving dot about half a mile away that the guide said was a grizzly.

 

I understand Kodiak is a guarantee for bear sighting if you have the time.

 

I wanted to see Bears (got lucky), humpbacks (saw several including breeching, very lucky), orcas (saw several including beach rubbing, incredibly lucky), bald eagles (saw a few, could have done better) and anything else that I could see that could be called wildlife. On a Kenai Fjords tour out of Seward, I saw a few eagles, puffins, orcas, sea lions, an otter, murre (look like small penguins). In Denali I saw 4 of the 5 - grizzly, caribou (lots!), dall sheep, and one lone moose. From the Denali express I saw a moose and a big group of dall sheep. On a whale watching tour (Capt Larry out of Juneau), I saw humpbacks, seals, sea lions, and spikes of water that were the trail of dall porpoises. On the Haines tour other than brown bear, I saw a few bald eagles and lots of salmon. And from the ship I saw humpbacks, orcas, and some seals on an iceberg.

 

My trip was in early August which is a good time for animal sightings of all sorts. Needless to say, I wasn't disappointed.

[CassCruise]

Seeing bears was something I was almost very crazy about - we went in September with Michelle from Island Wings - to sum up - AWESOME!!! it was the highlight of our cruise excursions (and that goes for DH who went salmon fishing and thought that would be his highlight and also our two dd's (8&6)) I wish I could upload a pic for you - we spent a good few hours at Margaret Creek watching the bears catching lots of salmon for dinner:D As a side note we also saw a bear in the bushes whilst walking into Juneau from the ship!!!! caused quite a bit of excitement!

[Budget Queen]

Since you are only looking Inside Passage- a great deal will depend on when you go, from July- August- Anan is the winner out of Ketchikan- most likely black bears. Island Wings, Southeast Aviation has trips. Into Sept. Traitor's Cove, Neets Bay- out of Ketchikan, same above venders go there- black bears.

 

For browns Pack Creek- fly in out of Juneau go with Alaska Fly N Fish.

 

Overall Haines is not a high sightings area anymore. The above poster was extremely lucky.

 

Binoculars are necessary- a half mile away bear would have been easy to spot with them. In Denali Park, min. distance in needs to be Fish Creek for bears in my opinion. Huge bear habitate between Toklat (Tundra Wilderness tour) and Fish Creek.

[cntrydncr1]

I'm sure others would know the best ways to see bears but we were so lucky this past summer. We saw bears every day on our independent land tour. Our first day was Denali and we saw at least a half dozen grizzlies. The second day we took a jet boat tour in Talkeetna and saw 2 bear cubs playing in a tree, hanging out over the river. The following day we were on a raft trip near Cooper Landing and saw 2 good size brown bears on the side of the river, very close to some fishermen who did not seem bothered at all. The 4th day we were on the Kenai Fjords boat tour and saw a bear on the edge of the water. On our last day we drove to the gold mine in Girdwood. When driving back to the main road a small bear come wandering out of the woods and came right next to our car. It was an awesome week.