Explore Sitka’s Wild Side

Explore Sitka’s Wild Side

The water and land surrounding Sitka is justifiably known for its’ abundant and diverse wildlife. Does your Alaskan dream include an experience with one of the largest mammals on earth, the brown bear, or a brief encounter with the quintessentially cute sea otter on a shore tour? In Sitka, your dreams are within reach.

Aside from whales and otters you can expect to find seals, sea lions, otters, and a large variety of sea birds including puffins, rhinoceros auklets, murres, and black oystercatchers. On shore, bald eagles are plentiful and hunt from tall Sitka Spruce and hemlocks. In town, they can be seen perching on the steeple of St. Michael’s cathedral. Brown bears can be spotted grabbing salmon in their powerful jaws from freshwater streams and the appropriately named Sitka black-tailed deer forage in the forest for food.

Fortress of the Bears

A personal favorite of mine is to make a visit, to the Fortress of the Bears to get up close and personal with coastal brown bears a refuge for orphaned bear cubs that would otherwise face euthanasia. This sanctuary that makes use of the clarifying tanks of an abandoned pulp mill, allowing visitors to see bears at play in a controlled environment. This is an opportunity to get within 25 feet of Alaska’s distinctive brown bear, sometimes called a grizzly, in a naturalized setting. This ¾ acre habitat is Black bear at the Fortress of the Bears.

Located about five miles from town, set against the Tongass National Forest, and accessible by the city bus. Currently, 2026, it is open from 10 am to 2 pm and admission is $28 per adult.

Alaska Raptor Center

A can’t miss experience, if you are a birder, or even if you are not, is The Alaska Raptor Center, this sanctuary that helps to rehabilitate injured raptors and release them back into the wild. For those birds that cannot be released they are retained on site to be educational birds. The center hosts bald eagles, great-horned owls, golden eagles and red-tailed hawks to name a few. The Alaska Raptor Center is open to visitors daily from 8am to 4pm, last admission for the day is at 3:30 pm. You can walk

to the center by trail through the Sitka National Historic Park and get a glimpse of some pretty spectacular totem poles at the same time. Or take the Blue or Green bus line to the town center.

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