Kodiak Bear Tour

Arrive in Kodiak

Today is the first day of your trip. If you choose to arrive early, one of our local representatives will accompany you to explore Kodiak’s native and Russian heritage at some of the local museums and visitor centres. Destinations of interest may include the National Wildlife Refuge Visitors Centre, St. Paul Harbour, Baranov Museum, Alutiiq Museum, Holy Resurrection Russian Orthodox Cathedral and Fort Abercrombie State Historical Park. After your cultural day, head back to your hotel to meet your fellow travellers at an informal orientation dinner.

Wildlife watching in Kodiak

Today you head out with the group to explore Kodiak’s coastal waters and rocky shorelines on a private boat trip. You will journey to Kodiak’s protected inner island, past tidal pools and offshore kittiwake rookeries. Here you will spot sea lions, otters, puffins, bald eagles and oftentimes whales. Kodiak is remote and therefore not often visited by travellers to Alaska. This gives you the chance to have unique encounters with nature and wildlife as you glide through the rockbound coves. Enjoy a picnic lunch ashore and spend some time on the coastal trail, lined with wildflowers and Sitka spruce trees. This evening you will have a gourmet home-cooked dinner aboard the boat.

Kodiak - Katmai National Park

Today, depending on the weather conditions, you will take a floatplane from Kodiak to Katmai to meet your ship. Once you board the plane, you fly west over Kodiak's steep green mountains and across Shelikof Strait to the Katmai Peninsula. The plane pulls up right alongside, and you disembark to board the vessel that will be your floating home for the next few days. Cruise slowly along the coast, where you commonly find coastal grizzlies, or brown bears, foraging for food. As you are on a ship, you can cruise to wherever the bears are residing that day, following them from bay to bay.

Overnight: Grizzly Cruiser / M/V Ursus (B, L, D)

Explore Katmai on the Grizzly Cruiser

Explore the beaches on foot and see them putting on a show as they fill up on enough protein-rich food to prepare them for a long winter in hibernation. The bear activity you witness will vary according to the season, weather conditions, and timing of the salmon runs, but there's always something riveting to watch. You may see bears fight to capture salmon in their jaws, trying to seize spawning fish that make their way up the streams flowing over the intertidal area. As omnivores, bears also dig for clams and mussels in the sand and browse on protein-rich sedges. Depending on the time of our visit, you may even see bears mating or cubs gallivanting on the shore. In coastal Katmai you will travel on foot rather than using vehicles which allows much more exciting wildlife encounters. Carefully wander the area in your small group under the cautious guidance of your Expedition Leader. On Day 7 you will return to Kodiak by floatplane.

Overnight: Grizzly Cruiser / M/V Ursus (B, L, D)

Katmai National Park - Kodiak

Return home today from Kodiak. We recommend that you do not book an early morning flight out in case inclement weather prevents you from flying back to Kodiak on Day 7 as planned.