Alaska Bear Viewing
 

This is 1st visit to Alaska. Suggestions on seeing glaciers and bears during a 7-10 day visit to Alaska, Looking to go August or early September 2016.

We flew feom Homer on tne Kenai Peninsula to Katmai National Park on a 4th of July. There were plenty of bears walking around and fishing for salmon, an incredible and very expensive experience. We were told that July was the best time to see them as I. Elieve they left that area later in the summer. Perhaps there will be bears in another location for your dates.

We did a day trip in Aug 2007 from Homer with Emerald Air and had a terrific time:

http://www.emeraldairservice.com/

Would recommend them.

quick ps: We went in very late August and didn't realize we needed to bring waterproof clothing for the bear watching trip, so we bought it in Homer.

We spent 11 wonderful days in Alaska driving from Anchorage to Homer to Seward to Talkeetna to Denali NP and back to Anchorage. Here are some pics:

http://davidcdavis.smugmug.com/Trave...2007/n-QwVQQQ/

Thank you for sharing your amazing pictures

If you go to Denali, your odds of seeing SOME bears is pretty good. Maybe not this close
www.flickr.com/photos/pr77x/16543600982
www.flickr.com/photos/pr77x/16543601392
but you never know.

Cost per person to go to Denali is substantially less than going to Katmai.

Highly recommend this. There is a tunneled viewing area right at stream level and the views are amazing. Always felt safe, ranger ( I believe, maybe it was something else) around with a gun. Flightseeing is an adventure in itself.

http://www.islandwings.com/bear-viewing-tours

Is August/September bear season in Katmai?

I know early July is, but that's when the salmon are running, which means the bears have a good food supply. You need to check into this. It would suck to dish out $700 pp for a bear viewing flight and see . . . just seagulls and some fish.

And yeah, the bear-viewing flights are expensive. High maintenance costs, high fuel costs, high cost of living, small window for earning money (summer tourist season) all combine for that. Our innkeeper at Homer said those flyboys are basically getting by with a decent living - they ain't living like Bill Gates.

thank you for all your replies, yes it would be a BIG disappointment to not see the bears up close and to spend the monies.

The best place to see glaciers has to be Glacier Bay National Park. You can take a boat cruise or a flight over the glaciers and your mind will be blown. There are also boat trips from Juneau that are almost as spectacular. You also almost always see bears on the boat tour, but not up close.

Here is a link that might be helpful. http://planetbell.me/2015/08/27/top-...n-glacier-bay/

Happy planning. Alaska is awesome.