“Many. Bears. Coming!” our guide, Shawn Eggleston, said with quiet urgency. Within moments, a young female grizzly appeared from around a bend, galloping downstream 50 feet away. A second sprinter emerged, wide-eyed, glancing over her shoulder as she ran. Their antagonist, a powerful older sow, chased behind, sending water flying. What set the elder off is a mystery, but it was clear she meant business. The youngsters were not welcome near her. Digging her front paws into the sand, she let the two adolescents slip into the dense sedge. Unfazed by the humans eyeing her, she returned upstream, vanishing from view. I could finally exhale.
Few experiences match the thrill of locking eyes with a predator a few yards away, then watching it carry on as if you’re part of the scenery. Fortunately, the bear’s indifference is aided in part by responsible wildlife viewing. If guides carefully monitor and limit visitors so they only observe but don’t disturb the wildlife, the presence of humans doesn’t alter the animals’ natural behavior. Ethical tours are achieved with small groups, maintaining safe distances, and trained guides who understand an animal’s behavior. Together, they play a critical role in protecting both wildlife and people.
Luckily, you don’t have to travel far for such experiences. These three all-inclusive, small-group adventures pair stunning destinations with expert-led bear viewing for some of North America’s most responsible and unforgettable wildlife encounters.
Grizzlies in Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska
Known for of Fat Bear Week, Katmai National Park also has less-crowded places to see grizzlies in their natural habitat.
Photo by Susan Portnoy
- When to go: July through early September
- Tour: 7 days (begins in Kodiak)
- From: $11,495
The world’s largest protected population of grizzly (a type of brown bear) lives in Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska. Many know it for Brooks Falls, made famous by Fat Bear Week, where in 2024 more than two-thirds of the park’s 55,000 visitors crowded the platforms to watch the bears feast on salmon.
On Katmai’s wild southeastern coast, however, guests of Natural Habitat Adventures, a partner of World Wildlife Fund, observe brown bears in near solitude on shimmering tidal flats and aqua bays.
Nights are spent in a modest four-cabin converted crabbing boat called Ursus. Skiffs ferry travelers ashore for twice-daily outings, where it’s common to see half a dozen or more brown bears dotting the coastline, snorkeling for salmon or grazing in sedge.
Guides such as Eggleston place observers on sandbars at least 150 feet from the charismatic carnivores. But salmon have no boundaries, and bears in pursuit often wander close enough to count droplets clinging to their fur.
Here, grizzlies don’t equate people with food—as opposed to populated areas where alluring smells forge a connection—and have learned to tolerate humans, thanks to decades of naturalists adopting nonthreatening practices. Maintaining a quiet calm, Eggleston says, allows bears to focus on their needs: “We curtail our behavior so as not to change theirs.”
Polar bears in Northern Manitoba, Canada
In Churchill, you can venture into the snow or watch polar bears from a reverse zoo—where humans are the ones locked up—at Seal River Heritage Lodge.
Photos by Susan Portnoy
- When to go: July through August (summer) and September through November (winter)
- Tour: 7 days
- From: $18,095 CAD (about US$13,137 per person, double occupancy)
Located on a remote peninsula along the northwestern rim of Manitoba’s Hudson Bay, the eight-room Seal River Heritage Lodge sits directly in the path of a polar bear migration route.
Unlike tundra buggy tours elsewhere in the Arctic, Seal River guests head out twice a day on foot, single file, accompanied by three guides. “We don’t want to be this big mass of humanity marching across the tundra toward a bear,” says Jessica Day, a naturalist at the lodge. To the bear, a large group walking side by side might be “perceived as a threat.”
Guides aim to maintain at least a 100-meter (328-feet) buffer, but curious creatures don’t always comply. Often, simply calling out “Hey, bear!” is enough to halt a wanderer. How close the guides allow a bear to approach depends on its behavior.
It’s not uncommon for bears to linger near the lodge, where visitors can watch the animals from decks. Secure behind a fence, it feels like a zoo in reverse, with people peering out while the white giants look in.
In summer, the bears glow against a palette of blues and greens with daytime temperatures swinging from T-shirt to fleece-level. In winter, breath crystallizes in the air, and the animals resemble pale apparitions in an otherworldly landscape of snow and ice.
Spirit bears in the Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada
Gribbell Island has black, brown, and even white spirit bears.
Photo by Susan Portnoy
- When to go: August through mid-October
- Tour: 8 days
- From: $12,350 CAD (about US$9,895 per person, double occupancy)
Aboard the 12-cabin catamaran Cascadia, guests of Maple Leaf Adventures explore the Great Bear Rainforest, a protected wilderness the size of Ireland shaped by tidewater inlets, forested peaks, and scattered archipelagos. Each day offers the chance to spot wolves, sea otters, humpback whales, and bald eagles both from shore and at sea.
And true to its name, the rainforest is home to thriving populations of brown and black bears, and it’s the only place in the world where you can see Kermode, or Spirit Bears, a rare white-furred subspecies of black bear sacred to the local First Nations. The largest concentration lives on Gribbell Island, an ideal location for sightings. Maple Leaf teams with guides from the Gitga’at Nation, whose members protect and manage the habitat, for a full-day bear-viewing experience.
The excursion begins with a quarter-mile walk through a narrow, forested path, leading to elevated platforms overlooking a 100-foot wide river. This stretch is favored for its shallow water, numerous rocks, and fallen trees that trap salmon in small pools, like fish in a barrel. It’s just a matter of waiting until the bears arrive.
