Chinitna Bay Bear Viewing

Chinitna Bay is a coastal bear-viewing area on Lake Clark's Cook Inlet shore, with broad beaches, salt marsh, tidal flats, and river estuaries. Make the trip when watching bears is the point of your day: most visitors arrive by plane or boat, then walk to established viewing areas. At times, as many as 20 coastal brown bears may be visible from one site, and the feeding activity changes with the season.

Most visitors arrive in a small wheeled plane that lands on the beach. Floatplanes are legal, but salt water and the bay's extreme tides make them difficult for many operators. A boat trip from Homer is about 60 miles each way and can take four to five hours, depending on sea conditions. Arrange the trip with a permitted operator and leave the landing and tide plan to them.

The nearest viewing area is a few hundred yards from the landing over sandy ground. Moving around the viewing area in search of bears can mean two or more miles across salt marsh and tidal flats. The eastern and western viewing sites are about 0.7 miles apart in a straight line. Stay at the established viewing areas, keep out of the closed sedge meadow beyond the river, and do not cross private land near the salmon streams.

A pit toilet is available at the easternmost viewing site. Eating is prohibited above the beach along the two-mile stretch east from Glacier Spit; keep any food with you or in an approved bear-resistant container.

Spring migration brings shorebirds onto the mud and sand flats. Dabbling ducks use the bay through summer, sea ducks peak around mid-August, seabirds nest on nearby Gull Island, and raptors are present year-round.

If you photograph a bear, leave some marsh or tidal flat around it so the feeding ground is part of the picture. The open beach, salt marsh, and mountain backdrop give this coast a broader frame than a close wildlife portrait, and the flats change with the tide.