Heading To A National Park? Do You Know The Difference Between A Black Bear And A Grizzly?

Visiting Banff and Jasper National Parks in Alberta, Canada, offers lots of wildlife viewing opportunities—often where you least expect them.

Along the Icefields Parkway (Highway 93)

Less than a half mile ahead of us, a cyclist straddled his bike by the side of the road and pulled his phone out. After staring into the wooded area for a few minutes and taking a quick pic, he remounted and continued his trek north. My husband and I looked at each other. Pay dirt! We knew we were about to experience our first wildlife encounter on the famous Icefields Parkway in Alberta, Canada!

The Icefields Parkway (Highway 93) is a two-lane highway that cuts through Banff NP and Jasper NP, linking the towns of Lake Louise and Jasper. The 144 miles are known for fantastic scenery and wildlife sightings. Although driving straight through takes about 3 hours, you need to plan a full day and start early to see all the route has to offer. You’ll see glaciers, glacier-fed streams and lakes, and waterfalls, plus there’s a good chance you’ll see wild animals like elk, bears, deer, and moose. You’ll want to take a few short hikes, or you’ll miss some of the best views. Driving the Icefields Parkway is one of the best days we spent vacationing in Banff and Jasper National Parks. But let’s get back to our sighting.

We pulled over, and no more than 15 feet from our car was a bear!

FOLLOW PARK RULES!

Bears are wild animals, so keep your distance and never feed them. They can be unpredictable and potentially dangerous. In the spring, they wake up hungry and, if female, may have cubs nearby. If you’re on the road when you sight one, STAY IN YOUR CAR.

Don’t do what many other visitors do and get out of the car to take a picture! We saw a lot of this behavior with people getting mere yards from these animals. One tour guide told us he had seen a father try to put his young child on a bear’s back. Now, perhaps this was a total fabrication on his part. Who knows? The fact that I wasn’t stunned about the possibility of some idiot thinking this move was wise says something about how ridiculous some people are with WILD animals. The stories coming out of Yellowstone NP alone have me questioning the intelligence of many in our species.

A Close-Up Experience

We watched from inside our car as the bear meandered along the edge of the woods along the highway from one branch of berries to the next. Paying no attention to cars stopping for a look.

Berries are the biggest forage for bears in the fall, and August is berry season in these Canadian National Parks. Berries are prevalent along the roadways where there is sunshine, so it’s a great time to see bears without hiking into the backcountry. That said, we would have missed him had it not been for the cyclist because the Icefields Parkway speed limit is 55 mph.

Was it a Black Bear or a Grizzly?

Here’s another camera angle of the same bear. (Photo: Erik J. Kramer)

The chart below highlights the key features that distinguish a black bear from a grizzly bear.

Both types of bears might be seen along the Icefield Parkway, particularly in Jasper NP, so either was a possibility. I think it was a black bear in retrospect because a few days later, we saw a bear that was decidedly a grizzly with a distinct shoulder bump and more extended claws than this one. But I’m no expert. Thankfully, the only time I’ve seen multiple bears up close was at Brooks Falls in Katmai NP, Alaska, where grizzlies come to feast on salmon in July and September, and there are gated viewing platforms.