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Bear
Viewing: Face-to-Face Encounters
In The Wild
Strong, unbridled,
and nomadic, bears are perhaps the
ultimate symbol of the Alaskan wild.
And seeing a Bear, if even for a fleeting
moment, is a rare and magical experience.
You may see bears in Denali National
Park or elsewhere. But going bear viewing at Brooks River Falls, Wolverine Creek
or Katmai National Park is an entirely
different experience.
Go with one of
our picks and you'll get a virtually
guaranteed viewing of anywhere between
4 and 20 bears at once, much closer
up than you would in Denali, and usually
for hours at a time. And instead of
just eating berries, bears on these
trips will likely be fishing or splashing
in the water. A fly-in trip is not
cheap, but if seeing bears in Alaska
is a must on your agenda, then one
of these tours should be as well.
Skilled
hunters and wild roamers, these creatures
command our admiration, even as their
sheer size and strength also evoke
and stir our primal fear. More than
50,000 black bears and 35,000 brown
bears range the state's untamed wilderness,
lumbering through berry-covered hillsides
and slapping at salmon-choked rivers.
Unlike moose, you probably won't
casually encounter bears on the road
- you really have to go searching.
One option is to visit Denali National
Park, where your chances of seeing
them, at least from a distance, improve.
To see throngs of bears up close
- belly - flopping into rivers, jaw-sparring
for the best fishing grounds, or
just napping in the sun - air - taxi
operators can fly you to places with
excellent viewing odds.
A 5- to 10-hour
bear-viewing tour offers a unique insight
into the creatures' culture - in fact,
you may end up witnessing behaviors
that even bear-viewing experts have
never seen. Many bears have become
so accustomed to human presence they
tend to ignore visitors and carry on
with their normal routines. And usually,
getting to a bear-viewing spot is an
experience in itself. You'll fly over
glassy backcountry lakes, cragged mountain
peaks, massive ice fields, pebble beaches,
golden tundra, and a wealth of rugged
wilderness.
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