Icy Strait Shore Excursion: Small Group Bear Hunt
3.0
8 Ratings
Hoonah
When you dock at Icy Strait, close to Hoonah, you’re in for a memorable shore excursion. Ready for a bear hunt? This four-hour tour gives you the opportunity to see brown bears, Sitka black-tail deer, and other wildlife in their natural environment, against the stunning backdrop of the final frontier.
Duration:
4 hours
Cancellation:
1 day
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Highlights
- Hoonah - National Geographic have named the area as the “Bear Island”, this tour offers you the highest concentration of bears in the world at 1-2 brown bears per square mile. To get the most from your tour ashore this is offered as a small group tour making it more enjoyable.
- Icy Strait - The Island offers ten different kinds of edible berries along with a stunning view of a muskeg, viewing an old growth forest, and possible chances of viewing the king of the island: brown bears. Using information on current bear movements, their feeding habits, and the temperature throughout the day, there are short stops at key points to scope out an amazing view of these captivating creatures.
Our well renowned guides will share information about the area and the Tlingit Native population. During the tour you are pretty much guaranteed to see a host of other wildlife that are quite often spotted during our tours, including mink, marten, bald eagles, sea birds, red squirrels, otter, beaver, ducks, and Sitka black-tail deer. So be sure to bring your camera.
Please note: Wildlife sightings can never be guaranteed. However, this tour can re-position quickly, and there is a much higher chance of sightings with our small group tour than any other slow moving large tour groups.
What's Included
- Local guide
- Driver/guide
- Port pickup and drop-off
- Small Group size of max 12 people
What's Not Included
- Food and drinks
Additional Information
- At time of booking, Cruise ship passengers must provide the following information at time of booking: ship name, docking time, disembarkation time and re-boarding time
- We can also accept hotel guests on this tour.
Location
Hoonah
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Customer Ratings
3.0
(8 Ratings)
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Gregaustex
Aug 15, 2022
Great bear watching experience! - This was one of the highlights of our trip. Our guide Gary took us to "bridge #3" and we watched a mama grizzly and her cub catch four salmon. I know that not everyone will see a bear on this excursion, but we were very fortunate to watch this pair for over 20 minutes just a few feet away. A fantastic experience!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Asm284
Aug 13, 2019
Highlight of our holiday! - I think this is now called Alaska Shore Excusions Icy Strait Exclusive Wildlife and Bear Search Tour.
We had a fabulous experience on our bear and wildlife tour. We went out with Hotshot as our driver and he knew so much about the area and bears and their way of life. The tour is four hours which is good as it allows time to drive a long way to quiet spots where your driver knows there are bears in the area. We spent a long time not seeing any bears - only a deer and bear tracks, scat and trail through the grass. We were getting resigned that we might not be lucky when one of the passengers called out she had seen something. There we saw a bear! He crossed the creek, crossed the road and back into the creek where he caught a salmon in front of our noses and our cameras! We couldn’t have been happier. Hotshot was ready with his gun, but we felt quite safe watching the bear from the bridge over the creek.
The ride is in a fairly battered minibus so try and sit near the front for a better view and to hear the commentary. Don’t forget to take some water as there are no snacks or water provided.
Altogether a great experience - the highlight of our whole holiday.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Trisham731
Jul 1, 2019
Hookah & Chichagof Island - My mom & I went on a bear hunt excursion with Luke & had a wonderful time. Luke gave us a lot of information about Hoonah, it's history, & what it's like to live there as well as information about the Tingass National Forest. It was only my mom & I on the tour which was nice. It was unseasonably warm when we went so we didn't get to see a bear. Luke said the time of year we went normally has over 90% chance of seeing a bear but they were all hiding from the hot sun the day we went. We did get to see a mama deer & it's baby fawn that Luke said was probably only 1-2 weeks old. We also saw an Eagle chasing a Hawk. We saw an eagle in its nest which was really cool! Lastly, just driving around the beautiful island & Tongass National Forest was so wonderful. There is never a guarantee you will see bears so while we were hoping to see at least one we were not too disappointed.
It just would have been an added bonus! Highly recommend this tour even if bears are not seen!!
Review provided by Viator
Marty
Jun 24, 2019
Too early in the season - Levi gave us a nice tour of the island and we were lucky to see three bears. Had we not, it would have been a disappointing day.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Heathertraveler2019
Jul 4, 2019
Too early in season - We had a very nice guide who attempted to find us bears during our 4-plus hour tour. Although we spent a long time looking for bears, we regretfully did not see any wildlife during this long excursion. I think it was probably a little too early in the season. Also, I would not recommend this tour if you are prone to neck/back issues. We were seated in the very back of an 8-person van which was extremely uncomfortable. If we had seen some wildlife, it would have been more worthwhile. The guide did everything humanely possible to find us a bear (spending over 4 hours with us), but I wished I had done a whale-watch excursion instead.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
U2054idnancya
Jul 20, 2022
Disappointed! - We paid $129/1 person for the Icy Strait Bear & Wildlife Tour. It was a 3 hour ride in a van on very rough (washboard) roads. The tour was too long and no refreshments given. We did not see any bears and only 2 deer. That is a lot of money for basically nothing. The driver and asst. were nice but it got old riding w/o seeing anything but trees. It seemed like since the salmon had not arrived, it would be very hard to find bears and it was . Like I said, we no none! Don't waste your money on this excursion.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Phuketfoody
Jul 11, 2022
Unbelievable - Could not believe boyfriend of owner hit disabled man. I was totally shocked when boyfriend of owner struck disabled deaf man of 77.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Justdoit121
Aug 28, 2019
Too many trees to see bears - We didn’t see any bears but if they had been there we wouldn’t have seen them because we were driving so fast. A long drive with lots of trees.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
