Changing Cruise date, June or July?

[Wildlife Girl]

We have a HAL cruise & land tour booked for mid June, but our number one interest (among many others) is wildlife.

 

We have now heard it is very hard to see bears, especially grizzly/brown bears in mid June. Plus we are having some other difficulties with our trip, so we will probably be changing it. Would the wildlife situation be better in July? If so, early, mid, or late July?

 

What about the weather? Is there more rain in July than June? Would a trip around July 26th or July 31st be a good time to go for wildlife viewing and also have good weather and quite a lot of sunlight? We can actually get a cheaper booking at that time.

 

I know you really can't predict anything, I'm just asking in general. ;)

 

Thanks for any info. I would LOVE some opinions!! :)

[GMoney]

Help us help you - where are you going on your CT, and what kind of wildlife are you interested in? I'm assuming more than bears?

[Wildlife Girl]

Sorry about that!

 

We should be going to Ketchikan, Juneau, either Skagway or Sitka, Anchorage, Kenai Penn., Seward, Denali, Glacier Bay, etc.

 

We are interested in ALL wildlife. It would be really great to see grizzly/brown bears, whales, moose, otters, eagles, you name it! We were planning on booking individual excursions just for bears and one for whales.

 

Thank you! :)

[Putterdude]

My personal preference would be the latter date in July for weather and salmon runs which of course means a better chance of seeing bears.

[Budget Queen]

Denali Park is excellent for bear sightings in all your listed timeframes. BUT you have to get INTO the park and my min. distance for bears is Eielson. These are non salmon diet however. IF you want the salmon eating, then look at peak time for Pack Creek out of Juneau, or fly in trips out of Homer- Needing at least 2 nights there. You are going to be limited with a cruisetour and with your significant wildlife priority, you might want to consider independent. For varied wildlife the other hot spot is Kenai Fjords with a boat tour of at least 6 hours necessary. But my preference is always the Northwestern fjords trips, which few if any cruisetours allow time for.