Searching for Bears in Ketchikan, Alaska (Celebrity Cruise)

When my parents returned from their trip to Alaska a few years ago, I was as green with envy as Alaska is green with trees. The main cause of this bout of travel jealousy? Their photos of wild bears scooping up spawning salmon from a rushing river. These photos became the catalyst for my family’s Alaskan Celebrity Cruise. I just had to go see those bears! Here’s where to find bears near Ketchikan, Alaska.

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Bears near Ketchikan, Alaska

In Ketchikan there were several bear-focused excursion options. We chose one of the most economical, the Bear Country & Wildlife Expedition. Kids must be 12+ to tag along on this excursion, which is all for the best since it involves a lot of standing around not doing much and being fairly quiet…two things my children aren’t very good at. Instead, my husband and I walked through Ketchikan’s small downtown with our two kids (ages 5 and 8) before we checked them into our ship’s youth program for the afternoon so we could be free to commune with the bears.

After a half-hour bus drive, we arrived at Herring Cove, where we were met by an enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide named John. After some brief safety instructions, we bounded into the woods thrilled at the prospect of witnessing throngs of black bears scooping up lunch from a stream.

John led our small group of bear seekers through a 1-mile stretch of a 64-acre rainforest sanctuary, teaching us about bears and other animals along the way. The sanctuary is just one portion of the 17 million-acre Tongass National Forest, the world’s second-largest rainforest. Between four to six bears make the sanctuary their home.

Telltale signs indicated bears had recently been in the area. Salmon remains were strewn on rocks in the stream. John told us the bears prefer to eat the brains and stomachs, then leave the rest. (What gluttony!)

We traversed the first of a series of suspension bridges and then stood atop a platform for several minutes. My husband and I, along with a dozen or so other bear seekers, stood staring at the trees. “Look for any movement,” our trusty guide told us.

A long search

As our group glanced from the trickle of water with nary a live salmon in sight and back to the motionless trees, our hopes of witnessing bears in the wild began to dwindle. One of our fellow excursion-goers said, “It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack with six bears in 64 acres.”

John did his best to keep us all entertained with stories about bears seen on past treks, like the time a woman stood gaping at him, mouth wide open and pointing. He turned around to find a bear directly behind him, which led to John’s involuntary and extraordinary leap and scream that startled the bear into retreat.

We learned a whole lot about black bears that day. Did you know that they have animal medicinal awareness? They instinctively know which plants to eat to ease ailments of all sorts. For example, black bears eat artist conch, a fungus that causes constipation to keep from “wetting their beds” during hibernation. When they wake from their long winter naps they eat skunk cabbage to get things moving again.

Eventually we traversed onward to another platform where we stood and stared into the woods some more. John pointed out adolescent bald eagles in the treetops (lacking in their telltale white heads due to their youth). We also saw a bear’s hibernation den formed in the trunk of a tree.

Above us we heard the whir of zip-liners as they soared over our heads. “Why didn’t you sign us up for the zip-lining?” my husband asked.

I said, “Because we came to Alaska to see bears!”

A bear at last!

Nearly two hours into our bear excursion, there were no bears to be seen.  There was grumbling among the ranks when our guide received notice from another naturalist further up the trail…a bear was headed our way. We hurried to the next platform and within a couple of minutes a black bear came lumbering along and strolled past on the path below us.

One of the loudest grumblers said, “You just lucked out, John. If we didn’t see a bear, I think your goose wouldda been cooked, my friend.” Bear sightings occur on about half of all tours and are not guaranteed.

Tour extras

Our bear seen, we moved on to a few tour extras. We started with a brief visit of an abandoned sawmill.

The Alaska Raptor Center has mini outpost here, with a rescued owl and bald eagle. (The main facility in Sitka, Alaska houses 20 rescued birds.) These birds were injured as adults and therefore can’t be reintroduced to the wild so they live here as educational animals. Both are apex predators, meaning they are at the top of their food chain. The handler wore a sturdy glove lest her hand be crushed by their powerful claws.

We met five female reindeer that were rescued from a local sausage farm. John said that a bear came by the reindeer enclosure once but was driven off by the herd. The bears never returned.

Wayne the totem carver gave us a brief demonstration of his tools and methods for carving trees into sculptures in the traditional method.

After a short stint in the gift shop, where complimentary cookies and coffee were offered, we hopped back onto our bus for the ride back to the cruise ship.

Other Celebrity Cruise Line bear excursions near Ketchikan

The Alaska Bear Adventure sounds very similar to our Bear Country & Wildlife Expedition but the destination is reached via float plane rather than by bus. The Neets Bay Bear Cruise includes a high-speed boat cruise to Neets Bay to search streams and beaches near a salmon hatchery for bears. There were a few other bear-viewing options, all of which took place at Herring Cove (where we went) and Neets Bay.

Where else to see bears in Alaska

If you want to witness bears aplenty deftly scooping salmon from rapids, you may want to head to Brooks Camp at Katmai National Park. The bears at Katmai are brown bears (a.k.a. grizzly bears) whereas those near Ketchikan are the smaller and less aggressive black bears.

Most visitors to Brooks Camp arrive via float plane. My parents made their arrangements via the Internet through Inlet Charters Across Alaska Adventures in Homer, Alaska. My dad said, “Brooks Camp is located where the Brooks River flows into Naknek Lake. It’s an easy mile-and-a-half walk through the woods bordering the river to Brooks Falls and the elevated viewing platforms from which most of our pictures were taken. Our start was delayed for about 20 minutes because a couple of grizzlies decided to rest on the bridge across Brooks River. The bears have the right-of-way.”

Other Celebrity Cruise Line Ketchikan excursions

Am I glad I saw a wild bear in Alaska? Yes! Knowing what I know now, would I sign up for this excursion again? Probably not. Despite the gorgeous forest setting and educational tour, I would have preferred a faster-moving excursion.

Instead, I might opt the Rainforest Canopy & Zipline Expedition. From the sound of squeals and cheers coming from the trees above us, it sounded like an exhilarating way to experience the Tongass Rainforest.

If you are visiting Alaska with kids and looking for a family friendly excursion, I’d probably choose the Wilderness Exploration & Crab Feast for a boat ride through the Inside Passage to remote crab fishing grounds where tour-goers can help retrieve crab pots from the water. Then families are rewarded for their efforts with a Dungeness crab feast at the George Inlet Lodge.

Learn more

To prepare for seeing bears in the Wild in Alaska, be sure to watch the Disneynature Bears movie. Read my Disney Bears movie review now!

Have you seen bears in the wild? Where? Let us know in the comments below!

A Note from The Travel Mama: Celebrity Cruise Line hosted my family during our 7-night Alaskan Cruise aboard Solstice. We paid for all of the shore excursions ourselves. All opinions are mine, as always.

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