Excursion à l’île de Chichagof : recherche de l’ours brun

I absolutely loved this tour. We got to to see a mommy bear and her 2 cubs. She was just walking on the street. Then we went down to a river and saw a couple more bears. I would highly recommend this tour.

What a great tour, we had a fantastic guide who explained everything perfectly. We were a small group which allowed us to get on and off the bus frequently and we were fortunate enough to witness a bear catching fish and wandering around the rivers edge. It was truly a memorable occasion and would recommend this trip.

There were six of us on this beautiful tour of Icy Strait. The guide, Stu, was very informative. We didn't see any bears, but the forest, the trees, the shoreline, were all wonderful to see. I would definitely suggest this trip being done in the early morning, if possible. The bears are more likely to be viewed, but then again, they are wildlife and come and go as they please. We all did enjoyed this tour. Thank you for a great afternoon.

Our guide provided a wealth of info about the area and about bears. Unfortunately, we didn't see any bears. Might have had something to do with the two kids in our group who, when hiking in an area where 4 had been spotted that morning, felt compelled to wade/splash around in the stream where numerous salmon were. The only negative about the tour was that the guide repeatedly overshared about conflicts he was having with his partner, brother, & supervisor.

Mark was an amazing tour guide for his beautiful island. The history on the island as well as his own personal Native American history was both sad and fascinating. We didn’t get to see any bear, but the scenery was breathtaking and he worked so hard looking for them. We did get to see a Sitka deer and a beautiful bald eagle in her nest.

I want to preface this review with that I understand that wildlife is wildlife and there is no guarantee that you will see anything on a wildlife tour. That said, although I'm disappointed that we saw no bears, i get it. They weren't out when we were driving around. We DID see deer and eagles, though, and that was really cool! As for the tour itself, we were not very impressed. We were in a van with 12 other people and Alaska was unseasonably warm. The van was hot and stuffy and sitting in the back row, it was hard to see anything that our guide was talking about. The AC was not prepared to keep up with the weather and even after numerous people asking if he would roll down the windows, he would roll it down about 3 inches for about 3 minutes and roll it back up. The history of the island and the Native Americans of the area was interesting and informative, but it was a 3 hour tour and he was only able to talk to us for about an hour before riding in silence for the rest of the tour. We were told that they had radios to keep in contact with the other vans in the case of a bear sighting, but I don't remember him ever using them. Instead, he would pull over and roll down the window to talk to the other drivers when we would pass them. We paid almost $800 for 6 people to go on this tour and felt it was not a good use of our money. To be completely honest, if we were to do an Alaskan Cruise again and have a port call at Icy Strait Point, we'd stay on the ship. Hoonah is a tiny little town and although the history is interesting, it was expensive and the port shops were overpriced compared to other port calls on our itinerary.

While there is not promise to see a bear, they try hard to see something. We saw deer, including a fawn, and when we didn't see any bear, we went to a harbor to see whales, which also didn't show. We retuned at a fast clip, and half way back, w member of our tour shouted BEAR! We backed up, but there was no more bear to be seen. We continued at a fast clip, and then BEAR!! This time we backed up and the biggest bear was just munching away. We watched it for a while and then headed back. The driver gave us an option to go back or be dropped off at Hannoh, as the shuttle back to the ship was free using their tour. Driver was informative about bears and his eskimo culture and struggles with the Icy Point Corp. Sadly the different tour companies are not cooperative nor friendly with each other. They do not share bathrooms nor information on bear sightings. A different experience than what we had in Ketchikan where everyone worked together for guests and their experience. The negativity and non friendly behaviour kinda tarnishes the experience. So while we saw a bear (very cool) we are unlikely to return to Icy Point.

Though we saw nary a bear (too early in the season, no salmon running), Gary was extremely informative, telling us great stories about his family and their culture. Highly recommend!

Gary was a super guide. He cannot control the wildlife, but we saw three brown bears. One of them came right up to our vehicle before turning into the woods. We loved it.

Finding our tour operator right off the ship was super simple. We were greeted by our driver Stu as soon as we showed up to the tour Excursion area. Stu made the tour excellent. He is an Alaskan native with tons of history and experiences to share. He is also a Tlingit cultural leader. Having a local tour guide really can make all the difference. Our tour began with a short drive through town and then into the forest. we quickly came across 2 bears and we were able get out of the van to watch them for a good period of time as they slowly made their way from one area to the next. Unfortunately then a local with their barking dog scared them off. So then we headed out to a different area to try and find the mama and her cubs that had been spotted the previous day. Unfortunately we weren't able to find them, but we did see some other Wildlife... deer and eagles. During the search for bears Stu is constantly providing interesting information about the culture, bears, other wildlife, and also the natural medicinal value in all of the plants that you are seeing on the tour. Very interesting. We then made our way back to the area where we saw the two bears earlier and we were able to spot them again just a little ways from where they previously were. So we got out of the van again to watch them until they trotted off into the forest. Then we were able to get pictures of an eagle that was resting on a mound about 20 yards from where we were. Awesome. The only thing that I didn't like was that we didn't get out to do any hiking through the forest itself to get to see the wildlife. The tour is strictly done by driving in the van to the areas where the bears typically will come out of the forest to get water, munch on vegetation, etc. However, with that being said at least the van is very comfortable and small with only about 10 people in your tour versus the cruise ship buses that we saw that have 40 + people. Overall this was a great experience and Stu did not disappoint.