Hyder, a small isolated village in Alaska, is the ultimate place for grizzly bear watching. During salmon migration season, grizzlies come to Fish Creek to feast on fish! In mid-August, the chances of spotting them are quite high. So we spent two days watching grizzlies fish for salmon in Hyder. It was a unique and incredible sight we won’t soon forget. Here’s a photo roundup from our long hours of waiting and watching grizzlies in Alaska.
Monday, August 15, 2022
Hyder is a nearly ghost town in Alaska. It’s so small and remote that the United States hasn’t even bothered to install a customs checkpoint there. From Stewart, in British Columbia, you can drive straight into Hyder, Alaska, without stopping or showing your passport. But we are not here to see ghosts, we are here to see Alaska’s grizzly bears! The salmon-filled river attracts all the bears in the area, who come for an intense and greedy fishing session. We are hoping for unforgettable encounters 🤞
We head to Fish Creek, located in Tongass National Forest. It’s a national fee area: $20 per person for a 3-day pass. We even booked our tickets a few days in advance. To safely observe grizzlies in Hyder, there’s a viewing platform along the river, elevated and enclosed with a latched gate. We check in with the rangers and enter, making sure to close the gate carefully behind us. A few visitors are already there, some equipped with enormous telephoto lenses. And now… we wait. Here, in the heart of nature, bears come and go as they please, so patience is key.
Two hours go by. We spend them reading and watching the salmon. There are thousands of them swimming through the stream, we’ve never seen such large ones. Silence reigns, so we whisper to talk to each other. Then, suddenly! A grizzly appears. He’s huge and muscular. He slowly walks upstream, salmon scattering in splashes before him. He ignores them until one isn’t fast enough. Then he lunges forward and catches it with his sharp claws. He grabs it in his jaws and heads to the riverbank to enjoy his meal. What a pro!
He’s devouring his third fish when suddenly, another bear arrives. The two eye each other. They size each other up. They approach slowly. What’s going to happen? Everyone holds their breath.
Suddenly, both stand on their hind legs… and start fighting. Wow! What a show. Swipes, claws, bites. A ranger tells us they’re actually two playful brothers just roughhousing. We spend over an hour watching them play-fight and fish together. Whenever one catches a salmon, he runs away with it so the other doesn’t steal it. These two brothers seem to be regulars at the river, we’re lucky enough to see them three times over the next two days! Whenever they get hungry, they’re back, fishing and play-fighting non-stop.
What a moment! The bears have truly given us some amazing memories during this Far North adventure. We have crossed paths with grizzlies while hiking in the Canadian Rockies, seen cubs nursing on a trail in Banff National Park, then got woken up by a black bear trying to get into our Jeep in Whittier, Alaska, watched them fish for salmon in Haines just a few days ago, and seen them cross the road and climb trees. And now we are watching them play, fight, and fish. So many adventures. So many memories!
Soon after, and to our delight, a third bear shows up! Or rather, a female bear: the mother of the two brothers. She is massive. Times are tough for her, though, as her now-grown cubs rule the river. When she approaches, she laboriously goes around them through the bushes. The brothers watch her but don’t get close. She heads off to fish further upstream.
By 9 p.m., night falls, and it’s time to leave the observation platform. To return to Stewart, Canada, we have to pass through the Canadian border checkpoint. The officer stops us, asks the usual questions, checks our passports, and let us pass. It’s pouring rain, so we stop at the only open restaurant in Stewart, where Rémi enjoys a good burger and I go for a warm butternut squash soup. Tomorrow, we hope to see more bears!
Tuesday, August 16
What wouldn’t we do to watch grizzlies in Hyder! By 7 a.m., we are back on the observation platform. In three hours, we see three bears: the same two brothers from yesterday and a black bear, who stays just long enough to catch a fish and vanish into the brush. We track his movement by watching the swaying bushes. Higher up, he reappears on the road, salmon in his jaws, waddling away. Some lucky driver is in for quite the encounter!
At 10 a.m., we reluctantly leave our observation post at Fish Creek. As amazing as the bears are, there is another nearby attraction: the stunning Salmon Glacier. A rough 4×4 trail leads to a high viewpoint over the glacier, which has retreated significantly over the years. It’s impressive.
On our way back down from the glacier, we spot another black bear, they are definitely everywhere! But we can’t leave Hyder without one last stop at the bear observation platform. It’s 2 p.m., and we wait two hours before one of the brothers shows up to fish. What a glutton! For an hour, we witness unforgettable fishing scenes.
By 5 p.m., tired from all the waiting, we decide to head back to Stewart. At the border, the officer recognizes us: “You were here yesterday, right?” “Did you see any bears?” He asks the standard questions, checks our passports, and then lets us pass. We head to the local campground to take a shower and eat. But by 8 p.m., we just can’t resist, we are back at the grizzly platform. It’s the perfect hour! And sure enough, within minutes, a beautiful grizzly appears. His fishing technique is less refined than the others’: he runs everywhere in the creek, in all directions, until he manages to catch a salmon. He’s hilarious. He offres us some excellent fishing scenes before vanishing with a fish in his mouth.
This time, it’s truly the end of our time at Fish Creek’s observation platform, our eyes sparkling with joy. We still can’t believe we had the chance to watch grizzlies fish for salmon in Hyder! We do a quick count: five bears in Hyder, plus a sixth one spotted along the road near Salmon Glacier. That brings our total to 61 bears since the start of our trip! Wow! That sounds like a huge number. In the car, I joke: “I bet we’ll see number 62 any second now.” We round a bend and bam, bear 62 is there, wandering along the roadside. We burst out laughing.
At the border, the officer exclaims, “You again!” By now, he doesn’t even bother with the usual questions: “Nothing new?” he asks before checking our passports and waving us through. And just like that, we leave Alaska for good, not without a heavy heart. We have had so many adventures in the 49th state, and it’s hard to say goodbye to this chapter of our journey.
Yukon and Alaska have left us with a deep love for the great outdoors, so vast and wild that it’s hard to truly grasp. Such immense and unspoiled spaces can only inspire humility. We have adored this boundless nature, the breathtaking landscapes, the Alaskan glaciers, the Yukon tundra stretching all the way to the Arctic Ocean, and of course, the unpredictable and magnificent wildlife. Our journey through the Americas is just beginning, but we already know that Yukon and Alaska will remain one of the most unforgettable parts of our adventure 😊
Now, we’re heading south, while promising ourselves that we will return one day to roam the wild lands of the North. And in fact, we’ll fulfill that promise sooner than expected. After reaching Ushuaia, we will make a little detour back to Yukon and Alaska before heading home to Montreal. That’s right, almost exactly two years from now, we will be back in Hyder to watch the grizzlies again! But in the meantime, we are excited to explore southern British Columbia, starting with the stunning Wells Gray Provincial Park!
