Spring 2026
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“It’s easy to take a photo of a cool animal or person. It’s more difficult to make someone care about a stranger” – R. Levy
Brown bear yearling “whispering” to another, McNeil Falls, AlaskaTravel books, online ads and publications don’t always tell you the whole story. Maybe it’s just human nature — they want to stay positive, or keep you reading or, selfishly want your money. But regardless of their intentions, making you aware of the possible down sides of traveling doesn’t mean you’ll throw in the towel. It just means that you might have to add more days to your trip to accommodate Murphy, or adjust your budget to include free time or add adventures on the fly. Or stay an extra night in a place you never thought you’d enjoy so much.
Most of what follows applies to southcentral Alaska — Anchorage, Kenai Peninsula, Katmai/Lake Clark, etc. where the majority of travelers pass through or spend most of their time. But the general caveats can be useful anywhere you travel in the world.
Probably the number 1 factor is weather. It will determine flights to the bears and other flightseeing activities. The issue is not usually rain but cloud cover/visibility for pilots. Usually delays are no more than a few hours in the morning for fog or visibility to clear.
Weather can cost you time and money, so whether (pun intended) or not you’ve left a few holes in the schedule for re-scheduling, there’s still possible added costs in meals, transportation, hotels and/or possible rescheduling of your return flight if you have to extend your stay. Consider this when first booking your Alaska flight if you want to pay for flight(s) that offer free cancellation.
In most popular spots around Seward, Kenai, Homer, and southcentral Alaska in general, there are forms of public transportation in the cities and to/from Anchorage that you can take if you need to. That means if you’re renting a car and can’t extend the rental, you can check into busses (local in each city and there is one Alaska Bus that runs twice daily round trip between Anchorage and Seward, Kenai and Homer). There is also a train between Seward and Anchorage, as well as to the cruise ship terminal in Whittier.
Whether you are flightseeing over glaciers, or going across an inlet to see coastal bears in Lake Clark, Katmai, Kodaik or other salmon-dependent areas, leaving an extra day in your schedule can make or break that experience. On rare times, we’ve extended our tours 1 or even 2 days to see bears and salmon. (We didn’t charge anything extra, but it did involve participants rescheduling any hotels reserved in Anchorage for the last night and/or other nights after the tour). It was WELL worth it (always is…) as they got superb, closeup bear experiences in sunny weather that topped off their Alaska tour beautifully. Leave breathing room in your schedules!
Number 2 factor is tides. Many of the closer, day-use bear veiwing hotspots are along the beaches of Lake Clark Nat’l Park. Tidal fluctuations are huge in Alaska, and every 6 hours a wide expanse of beach is reduced to a few feet. The day trips to bears have a very limited time to hopefully walk to wherever the bears are and get great shots. See the next section for more on tides and bears.
Depending on what day you are trying to fit this into your short schedule, this may severely limit actual face time with a bear. You have to decide if that is worth the expense of >$1,000. Often I have witnessed day tours coming to where we were staying overnight, and all they saw for a few hours was a sleeping bear, gorged on salmon.
The third factor that many people don’t consider is traffic. Yes Alaska has traffic that, at certain times of the year, can be horrible. The absolute worst driving days on the Seward Highway are between July 3- 5. Everyone is going to or from Seward on those days. Both those places have huge July 4 fairs, and you don’t want to head south from Anchorage before or on those days, nor north from to Anchorage on July 5 or 6. Girdwood (half-way to Seward) also has a forest fire at that time but usually not on the 4thUsually the start days are offset a day or two by each fair, but sometimes they aren’t.
So those are the big forces working against you at times. If you don’t know consider these, you could waste a whole day (and/or miss a flight or boat trip). Plan breathing room in your daily schedules and travel times, and, ideally, don’t drive in some areas on some days.
Photographers at Chinitna beach, Lake Clark NP, Alaska ©Ron Levy
Most visitors to Alaska want to see a bear during their Alaska trip. It is the trophy photo of Alaska and the iconic symbol of natural wildness in the world. For many, going to Alaska without seeing a bear is like going to Paris and without seeing the Eiffel Tower.
There are several top places to see wild bears, as mentioned in previous newsletters. But they all come with tradeoffs, and some of those are not readily apparent to most travelers. This especially applies to the “one-day” flight-excursions out of Anchorage and southcentral Alaska (Kenai, Homer, etc.)
These day flights cost about $1200-2000, depending on whether you a quick hop across the inlet or a full day Brooks Falls experience. While Brooks has been the “gold standard” due to its ease of access and careful management by theNat’l Park Service, it comes with some hidden drawbacks (see below).
The closest, cheapest and easiest beaches or lakes to see bears are in Lake Clark NP. They are just a few hours away from Anchorage and most of southcentral Alaska. Thus they get the most people at the cheapest prices. That doesn’t necessarily mean you will get some good face time or photos though. There are hidden factors here as well that can severely limit your experience.
The first is that the spot you land at could be crowded with a combination of fishermen, overnight lodge guests and daytrippers flying in from Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula. In trying to maximize your time on ground, most flight operators pick the closest spots where bears happen to be. There could be 10 planes already landed on the beach that you are going to, especially in Chinitna or Silver Salmon Creek.
What this also means is that the people in your group may not have the same goals or patience as more serious photographers, or they’re just looking for a quick snapshot anyway. Your guide has to balance that out. That is a personal tradeoff to consider and ask about ahead of booking.
Secondly, most of the closest bear spots require beach landings. That means that tides limit your time there, needing a good low tide. The problem is timing — you may have to leave very early in the morning, or later in the day, which isn’t bad in itself, but something to consider. As well, the amount of the tidal fluctuation will determine your actual time on site, with some tides eclipsing your total time with the bears, or preventing you from landing at some of the better bear spots.
World famous Brooks Falls is farther south and interior, in Katmai Nat’l Park. So it is a longer flight from Anchorage or Homer, which cuts into your time on site. . For most, it is a one-day flight RT from Anchorage or Homer, but for the $1700+, your actual face time with bears is very variable. It could be anywhere from 30 minutes to ~2 hours, depending on multiple factors and crowds.
Aside from the 1-1/2 hour flight each way, the hike along the beach to the visitor center, the mandatory ranger presentation, getting organized and/or eatingllunch, caching food in the NPS lockers, and walking 45 minutes to the viewing platforms, you will then have to wait your turn. In peak July season, the wait could be 45 minutes to an hour or so.
You could get views and photos of bears along the trail or in the lake on the way. Sometimes you get lucky and the bears walk right by you. However, these spots are not the reason you came to Brooks, nor not usually worth the tremendous added cost.
At the platforms, rangers take your name and call you (via electronic buzzers like restaurants) for your 15-30 minute slot at the viewing platform. You can re-enter your name on the list when you return.
Did you know that some animals — notably deer, moose and even bears — have been known to hang out near people and man-made areas to keep predators away? (Yes, bears have predators, read on…)
We all know the negative side effects of humans littering trash and food in National Parks that attracts bears and makes them less afraid of people. But this is a positive effect that has nothing to do with litter. Technically called “prey buffering by use of humans for anti-predatory shields” (Joel Berger, 2007), more common terms include the “Ecology of Fear” and the “Human Shield”. It’s been studied for 20+ years in several parks and non-park areas .
In Alaska, British Columbia and Washington studies focused mostly on predators such as bears and cougars, and prey such as moose, deer and other ungulates (hoofed animals).
WDFW Carnivore Biologist Ben Maletzke notes that “…It is a complicated three-way relationship between predator, prey and humans” in Washington…“. Prey species attracted to grass lawns, trash and human food sources eventually learn to associate safety with human developments. This includes homes, roadways, lodges, parking lots, crowds, etc. that tend to dissuade predators from approaching. Maletzke notes that “Attractants people put on the landscape are a big factor in animal behaviors. Maybe more so than predator avoidance.” *
It seems to work. Prey species began spending more time near heavily traveled areas such as roads, trails, towns or buildings that their predators had gradually avoided. In Alaska and other states, both brown and black male bears (boars) are the primary predators of bear cubs. Sows (females) will immediately move their cubs away from anywhere they see a lone boar. Studies have documented females with cubs near human-occupied lodges, viewpoints, roadsides, etc. in much greater frequencies than boars.
There are numerous other factors that need to be confirmed before concluding that the frequenting or “preference” for proximity to human areas in parks is done consciously or solely to avoid boars. Other factors may include vegetation/food source changes in the habitat, landslides, floods or other phenomena that may have altered wildlife corridors, and/or natural fluctuations in predator/prey, male/female ratios.
For the time being, most of us enjoy the added benefits of extended trust and photo opps that come from being “used” by wildlife…
* Fear, human shields and the redistribution of prey and predators in protected areas. Royal Society Publishing, Vol 3, Issue 6, Dec 2007, Berger)
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Newsletter contents ©Alaska Photo Adventures, LLC. All rights reserved. We take great care to make sure that all information presented in our newsletters is accurate and truthful at the time of writing and posting. However, we are responsible or liable for any costs, incidental or otherwise, related in any way to changes that may occur in laws, travel restrictions, private lodges, accommodations, parks and other locations or activities mentioned in these newsletters. We will make every reasonable attempt to publish any relevant changes if or when we discover them in future newsletters.