Denali Grizzly Bears

A selection of Denali National Park grizzly bear images showing a variety of different behaviors and includes cubs, subadults and adult bears.  

I have added a number of newly scanned, processed and cropped film images from Denali's past to this gallery in January 2025. Most of these images were taken in the 1990's or early 2000's. These older images are essentially time capsules from Denali's past with many of them never having been shown before. 

Each image is captioned with activity, location information and season. 

Many of the images in this gallery were taken while on Professional Nature Photography permit (although, not all). This permit system existed prior to 2010 and allowed professional nature photographers to drive their own vehicles into Denali to take nature related images. 

With close bears (50 feet or closer), photographers had to be adjacent to their vehicles which meant an arm's length away. This was to allow a photographer to quickly take refuge inside the vehicle if he/she needed to. In later years, this would later be changed that if a bear was 50 feet or closer to a vehicle, that the photographer had to either be inside the vehicle or on top of it. 

Having this system provided a much needed degree of safety when taking bear images.

The Professional Nature Photography Permit system ended in 2010 with the implementation of the Vehicle Management Plan. Now, most if not almost all of the long term, experienced professional nature photographers who use to travel to Denali no longer do so. 

Prior to this, Denali had a reputation has being one of the most difficult National Parks to photograph in and it is even more so to this day. 

While any photographer can take a Transportation System Bus to access the park, it doesn't meet the needs of serious photographers who need more flexibility than what this system can provide. 

Taking images outside of an adjacent vehicle allows one to photograph bears far more safely, from a variety of angles, photograph a variety of unique behaviors and it allows one to spend lots of time with one's subjects. It further allows one to spend the time to photograph in the late evening/early morning of the "sweetest of light". 

Consequently, none of the images that I have taken in Denali were from a bus.

More grizzly bear images will be added in February from my two trips to McNeil River in 1989 and 2002. So, be sure to check out the McNeil River Grizzly Bear Gallery beginning in mid-February.