Bears Brown not Black

[dogladyjw]

Most bear watching talks about Black bears, I want to see Brown bears, also know as Grizzly Bears. Where do you go to see those?

[StillLooking4Adventure]

Know the difference between black and brown bears. Both black bears and brown or grizzly bears live in areas where there are state parks. Use more than the fur color for identification. There are cinnamon black bears and black brown bears.

 

I can highly recommend Michelles bear viewing trip out of Ketchikan. You can watch the bears up close feed on salmon. http://www.islandwings.com/wlv.html

 

From her web site:

 

From July 4th to August 31st you can experience a once in a lifetime trip and visit the world renowned bear observatory at Anan Creek. Fly along the beautiful waterways of the Tongass National Forest to Anan Creek which hosts one of the largest pink salmon runs in Southeast Alaska. The presence of the salmon draws a large dinner crowd, including both black and brown bears, seals, river otters, mink, marten and eagles.

[GlacierLady]

They are called brown bears if they are within 50 miles of the ocean and interior are grizzly bears. Black bears are alot smaller and can have variation in coat color.

[Budget Queen]

Over all brown bear sightings at Anan are iffy and can not predicted, overall, it's still the blacks likely to be seen. For browns- fly in out of Juneau Alaska Fly N Fish has permits, Hoonah- go with a guide, I went with http://teckkoutfitters.com/

 

Otherwise you need interior Alaska with Denali Park the best bargain around via shuttle to at least Fish Creek. Fly ins out of Homer are also very popular. A couple flyin trips available out of Anchorage.

[Yukon]

Although it's down right now (naturally), the Alaska Dept of Fish & Game has an excellent bear site at http://www.wildlife.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=bears.main that gives you information about the many options for seeing both black and brown bears, along the coast and in the Interior.

 

Murray

[Yukon]

Here's a page with all the bear viewing areas I know of, listed from best to not-so-good - http://www.explorenorth.com/library/nature/alaska_bear_viewing.html