Visiting Pack Creek in peak season to view bears

[BrusselsGirl07]

My husband and I are visiting Alaska next year and high on our list of priorities is viewing wildlife and scenery. So much so, we booked our cruise around peak season in Anan Creek for the opportunity to see beautiful scenery from the air and also to see bears in the wild. This was the first excursion we reserved.

 

I have been reading and researching for months, and I love the posts on here where people swap details of the excursions they did. I pick out the ones I think we would love to do, and go off and research them and this always leads to other ideas for excursions!

 

For instance, I had read about a flight seeing excursion from Juneau to Taku Lodge, to see glaciers from the air, have lunch in the lodge and do some hiking in the area. But the thing that attracted me besides seeing the glaciers was that a lot of people saw bears! I posted on cruise critic asking for people's experiences of this excursion and got helpful feedback. But it made me realise that the main purpose of this excursion was the flight seeing and lunch, not the bear sighting opportunities, which did not always happen. And that if I did not see bears I would be very disappointed! So I have decided not to do this excursion (this time, anyway, as it still sounds great) and instead organise an excursion out to Pack Creek to see bears.

 

I thought others planning bear watching tours in Alaska may like to read my research so far on visiting Pack Creek in peak season. And I would love to hear from people who have done this trip, who you went with and any other details you think would be good to pass on.

 

*Peak time for bear viewing at Pack Creek is July 5 to August 25

 

*Permits are required to visit Pack Creek and there are only 24 permits per day allowed in peak season. 12 permits are available from a National Parks website for those wanting to visit on their own, and 12 are available from commercial guide companies that take tourists into the area - here is the link for permits:

http://www.recreation.gov/wildernessAreaDetails.do?page=details&contractCode=NRSO&parkId=72356

 

*There is no road to Pack Creek; access is by floatplane, motorboat, sailboat, kayak, or canoe only. Most visitors arrive by floatplane from Juneau.

 

*There are no bathrooms, shelters, cell phone access, and you can't take food in. There are bear proof lockers where you first arrive to store food in. So you really need to be prepared for whatever the elements are going to throw at you.

 

*If you come by float plane, you will need to walk through water to get to shore, but from what I have seen tour companies seem to provide waders or boots.

 

*Not all commercial tour companies are allowed to guide into Pack Creek in peak season (this surprised me). The National Parks website and the USDA website provides a list of those that are allowed to guide in this time. However, these lists are slightly different, so would be best to contact the company you are interested in and double check if they are allowed to guide into Pack Creek in peak season.

National Park site:

http://www.recreation.gov/marketing/html/Pack_Creek_Guide_List/PCGuideList.pdf

USDA site:

http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/tongass/recreation/natureviewing/?cid=stelprdb5401931

 

That is all so far, again would love to hear about the experience from others, or any extra details you could add. I am so excited to visit Alaska!!

 

Yvette