Alaska Air Service: Bear Viewing

The guides of Alaska Air Service are specialists in flying visitors to Lake Clark National Park and Katmai National Park, what they consider to be the best bear-viewing destinations in all of Alaska. While the highlight may be the magical bear viewing, it’s just part of an Alaska Air Service experience that’s flexible, customized, and unforgettable.

Small Group Journeys

These full day expeditions begin when you take off from Anchorage with an intimate group. Settle into your leather seat and take in the view from your window of shimmering seas and snow-capped peaks. The pilots of Alaska Air Service have been flying guests for more than 15 years; all are local Alaskans, which bring authenticity to their narrative about what you’re seeing as you chat over two-way, Bose noise-cancelling headsets.

Lake Clark National Park

The 6- to 7-hour expedition begins when you take off from Anchorage bound for Lake Clark National park, where Alaska Air Service is a licensed park concessionaire. You’ll start to see why they love this untouched national park as you spend some time flying over its vast 3.5 million acre expanse—including some spots where no human has ever set foot.

You’ll land inside the park on a beach or in the grasslands—your first stop to watch bears. With your small group and guide, you’ll then have the mystical experience of watching bears in their natural habitat. The wealth of food in this park attracts the giant creatures, and you’ll see them grazing on sedge grass, digging for clams, and catching spawning salmon. Thanks to the abundance of food, the bears are tolerant of one another, as well as the humans who come to watch them. All possible steps are taken to respect and help preservation of these animals in their environment.

Then you’ll travel, unrushed, to other spots —places like Chinitna Bay, Silver Salmon Creek, Spring Point, or other locations. Few operators include multiple locations, but showing you as much of the park’s variety as possible is important to Alaska Air Service.

You’ll also go to a great spot to enjoy a catered lunch. Just ask and they can accommodate any dietary needs, like vegan, vegetarian, or kosher.

Katmai National Park

Katmai National Park is home to iconic Brooks Falls, where bears fish for salmon from the middle of the river.

Most tours here operate on a self-service model: They fly you to Katmai, where a park ranger gives you a safety briefing and a map, then turns you loose to navigate the often-busy area and its confusing logistics. They also operate planes that can only fly at low altitudes, where weather may force a cancellation.

Alaska Air Service takes a different approach. First, their all-weather planes fly at a higher altitude that can avoid bad-weather conditions. Plus, you’ll always be accompanied by one of their professional guides, so you’ll have a more curated experience.

You’ll leave Anchorage around 7 a.m. on a 8-seat plane where everyone has a window seat, for the 95-minute flight to King Salmon. From there, it’s a short floatplane ride to Brooks Falls; you’ll be seeing bears by around 10 a.m.

Your dedicated guide will help lead you through the crowds for the 1.5-mile walk to the bear-viewing platforms. The guides will let you in on secrets, too, like little pull-outs along the trails as well as other platforms to view the bears, so you can truly maximize your time with these majestic creatures.

Even lunches are an elevated experience. Your guides will lock up the food in insulated bags, then direct you to lesser-trafficked areas to enjoy it.