The ultimate Alaska bear safari: Witness nature's giants in Lake Clark and Katmai
By Stephanie Vermillion,
14 hours ago
Locking eyes with a 400-pound brown bear can send shivers down your spine, but I felt calm, euphoric even, as Roxie and her fuzzy two-year-old cub, Pebbles, approached. “She’s using us as a shield,” expedition leader Mike Hillman whispered. “Sit down, and no sudden movements.”
Hillman, a seasoned expedition leader with Natural Habitat Adventures’ safari getaway Alaska Bear Camp , was spot on. Roxie was a regular around this Chinitna Bay-front sliver of Lake Clark National Park, as was her male suitor, Pom. Hillman had binged several seasons of this bruin reality show already. Pom couldn’t register Roxie’s disinterest. So, she ditched him by crossing a gurgling stream and ambling up and over our viewing ridge, knowing full well our presence would keep Pom away. It worked. Pom moved on to his next conquest: a mother and cub who evaded him by scaling a tree.
These June encounters, we learned, are rituals in south-central Alaska’s early summer bear mating season. They’re the prelude to the pre-hibernation bulking season – a period made famous by Katmai National Park’s viral Fat Bear Week . The annual March Madness-style bracket tournament invites the public to virtually follow then vote on the year’s plumpest bruins. This year’s edition marks the event’s 10th anniversary, yet Fat Bear Week merely scratches the surface of ways to enjoy the region’s four-legged giants.
In my four days at Alaska Bear Camp, a safari getaway operated by the World Wildlife Fund’s travel partner, Natural Habitat Adventures, I watched the fuzzy titans wrestle, climb trees, dig for clams, and eventually mate. Here’s how you can enjoy an eye-popping brown bear safari in Alaska, too.
A brown bear on the Chinitna Bay shoreline with purple lupine flowers as a backdrop. Stephanie Vermillion/FamilyVacationist
Planning a brown bear safari in Alaska
More than 100,000 combined brown, grizzly, and black bears live in Alaska; that’s more than any other state. Many visitors spot them on hikes, cruises, paddle trips, and road trips, but the safest and likeliest way to appreciate these giants, particularly the brown bears Fat Bear Week made famous, is on a guided trip to south-central Alaska.
“This little crux of habitat at the base of the Alaska Peninsula is the best bear-watching spot in the entire world,” said Hillman. “It has rich rivers of salmon and sedge meadows that concentrate these brown bears.”
I chose Bear Camp, a 14-person glamping escape on a private homestead just beside Lake Clark – one of America’s least visited national parks – for its remoteness and safari-style approach to bear watching. Similar to, say, a Tanzanian safari, Bear Camp guests sleep in the wilderness in cozy glamping tents (protected by an electric fence), then spend mornings, afternoons, and evenings on guided ambles or drives to animal-viewing platforms, including public national park overlooks and private observation decks reserved for Bear Camp guests. On special mornings, guests can start the day watching clamming bears as the sun soars above the Chigmit Mountains –all without leaving camp.
Sunrise from Bear Camp located on a private homestead beside Lake Clark National Park. Stephanie Vermillion/FamilyVacationist
Katmai National Park, around 150 miles south of Lake Clark, is the site of not only Fat Bear Week, but the famed Brooks Falls salmon run. This frenetic spectacle draws dozens of voracious browns bears angling to catch the fish on their upriver spawning journey. Travelers can overnight here at Brooks Lodge , located a short walk from Brooks Falls – if they’re lucky. The lodge requires a lottery that books out at least one year in advance. Intrepid visitors could also snag a coveted permit at nearby Brooks Camp ; reservations open in early January, and like Brooks Lodge, get scooped up quickly.
Day bear-viewing trips to Lake Clark and Katmai are also available via floatplane tours from Anchorage or Homer, but there is a major benefit to bear-country overnighting: more time with the animals, particularly at their most active, and photogenic, early morning and evening hours
When to see Alaska’s brown bears
Visit south-central Alaska, including national park bear hubs Lake Clark and Katmai, from June through early September for the best brown bear sightings and weather. Each month brings a different genre of Alaskan bear watching, depending on your safari perch.
June, I discovered firsthand, is mating time in the region. The bears emerge from hibernation in the early summer months searching for partners and feasting on protein-dense sedge grasses and clams.
All eyes are on Katmai come July, when the eye-popping salmon run begins. Over at Lake Clark, the bears continue to munch on sedge and scour for clams this time of year. It’s also an ideal month to spot moms and their active cubs, says Bear Camp Expedition Leader Jessica Morgan.
In August and September, the bears continue to beef up ahead of hibernation. Early August often brings Lake Clark inhabitants their own small salmon run on the waterways just beyond Bear Camp’s private viewing deck. For night-sky enthusiasts, mid-August comes with another possible treat: the end of the all-hours midnight sun and the kick-off of Alaska’s northern lights season.
Most trips to the region end by September, but the fanfare continues in early October with Fat Bear Week, where the Katmai bears get particularly thick thanks to the prolific salmon run. Spectators can virtually join in the fun by learning about the bulking contestants and voting for the year’s winner.
Bear-watching safety measures
Travelers watch bears from a Lake Clark National Park overlook. Stephanie Vermillion/FamilyVacationist
In Alaska, bear attacks are unlikely, but always remember that brown bears are wild animals and they can be dangerous, even life-threatening, if provoked, says the NPS. When adventuring on your own, stop in the nearest visitor center or backcountry station for bear safety advice specific to the area. As a rule of thumb, it’s best to travel in groups and make your presence known, whether it’s with a bear bell or loud talking. You never want to catch a bear off guard.
Safety is a major reason I recommend traveling with a guide. Hillman, for example, understands the animals around Bear Camp intimately. He knew he could trust Roxie and Pebbles, but said we’d have scooted back to the safari vehicle if dominant-male Pom approached.
Bear Camp guides are also strict about how travelers move to and fro. All strolls to and from the vehicle or to the observation decks require a tight, single-file line. “If we see a bear, we group together, and I’ll put myself between you and the bear,” Hillman told us. “I’ll utilize the bear’s body language to see what it wants to do next.” Given the protocols, Natural Habitat Adventures suggests a minimum age of around 10 years for guests, although there is no strict limit.
Sleeping in bear country also comes with its own strict safety measures. Even though Bear Camp is surrounded by an electrical fence, guests take extra precautions – such as no food in tents and stashing toiletries or products with a scent in personal boxes in the main dining tent – to avoid unwanted visitors.
Maximize your Alaska wildlife sightings
Bears spend the early spring digging for clams in front of Bear Camp during the low tide and the seagulls like to join too. Stephanie Vermillion/FamilyVacationist
Brown bears are the stars of the show in south-central Alaska, but you can admire plenty of other animals, large and small, while you’re here, too. We saw foxes during our tour of the historic homestead at Bear Camp and a grazing moose on the way to the airport in fishing town Homer, the start and end point for our Bear Camp trip. If time in Homer allows, book a Kachemak Bay wildlife cruise to spot sea otters, seals, whales, and puffins before jetting back to Anchorage.
And, instead of bookending an Alaska safari with overnights in Anchorage city proper, increase your wildlife-sighting odds with a cabin at the new BlueWater Basecamp , a boutique and forested getaway set beside Chugach State Park—just 40 miles, and less than an hour driving from Anchorage International Airport. I was among the first guests to overnight at the base camp when it opened this summer. By choosing these wilderness digs over a city stay, I ended my Alaska adventure with an extra special send-off: spotting a teenage black bear meandering around nearby Eklutna Lake.
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