Grizzly Bear 6519 - A 2 1/2 year old cub stands in the snow/Stony Hill/Denali National Park/Interior Alaska/Fall/Film

July 12, 2026

Hi Everyone,

Earlier this past March, I took three days of online training that took a deep dive into bears and bear viewing. A fourth day of in-person field training is scheduled for early October on Vancouver Island.

Part of this training, was to keep a daily log of all bear sightings.

Since we have been going to only Mile 43 (the East Fork River) for the past few years, I have had more bear shutouts (meaning no bear sightings) than at any previous time beforehand.

In past years of traveling to the East Fork River, I hadn’t documented on a daily basis whether I saw bears or not, but bear shutouts had significantly increased.

This year, I wanted to document both bear sightings and shutouts. Additionally, I wanted to include species of bear (GB for grizzly bears), numbers of bears, location of bear sightings, time of day, short descriptions of bear behaviors, rough distance estimates as well as whether the bear was aware or unaware of the bus.

I am including one sighting (can be multiple bears) per day with multiple sightings having their own documentation on the same day.

Additionally, I would include the group size of my passengers who were riding on the bus.

Furthermore, this would include time starting and ending, although, I am not including pre and post tripping the bus or my hotel pickups/drop offs. This roughly shaves off about 3 hours from my total time of being on shift.

I felt this would give a more realistic view of how much time we are actually looking for bears and any other wildlife.

Currently as of July 11th, I have done 41 tours with 17 shutouts. This gives a ratio of 41% shutouts versus 59% bear viewing, although, there were a number of bear sightings at a great distance.

While this is an isolated instance (although, I think many other TWT/Transportation drivers are having similar results), I think next year when we return to Stony Hill (Mile 62), it will prove how dependent we are on the Highway to Grassy Pass portion of the park for bear viewing. Without this portion of the park, I believe bear viewing has been significantly crippled.

I do expect things will improve once we get into berry season and once things cool off.

Wolves:

I would do the same kind of documentation for wolves except, I haven’t seen any wolves so far this year and I haven’t seen a wolf in 2-3 years.

The Denali wolf situation perfectly illustrates how what happens (due to trapping and hunting) to the wolves on adjacent state lands in the winter has a direct bearing on the wolves themselves but additionally, on the visitor viewing of wolves.

A 1% chance (since 2019) of seeing a wolf is not a realistic opportunity for the thousands of visitors who come to Denali. Yet, the state gives trappers and hunters priority over all other users.

The only possibility of this significantly changing is for a moderate to progressive (on wildlife management) candidate to be elected to the governorship. This is all the more reason to vote this November for progressive/moderate candidates who actually care about wildlife and the visitor experience.

Finally, this documentation is on my own initiative and due to my own curiosity as to the ratio of bear sightings versus bear shutouts.

Legend:

Species Interact: GB for Grizzly Bear, BB for Black Bear

Interact Method: VE for Vehicle.

Interact Intensity: 1 - Low Intensity bear seemed tolerant of group’s presence or was unaware. 2 - Medium Intensity - Bears curiously approached group or exhibited stress requiring some guide action to diffuse the situation. 3 - High stress directed toward the group requiring the guide to diffuse the situation or the bear moved off.

Interact Closest Distance: Closest distance any bear was to your group: 1 = <20 meters, 2 = 20-50 meters, 3 = 50-100 meters,

4 = >100 meters

Group Size: Number in your group

Lastly, almost all travel arrangements (flight & rental car) have been made for my flying down to Victoria, BC on October 3rd. I am looking forward to this in-person training session as well as checking out Vancouver Island for the first time.

There is still a possibility of my driving down but this is dependent on gas prices not rising to stratospheric highs due to the dystopian insanity originating in Washington DC.

All the best.

Bill