Red Dead Redemption 2 – Find the Grizzly Bear and American Black Bear

In Red Dead Redemption 2 bears are some of the fiercest fauna in the vast world, but they’re also some of the most rewarding to hunt. If you hunt bears in Red Dead Redemption 2, you can take the bear pelts to trappers to craft various upgrades, so they’re essential if you want to unlock everything in the game. It can often be tricky to find bears in Red Dead Redemption 2, but fear not. We’ve done the hard work for you and scouted out some confirmed locations of both American Black Bears and Grizzly Bears in Red Dead Redemption 2.

American Black Bear Locations

Watson’s Cabin

Just west of Wallace Station is a Watson’s Cabin on the north side of Big Valley, West Elizabeth. If you look at your map, you can find American Black Bears right above the W in “Watson’s”. It’s a forested area with a lot of rocky terrain, but on our first visit, we found two American Black Bears not too far from one another.

A great way to approach this area is from the west, by Hanging Dog Ranch. We found it to be slightly more open, and we got sight of both bears before they saw us by carefully approaching on horseback. They both fled from us at first, so you may have to track them down to get a clean shot. When you do manage to track them down, have a look at our guide to finding the Trapper so you can make use of your newly acquired pelts.

Grizzly Bear Locations

Watson’s Cabin

Don’t worry, you’re not reading that wrong – you can also find Grizzly Bears by Watson’s Cabin. They’re typically to the east of the cabin while the American Black Bears are to the west; you want to be looking almost directly north-west of Wallace Station. When we went in this direction to find a Grizzly Bear it actually killed us, so they definitely spawn here although we haven’t managed to take one out yet.

Tall Trees

When you head down to the Blackwater part of West Elizabeth, there’s an area called Tall Trees to the west, across the Great Plains and past Manzanita Post. As you can tell from the map, the area is pretty big but Grizzly Bears can spawn here. They tend to roam around here, so we can’t pinpoint the exact location like we could at Watson’s Cabin but comb the area and you’re sure to find one eventually.

O’Creagh’s Run

If you’ve already been hunting with Hosea during one of the very early companion quests, you’ll remember the area around O’Creagh’s Run as where you hunted down the legendary Bharati Grizzly Bear. Turns out the legendary beast isn’t the only predator roaming around this area as you can also find standard Grizzly Bears around the lake. Take your time here as they often come down to the lakeside to hunt fish and other local animals. This is also the final treasure spot for the Jack Hall Gang Treasure quest so why not kill two birds (or bears) with one stone and do that while you’re here too?

Watson’s Cabin is the only American Black Bear location we’ve found so far, although there’s definitely more. When we find them we’ll update this piece but in the meantime, check out our collection of guides in our Red Dead Redemption 2 game hub.