Homer to Brooks Falls Flight?

[garyl62]

We've got a free day in Homer and are considering a trip to Brooks Falls.  We will be there the last week of July so I believe that will still be a good time for the bears feeding on salmon making their run.  It seems like the prices are all around $850 PP which is a lot more than we really want to spend for a one day excursion.  If anyone has some experience doing this I'd love to hear about it.  Was it a high point of your trip, something you thought was nice, or did you think you could have done something else for the day and been better off?  Everyone's opinion is different, but it's nice to hear from someone who has done it before.

[Northern Aurora]

Some companies to research on TripAdvisor include Emerald Air, Smokey Bay Air and Alaska Bear Adventure.  

[cw2go]

On 1/25/2023 at 9:35 PM, garyl62 said:

We've got a free day in Homer and are considering a trip to Brooks Falls.  We will be there the last week of July so I believe that will still be a good time for the bears feeding on salmon making their run.  It seems like the prices are all around $850 PP which is a lot more than we really want to spend for a one day excursion.  If anyone has some experience doing this I'd love to hear about it.  Was it a high point of your trip, something you thought was nice, or did you think you could have done something else for the day and been better off?  Everyone's opinion is different, but it's nice to hear from someone who has done it before.

 

 

I have done bear tours with island Wings out of Ketchikan, amazing! 

 

Bear tours are very pricey and Brooks Falls tends to be a BIG ticket item. I want to mention, I've seen a few posts by you for Alaska and I don't want to come off as pushy but want to urge you to quickly secure your tours. I was too late for several this past October. I've sailed Alaska multiple times, I believe they're still very limited with tour operators as I have never had this in my previous experience. 

 

I saw your post regarding the land tour portion with celebrity, I can't help with that but if possible and interested they are running Denali flights out of Talkeetna. I was able to grab that for this July. When I spoke to K2 Aviation he did mention they're selling out in many areas super early this year.

 

Patty  

[garyl62]

Thanks Patty.  You're right, the Brooks Falls is pricy, that's one of the reasons we're trying to figure out how many things we'll do. No reason to feel "pushy" as we understand the advantage of booking early.  We've already booked everything we're doing on the cruise portion of this trip, and with the info I'm learning we will be able to book any extras we intend to do on the land portion in the next few days.  So far (within the past couple weeks) when I've checked availability everything we're interested in is still available.  I have been mainly concerned about the land portion and how many extra trips we'll have time to do so we figure out if that Brooks Falls will be an option too.  Appreciate the feedback for Island Wings.

 

Gary

[cw2go]

Rusts Aviation and Katmai Air also do Brooks Falls trips out of Anchorage but they will be more expensive than your $850 price point out of Homer. 

 

Will add they also have other bear tour option that looks great.

I haven't been to Brooks Falls but have read it's super crowded and sometimes you'll wait in line for the platform. Can be a long day! 

 

Patty 

[islandchick]

Brooks Falls is Amazing!!!!!!! I stayed there for a couple of nights. We saw tons of bears. It was a experience I will remember forever.  If you can swing it then you should go. You do have to walk about a mile (flat) to get to the viewing platforms so make sure everyone in your group is capable of that. 

Edited February 6, 2023 by islandchick