Most sites are reached only after walking some distance – say from a quarter mile to a few miles from where mechanized transportation ends. You may see bears while hiking, or only in a small area, perhaps at the base of a waterfall where it’s easiest for bruins to catch fish.  

 

    A typical “improved” observatory is an elevated platform that is reached by a ladder or a ramp. Some have a roof to protect you and your camera gear from rain. A few are built as a blind to reduce visibility of people to bears, and thus the degree to which viewers disturb the bruins. Alaska has such observatories at Fish Creek, Marx Creek, Margaret Creek, Anan Creek, Pack Creek, possibly Kake, Glacier Meadows at Chinitna Bay, and Brooks River in Katmai National Park. Minnesota has observatories at the Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary and soon at the North American Bear Center. The NABC will include not only an elevated platform, but a room with ground level windows through which people can watch bears.

 

    An “unimproved” observatory is simply a spot where people regularly gather to watch bears. At McNeil Falls, for example, this is a flat spot or “pad” carpeted with gravel on the bank beside McNeil River. Although bears sometimes walk right past the pad, within a yard or two of viewers, they don’t generally walk across the pad while people are present – as though they recognize it as human turf and respect its boundaries. There is an analogous site at the mouth of Chinik Creek.  In Geographic Harbor, the “observatory” is a small island against a riverbank. On the southern edge of Glacier Meadow, in the line of trees separating it from the beach, is a small area  where viewers stand to watch bears. When viewing was permitted at O’Malley Creek on Kodiak Island, viewers sat on the bank near a fish weir.  

 

    If nearly all viewing is done from an observatory, this may limit your options for selecting angle, lighting and background scenery. There may be some weeks during summer and some times of day when lighting is likely to be in your face or harsh, or full of glare bounced off water. Bad lighting can preclude good photography if your viewing opportunity lasts only a few hours – as is often true.  To avoid problems, ask about lighting conditions and length of stay while you are shopping for a guide or a tour company. You might also be able to obtain good information from any forest or park ranger, or Fish & Game technician assigned to the viewing site.   Last, but not least, consult the web for photos and journals by people who’ve been there before you. Some photos are labeled with the date and even the time of shooting.

 

 

Free Ranging

 

    I prefer viewing in coastal meadows where numerous bears can be seen grazing.  For it is here that my clients and I most often see sows with cubs playing or nursing; where couples can be seen courting or mating; and where all the other aspects of ursine life unfold before our eyes.  The down-side of such sites is that there may be no spot from which we can watch all the action, except through powerful binoculars or a spotting scope – which is too far away for good photography.  That means we either settle for distant viewing, or we go closer – probably moving from one vantage point to another throughout the day.  Walking through meadows is allowed in some viewing areas (e.g., on the Katmai Coast), but not in others (e.g., at Glacier Meadow).

 

    Although some salmon streams have a site where bears – and thus viewers – concentrate, bear viewing isn’t necessarily so limited. Just as bears travel up- and downstream looking for fish, viewers may travel basically the same routes looking for bears. This happens, for example, in Cathedral Gorge below the Falls;  along several creeks on the Katmai Coast; Karluk, Frazer and Thumb Creeks on Kodiak Island; and the Russian and Kenai Rivers on the Kenai Peninsula.  This is among the most dangerous ways to watch bears because of the high risk of surprise close encounters.

 

    Viewers can also look for bears by cruising lake shores, ocean beaches and tidal flats. These areas are frequented by bears over most of Alaska’s coast and presumably that of British Columbia. Where beaches are frequented by hunters, usually during springtime or autumn, bears may be too wary for good viewing.