Planning to visit Whistler in early July, and am interested in the bear watching trip hosted by Michael Allen. Any thoughts/feedback from experts, local residents or visitors who've taken this trip will be much appreciated.

You are too late ... 25 years too late. The current main town center of Whistler used to be the garbage dump when the "Gondola Area" was the only built up part of the at-that-time tiny resort. One of the favourite pastimes was to drive to the dump and watch the bears - it was always full of them.

We saw black bears during the gondola ride in two consecutive summers at Whistler.( two trips total) I have no idea if that was just realy good luck or not.

We love summer vacations in Whistler. We saw black bears
near the condo we rented (Powderhorn)> They were walking
between the unit and bus stop.
It was a mom and 2 cubs and they
made several appearances during
our vacation. Of course, we kept
our distance.

The old 100% guarantee re bears at the garbage dump is long gone, and I've moved away.
But on summer (not winter) trips back to Whistler since we've seen bears roughly 1/4 of the trips without really looking for them.

I have no knowlege of how good the commercial guide's bear watching trips are, but there are so many around he must be able to find them.

The advantage to having a naturalist leading a tour is that they know what food is in season and where most of that food is to be found-find the food find the Bears-quite simple really.

(<i>remember Bears are Omnivores and plant food is important to them</i

You maybe able to see them walking or riding on the valley trail.They have even been known to stop a mt. bike race,by sitting on the course.