Waterfall Creek Bear Viewing near Juneau | Brown Bears Fishing for Salmon

I'm Matt Brodsky and I'm the lead guide with Wild Coast Excursions. I've been in southeast for seven years now. Everything about this place is special to me. The day of bear viewing at Waterfall Creek starts by taking a float plane from Juneau, taxiing up to shore, a nice rocky beach, grabbing all of our gear, taking a quick walk over to the creek. It's a pretty wild experience walking that little trail because you really feel like a bear could walk out at any moment. Once we get to the bear viewing area we settle in and we just wait for the magic to happen. Sometimes there's bears already hanging out fishing or playing with one another in the creek. Other times we get a few moments to actually sit there and kind of intentionally slow down and listen to the sounds and take it all in. The more that we allow ourselves to slow down there the more that things kind of pick up around us. There's no such thing as a typical day of bear viewing in southeast Alaska. Something that I always try to help people open their eyes to is the world that supports these bears. When we go out into these locations every day is a new day and there's new opportunities to see the world that's supporting these animals being there. Without the salmon, without the sedge, without the birds moving around to move seeds, the berries that they rely on, these bears might not be in this particular place. There's a greater picture than just the bears. Every day is new and there's always something exciting. Even for me, someone who goes out there super frequently, all it takes is the mindset to allow those things to click into place and to see that greater picture. We just kind of immerse ourselves in their world for three or four hours and get to see what they would do as if we weren't there at all. Waterfall is a special place that you can truly just be like a tree there. They will move around you and pay no attention to you. It's pretty incredible.