Whales and bear tour in Icy Straight Point

[4cats,1dog]

I was looking at the whales,wildlife &Brown Bear Tour out of Icy Straight Point.

Has anyone ever done this tour the end of May? I e-mailed them to ask about seeing bears without Salmon? They said they come down from higher elevations for Clam Digging and Dandi-lions. What did anyone see this early in the season?

Is it worth the tour or just do whale Watch ?

[JimAOk1945]

We did this excursion last August. It was fantastic. We saw two bears and lots of whales. It was well worth the price!

[Courtmatt]

We did a bear search in early June in Icy Strait Point and we only saw one, from a long distance, across a lake. Our guide said to come back late June or July when salmon are running, for the best viewing.

[JimAOk1945]

We were so lucky that we went while the salmon were "running." The bears we saw were in a stream trying to catch the fish. Amazing!

My wife got some great pictures of the bears and the whales that we saw on our combo excursion.

[Arusha]

I did the whale watch and then the bear search at ISP this past May 31. Notice it's called a bear search - no guarantee of seeing bears.

 

Saw a few humpbacks. Saw no bears except for one that ran across the road as we were being bussed to the bear viewing site, and only a few people on the bus noticed it. Some folks on an ATV excursion saw bears, though! (The only bears I saw during my trip were 2 black bears from a crab boat in Ketchikan.)

 

The salmon runs don't start until July.

 

I was not disappointed, however. I enjoyed the narration by native tour guides on both the whale watch and the bear search, and the walk through the rain forest to the bear viewing platforms was nice. Next time, I'll visit Alaska later in the season!

[Budget Queen]

Chances are slim for bear viewing in May in Hoonah.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Just stay with the whale watching -- we have done it 3 times and loved it.