Charles
Wohlforth All
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Wildlife
Viewing
Question:
What is the
best destination to see browns bears for visitors on a budget?
Those
incredible pictures
you see of brown bear catching salmon from a waterfall come from a few
places
in Alaska where bear viewing is
absolutely
fool-proof: KatmaiNational Park, Kodiak Island, the McNeil River
State Game
Sanctuary, and Pack Creek, on Admiralty Island. Each of these places
requires a
float plane or other travel that cost at least several hundred dollars
per
person to get to where the bears congregate. Denali National Park
doesn't have the same near certainty
of seeing bear, but I've never missed seeing at least one grizzly on a
trip
into the park, and these bus safaris cost only around $30 per person.
The
attraction isn't an exceptional concentration of bear--Denali's Interior location
isn't
especially rich biologically--but the National Park Service has managed
the
park well to protect wildlife viewing opportunities. That means the
only way
into the park is on a many-hour-long bus ride, as private cars would
spoil this
park just as they have so many in the Lower 48. Without being
intimidated by
tourists in cars, the animals carry on naturally while buses drive by.
Also,
most of the park is above treeline, so you can see the bears from a
great
distance.
