Fly up to Ketchikan and then hop across to Prince Of Wales Island and rent a pick up or a jeep. On a spring hunt (no brush) you can spot a dozen bears a day on the hillsides - take your pick. Rent a forest service cabin or just stay in a local motel.
Fly out to Kuiu island and you may see fifty bears a day, but no roads or jeep rentals or motels out there... Fifty bears sounds like an exaggeration, but it's not, Kuiu is just crawling with them!
That hound hunt in New Mexico sounds like a great deal if you want to hunt with a guide. An Alaska guide would cost quite a bit more than that.
I hunted black bears in the fall on Prince of Wales and we saw bears every day, even with all the brush up. I'll never hunt down there in the fall season again though, the brush is almost impenetrable - second growth after logging. Still, it's unbelievable just how many bears there are down there.
Keith