The National Forests Where You Can Watch Bears Fish For Salmon

There are few wildlife spectacles more thrilling than a bear lunging into a churning stream to snatch a leaping salmon clean out of the air. And some of the very best seats in the house sit inside America's national forests, specifically the two enormous ones up in Alaska, where wooden boardwalks and observation platforms put you astonishingly close to the action. Here are the national forests where you can watch bears fish for salmon.

Anan Wildlife Observatory, Tongass National Forest

Deep in the Tongass, the largest national forest in the country, Anan Creek hosts one of the biggest pink salmon runs in all of Southeast Alaska, and where the salmon go, the bears follow. What makes Anan genuinely special is that it is one of the few places on Earth where you can watch both black bears and brown bears working the same stream. A half-mile boardwalk leads to a covered observation platform and a photo blind overlooking the cascading falls, where bears snag salmon just feet from where you stand. Reachable only by boat or floatplane from Wrangell, it has been a fishing spot for the Tlingit people for thousands of years. Peak season runs through July and August.

Pack Creek, Tongass National Forest

On Admiralty Island, a short floatplane hop from Juneau, Pack Creek offers a front-row look at Alaska's coastal brown bears. The Tlingit name for the island is "Kootznoowoo," meaning "Fortress of the Bears," and it earns the title: somewhere around 1,500 to 1,600 brown bears live here, more than in the entire Lower 48 states put together. Visitors watch from a viewing spit and an observation tower as the bears amble along the tidal flats, graze on sedges, and splash after salmon in the creek. It is one of the healthiest brown bear populations anywhere on the planet.

Fish Creek, Tongass National Forest

Near the tiny town of Hyder, Fish Creek serves up both brown and black bears, lured in by a run of some of the largest chum salmon known anywhere, fish once so enormous that they were mistaken for an entirely separate species, plus a run of pinks. A raised viewing platform and boardwalk keep visitors safe while Forest Service staff on-site explain the action. Bears turn up from mid-July through mid-September, and because the site sits on the road to the spectacular Salmon Glacier, it makes an easy add-on to a scenic drive. Reservations are required to visit.

Steep Creek, Tongass National Forest

If flying out to a remote island is not your style, Steep Creek is the easy option. Located right beside the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center just outside Juneau, it lets you watch black bears fishing for sockeye salmon from an accessible boardwalk, all with a shimmering glacier as the backdrop. It is about as convenient as bear-and-salmon viewing gets in Alaska, with no floatplane, boat, or long hike required, which makes it a perfect stop for cruise-ship visitors and first-timers.

Russian River Falls, Chugach National Forest

Over in the Chugach, Alaska's second-largest national forest, Russian River Falls on the Kenai Peninsula is the most road-accessible bear-viewing spot of the bunch. A moderate 2.4-mile round-trip hike from the campground leads to an elevated wooden deck perched above the falls, where both brown and black bears gather to pluck sockeye salmon out of the air as they leap upstream, across two separate runs from June through August. Because you can actually drive to the trailhead, it is a longtime favorite of independent travelers and locals alike. Wherever you go, though, remember the golden rule: you are the guest here, so keep your distance and let the bears fish in peace.