Chichagof Island Tour: Brown Bear Search

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.

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 was very friendly and informative. He gave lots of information about the two tribes on the island and told some interesting stories. When we reached the ocean we stopped to stretch our legs and take a short break - we were lucky enough to see 2 orcas in the distance. Back on the road to search for bears - we were about to give up because we had only seen poop signs that bears had been on the road. When we were almost back to town a cub crossed the road in front of us....then a bigger bear came out of the woods, it stayed in the road for a bit and then crossed completely but still stayed on the hillside. When stopped and watched it and the cub for a while and took some neat pictures.

Saw a bald eagle early. Then orcas in the bay, the 2 bears at the very end then a black tail deer. Driver Gary I think was very informative. This a long trip down twisty turny hilly bumpy dirt roads. Be ready for that. Better this one in a small van vs the large bus. Bring binoculars.

Our chief and guide was excellent. So very knowledgeable and great sense of humour. Was determined and patient to find us bears, which he did. A superb trip, best one we have done whilst on our Cruise. Thank you

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.

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.

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!

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.

Awesome tour. Our guide was Stew, also known as Bear1. He's the cultural leader for the Tlinket Raven Clan. He found the bears that no one else seemed to be finding. Loved hearing about his life and the organization of his clan as we searched for bears.

The guide could not have been better. This trip was not in an overloaded bus from the cruise ship but rather a nice van holding no more than 6 people. The guide spent extra effort finding the right spot where bears could or would be seen. I highly recommend this trip.

it was awesome our guide said they had not seen any bear in couple of days so we started out on our trip saw dear along the way came across a group who had just seen a bear cross the road waited did not see the bear so we moved on our guide said there might be some bears at beach so off we went when we got almost to the beach when we saw 4 big brown bears and a cub they were about 50 yards away got some great pictures of grizzly bears was a great sight see bear fishing for salmon

Of course, one always want to see many bears, but we were fortunate to see a bear with her cubs. Very impressive with Stuart our guide and his comments during the tour. Your representative was there to direct us to our tour, and it left in a timely fashion. We only had 10 people on our van, and certainly from a price point as well as not being herded like cattle into a large bus made this tour much more enjoyable.

Our guide was a chief of one of the Tlingit tribes, and had great stories about the history of his people, their culture and practices. Oh, and he found bears! Probably the best of our several excursions during the Alaska cruise