As the crisp autumn air descends and the aspens turn gold, many of us are still looking for outdoor adventures before the peaks are covered in snow. For those in the right places, bear watching is one of them. Why is fall one of the best times to see these magnificent animals?

Bears are preparing for winter hibernation and have entered a state of hyperphagia—a relentless drive to consume large amounts of food. They are singularly focused on finding food to build up the necessary fat reserves that will sustain them through the long months of sleep. During this period, bears travel widely, which can increase the chances of human-bear encounters. The annual salmon run, which occurs at the end of summer and the beginning of fall, is another major draw, attracting both black and brown bears to rivers and streams.

The same is true for polar bears. October and November are the best times to watch them as they migrate to the coastlines, patiently awaiting the formation of sea ice for their primary seal hunting season.

This raises a crucial question: Are you prepared, and do you know how to react if you encounter a bear? And no, I didn’t mean taking a selfie with a bear in the background!

Our recent trip took us to the stunning landscapes of Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. As avid hikers, we were eager to explore.

Our first stop was Alaska Basin, so we drove to the Teton Canyon trailhead. While driving along Teton Canyon Road, we were greeted by a black bear in the middle of the road. She paused, looked at us for a moment, and then ran off to the side and into a thicket of trees. Peering into the woods, we saw two more pairs of eyes watching us. It was a mother bear and her two cubs. She didn’t see us as a threat and vanished into the woods, her cubs quickly scrambled down to follow.

We live near Lake Tahoe and backpack often in the Sierra, so we’re accustomed to black bear encounters. But the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem presents a different challenge: grizzly country. We love watching wildlife, but always from a very safe distance. In September 2021, we were lucky enough to see a grizzly from the edge of Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park and took some great pictures. Although we had bear spray and knew the safety tips, would I want to bump into one on a narrow trail? Probably not.

After a few days in the Grand Tetons, we drove to Yellowstone National Park. This time, we were primarily interested in wildlife. We asked a ranger about grizzlies, and she pointed us toward Pelican Valley, Lamar Valley, and Hayden Valley. We decided on a short hike on the Pelican Valley Nature Trail. We noticed that some trails, especially near Avalanche Peak, were posted with warnings, as bears frequent the area in the fall to feast on whitebark pine nuts. (As we learned later, the recent bear attack happened in this area.)

After our hike, we drove to Lamar Valley to watch bison herds, planning to camp nearby and return in the morning. As expected, all park campgrounds were full, so we found a free site outside the park near Cooke City. A board at the entrance read: “Hard-sided camping only. No tents.” It was unexpected but doable. We stored all our gear in the bear box, ate our freeze-dried dinner, and crawled into our SUV for the night. I recalled similar restrictions in Canada near Banff. It wasn’t until later that we learned the chilling history of that very spot: the campground where a grizzly sow with two cubs killed one person and injured two others in July 2010.

We spent three days exploring the Lamar and Hayden valleys and were very lucky to see both black and grizzly bears, as well as wolves. 

As many of you know, grizzly bears once inhabited a wide range of North America, with a peak population exceeding 50,000 bears. But hunting and human-bear conflicts decreased its number to 1,000 in 1975.    

Now, Alaska is home to around 30,000 grizzly bears.  The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is estimated to have 1,030 grizzly bears, and Glacier National Park is home to approximately 300 grizzly bears.

The black bear population is more widespread than the grizzly bear population, and you can find them practically in every state. 

In contrast, polar bears are only found in Arctic regions, and the chance to encounter one is very slim, even in those regions where they still exist. There is a special law prohibiting you from walking or hiking there without a firearm, like in Svalbard (Norway) or Churchill (Manitoba, CA).

Here is a fun map of different bear habitats:

Although bear attacks are rare, they do happen. And sometimes, a bear can attack more than once. In October 2016, a grizzly attacked hiker Todd Orr twice. Miraculously, he survived and was able to get back to his car and drive to the hospital.

Around that time, Yellowstone National Park launched its “A Bear Doesn’t Care” campaign to promote carrying bear spray and bear safety.

Here is the list of very recent grizzly bear attacks and encounters:

• August 22, 2025, British Columbia, Canada: grizzly bear encounter
• August 26, 2025, Alaska: grizzly bear attack  
• September 16, 2025, Yellowstone, Wyoming: grizzly bear attack.  It was the park’s first grizzly attack since May 2021.
• September 24, 2025, Alaska: grizzly bear attack   
• September 30, 2025, Idaho: grizzly bear attack  

Grizzlies are most active at dawn and dusk, so if you want to minimize the chance of an encounter, it’s wise to avoid hiking during those hours.

Very rarely, black bears can also attack people, especially if it’s a bear with cubs. Katie Jackson, a writer for Outside magazine, describes her recent black bear encounter in Montana. 

It was during our visit to the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem, as well as reading the news, that we realized how valuable real-time, community-sourced information about recent bear sightings could be. As I searched online, I couldn’t find much, so we built an iPhone app for that. If you‘re willing to try it out, it’s free and available on the App Store, named BearAware. It’s the very first version, so any helpful comments/feedback are welcome.

And while you’re still hiking to catch a beautiful fall foliage, don’t forget to brush up on the bear safety tips.

Photo tour