Photo Gallery Friday: Oswald’s Bear Ranch

Photo Gallery Friday is a regular feature on Travel the Mitten that will help showcase photos from places where one post just isn’t enough to show off everything.

One of our earliest posts here at Travel the Mitten featured an Upper Peninsula family favorite: Oswald’s Bear Ranch. This sanctuary for rescued bears is a great attraction for visitors of all ages as the Oswald family offers the chance to see more than 20 bears up close, all roaming in large habitats. There are many viewing platforms that offer the chance to get great photographs, and for an additional fee a great souvenir photo with a bear cub can be taken.

You can find out more about Oswald’s Bear Ranch at https://www.oswaldsbearranch.com/. Their site will have up to date hours of operation, pictures and videos of the bears, and more. The bear ranch is a frequent target of PETA and other organizations, but continues to pass USDA inspections without incident. The bears here are rescues and are given lots of space to roam around. Considering the alternative for many of these bears wasn’t too promising, we find it hard to have issue with a place that takes care of these animals and offers public viewing up close. Seeing the bears here could easily prepare someone for a Michigan backwoods encounter as you will know how big black bears can get, what foods they like to eat, what signs of aggression to look for, and what it sounds like when a bear is approaching.

Here’s a look at a few more of our favorite pictures of these magnificent mammals, because who doesn’t love pictures of bears?