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Icy Strait Point Bears in June

MellyBell

By MellyBell,
in Alaska

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awestover89

awestover89

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, MellyBell said:

Thanks.  I was wondering if it’s worth spending the extra money to add the bear tour.

 

My personal verdict... I'm still on the fence if it was worth it or not. We did get a nice tour of the area and our guide was great with a bunch of stories, but the price was a bit steep. We also opted to book it ourselves, not through the cruise line to save a bit of money.

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disneyochem

disneyochem

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We did just a bear tour last year in the first week of June at ISP.  It was great!  Saw a number of bears.  Favorite part—saw a mama bear and her two cubs.  We got out of the van and watched them for about 30 minutes.  We were up on a road overlooking the trio—about 100 yards away.  Our driver had his rifle with him just in case.  

 

On the way back, we saw a bear rambling down the middle of the street in town.  Had to pull over and wait for him to mosey on out of town.  

 

Our Alaskan cruises are always in late May/early June.  I was concerned about being too early but I’m glad I spent the money! 

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cruisingnewtoit

cruisingnewtoit

Posted
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25 minutes ago, disneyochem said:

We did just a bear tour last year in the first week of June at ISP.  It was great!  Saw a number of bears.  Favorite part—saw a mama bear and her two cubs.  We got out of the van and watched them for about 30 minutes.  We were up on a road overlooking the trio—about 100 yards away.  Our driver had his rifle with him just in case.  

 

On the way back, we saw a bear rambling down the middle of the street in town.  Had to pull over and wait for him to mosey on out of town.  

 

Our Alaskan cruises are always in late May/early June.  I was concerned about being too early but I’m glad I spent the money! 

What excursion co did you use?

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cruisingnewtoit

cruisingnewtoit

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26 minutes ago, disneyochem said:

We did this tour: https://www.shoreexcursionsgroup.com/tour/bear-wilderness-wildlife/AKISBEARWILD3.  There were only 6 of us on the tour and our driver tailored the tour to what we wanted to do.  All of us wanted to see bears so that’s what he focused on.  It was a great experience.

Thank you I think next year when My DH & I go on our AK trip (2nd one for us) we are going to take private tours. I'm worried about getting back to the ship on time but the ship tours are so over crowded. 

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MellyBell

MellyBell

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13 hours ago, disneyochem said:

We did this tour: https://www.shoreexcursionsgroup.com/tour/bear-wilderness-wildlife/AKISBEARWILD3.  There were only 6 of us on the tour and our driver tailored the tour to what we wanted to do.  All of us wanted to see bears so that’s what he focused on.  It was a great experience.

 

Thanks I was going to ask what company you used too.  We don’t usually go thru the cruise line.  I will contact them.  Thank you so much.

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AlanF65

AlanF65

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On 5/14/2019 at 8:02 PM, MellyBell said:

We are looking at doing the bear and whale tour the end of June.  Will we see bears at that time or is it too early?

I was in Icy Strait Point today and had lunch with native resident Tlinkit bear guide. He said it was too early to see bears now but in 6 weeks when the rivers are running there will be plenty of fish for bears to feed and there should be plenty of bears.

 

That was his unsolicited opinion as he educated me about the history of the Tlinkit Indians and ISP.

Was just a great conversation that could have been better if his hearing aid batteries didn't die.

 

After that everyone heard our conversation.

So you should see bears.

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cruisingnewtoit

cruisingnewtoit

Posted
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2 hours ago, AlanF65 said:

I was in Icy Strait Point today and had lunch with native resident Tlinkit bear guide. He said it was too early to see bears now but in 6 weeks when the rivers are running there will be plenty of fish for bears to feed and there should be plenty of bears.

 

That was his unsolicited opinion as he educated me about the history of the Tlinkit Indians and ISP.

Was just a great conversation that could have been better if his hearing aid batteries didn't die.

 

After that everyone heard our conversation.

So you should see bears.

Thank you for the info! It definitely will be close. I think we are going about a week to early. Hopefully the rivers will be running well when we get there.

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AlanF65

AlanF65

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7 hours ago, cruisingnewtoit said:

Thank you for the info! It definitely will be close. I think we are going about a week to early. Hopefully the rivers will be running well when we get there.

Actually some of the people on a private tour saw bears yesterday.

 

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verobay

verobay

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We just did a bear watch tour in ISP the last week of May. We did see a bear (although it was off the side of the road, not at the official bear viewing platform they took us to). Our guide said out of 6 tours he did in the last two days, we were the only ones to see a bear :( He also said for about 2 weeks at the end of July/early August, the salmon are running and seeing multiple bears is basically guaranteed. But it seems like outside of the salmon run, your odds are probably less than 50%, maybe a lot less.

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pbenjamin

pbenjamin

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We did a bear tour booked through Alaska Shore Excursions on Wednesday 5/29. We saw a bear close enough to get some good pictures and a couple of others farther away. We also saw a few bald eagles. 

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