When the first North American explorers pushed onto the Great Plains and eventually into the Rocky Mountains, they were greeted with a wilderness of overwhelming beauty. The explorers found plains and mountains seething with game, deer, elk and antelope were plentiful and it was here that they met a most formidable foe, the Grizzly Bear.

The Grizzly once ranged from the Sierras of Mexico to the Arctic Circle, but now is holding out in small pockets in Wyoming and Montana. North of the Canadian border, inland Grizzlies are plentiful and along the British Columbia and Alaskan coasts and islands lives the Grizzly’s first cousin, the behemoth Brown Bear.

The Brown Bear is essentially a salmon fed Grizzly and where an inland bear may top the scales at 400 pounds, the largest Brownies on Kodiak Island can reach 1500 pounds. During the salmon spawns, the browns congregate at the streams, gorging themselves on one of nature’s finest fares. The best places to view Brown Bears in Alaska are areas on the Katmai peninsula, Kodiak Island and the McNeil River. There are many operators offering bear viewing trips and due to the nature of the beast, an expert should be in attendance.