Alaska Bear Viewing Tours

Watch bears dig­ging for clams, wan­der­ing the sedge grass, or nurs­ing their young – all in a short flight from Homer to Kat­mai or Lake Clark Nation­al Park. Smokey Bay’s bear tours last about five hours total — includ­ing flights and about three hours on the ground. On any giv­en day there will always be a morn­ing out­ing (leav­ing at 8 a.m. at the lat­est) and pos­si­bly one that leaves around 2 p.m.

Spend sev­er­al hours or a full day watch­ing bears in the wild on a quin­tes­sen­tial Alaskan adven­ture with a fam­i­ly-run com­pa­ny. Start with a scenic flight out of Homer over Kachemak Bay and into Kat­mai or Lake Clark Nation­al Park. Once you land, your pilot/​guide will take you to an opti­mal spot to watch and pho­to­graph these mag­nif­i­cent crea­tures in their nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment, hunt­ing, play­ing, and relax­ing. Spend any­where from 1.5 to 9 hours on the  ...more

See Alaskan Coastal Brown Bears in the wild on a float­plane trip to Kat­mai Nation­al Park. Vis­it Brooks Falls or join a guid­ed tour to oth­er remote loca­tions with­in the park. Both trips pro­vide 5 hours on the ground with the bears. Found­ed in 1991, Emer­ald Air Service’s mis­sion is to increase the under­stand­ing and appre­ci­a­tion of the unique ecosys­tem that sup­ports bears.

For many Alaskan trav­el­ers, bears are the ulti­mate high­light. Pair a mag­nif­i­cent sight­ing with a gor­geous heli­copter flight­see­ing ride and you’ll have an unfor­get­table expe­ri­ence. On this unique tour from Homer, you’ll take a heli­copter ride out into one of Alaska’s gor­geous nation­al parks to wit­ness these spec­tac­u­lar crea­tures in the wild.

Explore one of the last fron­tiers – the Arc­tic – by land, sea and air in a one-day expe­di­tion that offers an excel­lent chance of see­ing polar bears play­ing, eat­ing and snooz­ing in the wild.

Alas­ka bear camp is mag­i­cal­ly hid­den in a rare Crit­i­cal Bear Habi­tat in the wilder­ness of Lake Clark Nation­al Park. Instead of hun­dreds, only 16 priv­i­leged guests observe the won­der of up to 50 brown Bears liv­ing out their dai­ly dra­ma. Due to the beau­ty of the loca­tion and the excep­tion­al bear pop­u­la­tion, the deluxe camp, with en suite biffies, beds with mat­tress­es and food flown in dai­ly, was used as a base camp for the Dis­ney movie Bears.  ...more

Take off on a spec­tac­u­lar flight, look­ing down on the vast Alaskan tun­dra as you make your way to one of three bear-view­ing spots, depend­ing on where you’ll see the most bears. Wit­ness these icon­ic crea­tures play­ing or fish­ing as you take pic­tures and learn more about their habits and habitat.

Brooks Lodge offers their own bear view­ing tours which are less expen­sive than most, and give you more time at Kat­mai Nation­al Park to watch bears feast­ing on sock­eye salmon from sev­er­al view­ing plat­forms. A com­mer­cial flight from Anchor­age takes you to King Salmon where you’ll switch to a small float plane for a quick 20-minute flight to Brooks Camp. After a brief safe­ty ori­en­ta­tion, you can watch bears from sev­er­al view­ing plat­forms, join the  ...more

With Alas­ka Air Ser­vice you’ll fly from Anchor­age to Lake Clark Nation­al Park, where they’re a licensed park con­ces­sion­aire. On the 6- to 7‑hour expe­di­tion with an inti­mate group (there’s a 4‑to‑1 guest-to-guide ratio), you’ll start with a land­ing inside the park on a beach or in the grass­lands to watch bears. Then you’ll trav­el, unrushed, to oth­er spots in the park. Few oper­a­tors include mul­ti­ple loca­tions, but show­ing you as much of the park’s  ...more

View­ing brown bears in their nat­ur­al habi­tat is one of the most amaz­ing things you can do in Alas­ka. If it’s high on your list, book a flight-see­ing/ bear view­ing trip with Trail Ridge Air, know­ing that per­son­able pilots will take you to where bears splash and fish, and where vis­i­tors run out of words to describe their amazement.

Take off by sea­plane for an all-day bear-view­ing expe­di­tion. Fly past glac­i­ers and vol­ca­noes to the brown-bear coun­try of south­west Alas­ka. Your Sea­plane Bear Safari will take you to Brooks Riv­er Falls in Kat­mai Nation­al Park, home of the world ’ s largest salmon run. You can also fly 70 miles south­west of Anchor­age to Lake Clark Wilder­ness Pre­serve for amaz­ing bear view­ing and lux­u­ri­ous accom­mo­da­tions at the Redoubt Bay Lodge. Rust’s, which has  ...more

Hop aboard one of Regal Air’s planes depart­ing from Anchor­age and after a short, scenic flight you can be watch­ing enor­mous brown bears swat salmon from Alaska’s rush­ing waters. Tours vis­it one of two des­ti­na­tions: Lake Clark Nation­al Park or Brooks Falls in Kat­mai Nation­al Park.

Alas­ka bear camp is mag­i­cal­ly hid­den in a rare Crit­i­cal Bear Habi­tat in the wilder­ness of Lake Clark Nation­al Park. Instead of hun­dreds, only 16 priv­i­leged guests observe the won­der of up to 50 brown Bears liv­ing out their dai­ly dra­ma. Due to the beau­ty of the loca­tion and the excep­tion­al bear pop­u­la­tion, the deluxe camp, with en suite biffies, beds with mat­tress­es and food flown in dai­ly, was used as a base camp for the Dis­ney movie Bears.  ...more

Fly out of Sol­dot­na with Natron’s own­er and pilot, Tim. You’ll soar over the Cook Inlet towards Mt. Iliamna Vol­cano and land on a beach, right where the bears are. You’ll watch them play­ing and clam­ming and be close enough to take amaz­ing photos.

Pack Creek Bear Tours offers ful­ly guid­ed adven­tures to Admi­ral­ty Island or Chichagof Island, each home to more than 1,500 brown bears! After a beau­ti­ful 20- or 25-minute float­plane ride, you’ll land on a remote beach. Take a short walk to the bear-view­ing area, where you can watch these mag­nif­i­cent crea­tures for hours in their nat­ur­al environment.

Ketchikan is black bear coun­try, and just out­side town you can see them in their favorite sum­mer­time activ­i­ty – fish­ing for pro­tein-rich Alas­ka salmon. A walk­ing tour through the lush foliage of the Alas­ka Rain­for­est Sanc­tu­ary reveals prime salmon habi­tat, a cer­tain attrac­tion for hun­gry bears. Wait and watch for this apex species in action – pounc­ing on fish, teach­ing cubs, and chas­ing each oth­er to the feast­ing grounds.

The lush green Ton­gass Nation­al For­est stretch­es out below as you take a clas­sic Alaskan float­plane ride to Neets Bay, one of the best places in South­east Alas­ka to see black bears fish­ing for salmon. This 3‑hour trip packs in spec­tac­u­lar flight­see­ing, a nature walk, and the chance to watch bears in their nat­ur­al habitat.

From Kodi­ak Island to the Kat­mai coast, King­fish­er Avi­a­tion will cus­tomize each trip, mak­ing for an intense­ly per­son­al expe­ri­ence. Their most pop­u­lar excur­sion includes a flight to a bear-view­ing hotspot, where you can see 8 to 10 bears swip­ing at salmon swim­ming upstream. King­fish­er also offers short­er scenic flight­see­ing tours with­out the bear-view­ing stop.

Immerse your­self in a mul­ti-day Alaskan adven­ture that promis­es incred­i­ble views and jaw-drop­ping bear view­ing in Kat­mai Nation­al Park, along with a warm cama­raderie that only a small group expe­di­tion can cre­ate. Explore from your home base on the Island C, a research ves­sel that gets you close to the action while pro­vid­ing com­fort­able lodg­ing and deli­cious meals.