Brown Bear Viewing??

[brtraveler]

We will be on an Inside Passage Cruise, leaving Vancouver on August 29, 2006.

 

Our ports of call are Wrangell 8/29, Juneau 8/31, Skagway 9/1, Sitka 9/2, and Ketchikan 9/3. I have already arranged for a stream fishing excursion from out of Ketchikan - so that stop is probably out of the picture.

 

I would really like to see some brown bears in a natural setting. I have read about Anan, Hyder, Pack Creek, and Chilkoot River. Does anybody have any opinions about which would be the best site to most likely see brown bears in late Aug and/or early Sept.? Also who would be some good independent tour groups? Finally, does anyone do Hyder from any port other than Ketchikan?

 

Thanks for any information and advice on this subject.

 

Brtraveler

[Budget Queen]

Pack Creek is your only brown option. Alaska Fly N Fish- is a vender with permits- research what the sighting stats are in that timeframe. Anan will probably be over and Hyder is blacks. You are too early for Haines, if you do go there, be prepared to spend the ENTIRE day "waiting" the public fishing has the bears scarce.

 

Don't know about Wrangell???

[TeeBuccs]

We flew with Alaska Fly-N-Fish in late May and throughly recommend Butch! We did a 3 hour private tour and were able to catch a dozen brown bears from in the air and also observing them on the ground at Pack Creek. I would go with Butch on this adventure again a million times over. I just can't imagine how many bears you can see now that it is "prime time" viewing season!

[Friscorays]

We used Alaska Fly n Fish Charters (Butch) out of Juneau to visit Pack Creek August 23, 2007.

 

Pack Creek is on Admiralty Island, which has a very concentrated population of Brown Bears (and Brown Bears only).

 

The flight takes about thirty minutes. Walk from landing area to bear viewing area (two large logs at a 90 degree angle to each other) is about 10 minutes over flat ground. There is a park ranger at the landing area and at the viewing area. Butch stays with you for the entire tour although I don't think a guide is required if you find a tour which does not include one.

 

We saw six bears with bears visible at all times. The highlight was a bear laying on its back to nurse its two cubs.

 

I would not hesitate to use Butch again and visit Pack Creek the next time we are in Alaska.

 

John

[Happyladi]

We saw black bears at the Mendenhall Glacier. There is a mother and her two cubs that live there and are often seen. We were only about 5 to 10 feet away from them. The mother was actually brown in color. I always thought black bears were black.

 

The only brown bears/ Grizzlies we saw were at Denali Park but they were further away.

[tee_harbor]

We saw black bears at the Mendenhall Glacier. There is a mother and her two cubs that live there and are often seen. We were only about 5 to 10 feet away from them. The mother was actually brown in color. I always thought black bears were black.

 

That's the tricky part. Sometimes black bears are brown, red, blue or white. Sometimes brown bears are black. You're supposed to be able to tell the difference by the head shape and the hump in the back. If I'm that close, something's wrong!

 

There was an really interesting letter to the editor to the Juneau Empire (8/24/07) by the Pack Creek crew supervisor, Harry Tullis, with the U.S. Forest Service. He was replying to some sloppily written article about visiting Pack Creek. I found his explanation as to why the bears at some place like Pack Creek appear to accept humans to be very enlightening:

 

"Bears tend to keep their distance from humans because they perceive people as a threat. Nevertheless, the bears at managed bear-viewing areas such as Pack Creek are different: For decades these animals have watched as up to 24 visitors arrive each day to observe them and take their picture.

 

 

Most Pack Creek bears have been there since they were cubs, monitoring a daily parade of humans who always behave in the same predictable manner. The bears' tolerance of our presence in their home, however, is tenuous, and a single visitor can upset this balance by not following the rules we have developed over the last 20 years.

 

Habituation of these bears is a dynamic process, and just one event can easily reverse years of conditioning. That is why Pack Creek is intensely managed, and why rules pertaining to food are strictly enforced.

 

A primary goal of our staff is to ensure that bears never obtain human food. Food conditioning can result in aggressive behavior, endangering not only those who are careless with their food, but also everyone who comes in contact with that bear in the future.

At Pack Creek, bears do not get human food or garbage, making the area a fine example of how humans and bears can coexist under ideal circumstances."

 

(cut and pasted from letter, but edited for length.)

[bearbait]

Hyder actually has grizzlies at the bear viewing platform run by the Forest Service. I was there about 3 weeks ago. The viewing is kind of slow so you need to have plenty of time. There are black bears in the area but according to the ranger from the Forest Service they don't come down to Fish Creek very often. Saw a number of black bears in town and around town but none at the creek.