bear watching from Ketchikan
 

I notice that Taquan Air offers a tour to Anan and another one called Alaskan Bear Adventure (not sure where this one goes). I've heard also about tours that go to Hyder to bear watch. Does anyone have advice regarding bear watching tours out of Ketchikan or whether this is even a worthwhile endeavor?

It makes a big difference on WHEN you go. I found ANAN just excellent, peak season end of July through August. Neets Bay is great too, but peak is August -beg of Sept. There is also Traitor's Cove which is about the same as Neets. These are all ball park, the tours run outside of these dates, but when I'm paying big bucks, I want peak activity. I have driven to Hyder- it has no longer the activity it used to, so I would verify sighting stats for last year. I believe Taquan's bear adventure is a new location that in the past, isn't as "popular" with the bears as the tried and true above.

We'll be in Ketchikan all day July 31 and August 1. It sounds like Anan might be our best bet. There's another flyer in Ketchikan who offers a trip to Prince of Wales Island.

From Ketchikan you can reach Margaret Creek Fish Ladder - Located 26 mile north of Ketchikan in Margaret Bay/ Traitors Cove - a great place to watch a bear fish!

Anan is located some 27 air miles southeast of Wrangell and 60 air miles northeast of Ketchikan on mainland Alaska's Cleveland Peninsula. Several air and boat charter services order trips to Anan from local communities.

Be prepared for your visit; rubber boots and rain gear can make your trip more comfortable, even in the middle of summer.

Beginning in July, Anan Creek hosts a major run of pink salmon. By the end of the month, the creek is generally alive with thousands of fish. The average observed escapement (the number of fish that make it back to the creek) is 150,000 pink salmon!

The Anan-bound fish that don't make it back contribute heavily to both sport and commercial fisheries. Although pink salmon are the most plentiful, the stream also contains chum, chinook, coho, and sockeye salmon, Dolly Varden, steelhead, and cutthroat trout.

The abundance of salmon attracts high concentrations of black bears, bald eagles, harbor seals and a number of brown bears which gather to feed on the migrating and spawning salmon. All this activity makes for exciting viewing and picture taking. People from around the world have come to enjoy the unique experience Anan offers.

The presence of such a vast fishery has a history of attracting people to Anan. The Tlingit people and, later, those of European descent awaited the arrival of the fish runs with much the same anticipation as the bears and their avian partners.

At Anan you'll find a Forest Service public recreation cabin, bear observatory, and a partially surfaced mile-long trail connecting the two.

Anan Bay Public Recreation Cabin, situated at the head of a small cove in Anan Bay, is the District's most popular cabin. Reservations must be made well in advance. The cost is $20 per night.

The Observatory may be reached by a trail from either the Anan Bay cabin or the mouth of Anan Lagoon; hiking distance is about 1 mile from the cabin and 1/2 mile from the lagoon over an easy to moderately difficult trail. The Observatory, an open-sided shelter with a spacious wooden deck, sits on a rock bluff above a set of cascading falls. The falls provide ideal fishing sites for the bears, making the Observatory an exceptional spot to watch and photograph the wildlife.

Because the falls pose a partial barrier to the migrating salmon the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the USDA forest Service built a fishpass tunnel in to help the salmon in their journey upstream. The fishpass opened only during times or extremely high or low creek levels, when the fish are unable to navigate the rails.

tom22,

Thanks for the great information. I've printed it for my files.

Would anyone recommend a particular vendor for a trip to Anan? Any bear tours available in this year's toursaver book?

Hi,

I assume, that a customized trip towards Annan Creek is quite pricy.

Check also prices for the other bear viewing locations close to Ketchikan (Dog Salmon fish pass & Margarite Creek Bear Viewing observatory platform).