Icy Strait Point Bear Viewing Excursion: Seeing Bears in Hoonah, Alaska

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Our first stop on our Norwegian Encore 7 Night Alaska Glacier Bay cruise.

Our route has us heading north on the Chatham Strait (a 150-mile-long deep fjord waterway) heading to the Icy Strait Cruise Terminal (Hoonah, Alaska) - Alaska's only private cruise port.

Typical for late September in southeast Alaska: cool and rainy. In Hoonah, we expected a high of 50°F and low of 41°F. Historically, September is one of the wettest months of the year in the area, averaging nearly 9 inches of total rainfall.

We're in port from 3:00pm to 10:00pm. Love that! A nice long time to enjoy new surroundings.

We're sharing this cruise with friends who also happen to be our Arizona neighbors. At this port stop, though, we each had different cruise excursions planned—so dinner will be the perfect time to reconvene and swap stories from the day’s adventures.

Right off the gangway, a sleek whale-watching boat waits just steps from our cruise ship at Icy Strait Point. Nestled in Hoonah, Alaska, this port sits on Port Frederick—a deep, nutrient-rich inlet that doubles as a bustling feeding ground and migration corridor for humpback whales and orcas. Just 10 to 12 miles by water, nearby Point Adolphus joins Icy Strait to create one of Alaska’s densest and most celebrated humpback whale hotspots.

Only our 3rd time aboard Norwegian Cruise Line, but this will be an extended back-to-back cruise.

We are all enjoying cruise life during COVID, hence the masks.

Love the "Welcome to Icy Strait Point" illustrated map!

Walking through the Adventure Center, we were required to wear masks but not on our tour.

The Adventure Center is where you could book last-minute adventures and do a little shopping.

We headed on a short stroll to what's called the Excursion Hub as the pickup point for today's Wildlife and Bear Search Tour.

I really prefer the intimate vibe of small passenger-van group tours over the big-bus excursions—especially for the wildlife and bear search at Icy Strait Point. With fewer people, we can move more quietly, stop on a moment’s notice when a bear appears, everyone has a better view when wildlife appears, and enjoy a far more personal experience with our guide that large group tours simply cannot offer.

It was such a treat that our guide, naturalist, and narrator was Tlingit – "People of the Tides" – right here on Chichagof Island. What a wealth of knowledge he had.

Icy Strait Point itself is a small, privately owned tourist and cruise-ship destination tucked along the island’s coast.

As our tour van rolled along the rainy coastal Cannery Rd, we passed the Hoonah Veterans Memorial Sea Walk – a scenic 1.5–mile paved path that traces the shoreline, linking Icy Strait Point to the historic Tlingit village of Hoonah. It’s an inviting stretch for those who want to stroll the waterfront on foot, though I believe there's also a town shuttle that runs for a small fee if you’d rather ride. For us, we'd opt to walk for a chance to spot humpback spouts, flukes, or even breaches offshore, alongside eagles, seals, and sea otters... if we're lucky.

Take a glimpse of "The Tunnel" which used to be a solid rock cliff only passable during low tide. When the cannery first opened, workers blasted a man-sized passage straight through the rock so residents could move freely between town and the cannery at any hour. Wide enough for two people to walk side-by-side, the tunnel became a vital shortcut. Years later, the top was dynamited away, opening the route into the regular road we drive today.

Cannery Rd. eventually turns into Front St.

As our excursion van rolled through downtown Hoonah along Front Street.

A few of us spotted a single grizzly briefly crossing one of the old logging roads during our tour, which covered only about 30 miles of the more than 150 miles of logging roads in the Hoonah area on Chichagof Island—but it disappeared too quickly for any of us to grab a photo.

Did You Know: Chichagof Island

Chichagof Island picked up the nickname “Bear Island” after a National Geographic documentary shone a spotlight on its remarkable brown-bear density—one of the highest anywhere in the world. Year-round the bears (roughly 1,500-plus) easily outnumber the island’s permanent residents of about a thousand people. In summer that human-to-bear balance flips when cruise ships deliver hundreds of thousands of visitors through Icy Strait Point, but once the season ends and the bears settle into hibernation, the island slips back into its quiet, bear-dominated winter rhythm.

We headed towards the direction of Freshwater Bay where Kennel Creek (which flows into Freshwater Bay) sits on the main logging-road system south of Hoonah and is a regular stop or drive-through area for local bear-search tours.

Because Chichagof Island has one of the densest brown-bear populations in the world, bears frequently use the creek, its estuary, nearby tidal flats, and the roads themselves.

Never guaranteed 🤞 but to improve our chances, we're explored the area in the late afternoon, plus have our experienced local guide who tracked recent activity... adjusts the route based on where sightings have been happening. The only other advantage to improve bear sighting odds would've been to take this tour during peak salmon run season – July–early September.

We've traveled ~30 miles from the cruise port and I was curious about gas prices. It’s September 2021, and gas was $4.33 on the island. Alaska's Statewide Gas Average is $4.82 to $4.84 / gallon. (Update: As of August 2026) Regular unleaded gasoline on Chichagof Island—specifically in Hoonah, its largest community—costs $8.41 per gallon.

Freshwater Bay and Kennel Creek Ahead!!!

Looks like an immediate bear sighting! ❤️

What do we have here – a Weatherby Mark V which uses the .340 Weatherby Magnum cartridge – for large dangerous game.

Rain is still falling and here I don't see anything yet.

A few steps down and left towards the creek's edge and I spot the bear!

Did You Know: The brown bears living on Chichagof Island carry ancient polar bear DNA from historical interbreeding.

During the peak salmon runs that help coastal brown bears prepare for hibernation, adult bears on islands like Chichagof can put away a remarkable amount of fish. Large males often consume 20–40 salmon a day (sometimes more when the runs are strong), while adult females typically eat less—averaging around 24 pounds of salmon daily in similar Alaskan studies. Overall, these bears may take in anywhere from 20 to 90 pounds of salmon per day depending on their size, sex, and how plentiful the fish are. When salmon are abundant they become selective, focusing on the richest parts like the brains, eggs, and skin and often leaving the rest behind.

Oh... do you think the bear is roughly 70–100 yards away? I have no sense of distance.

Brown/grizzly bears are capable of short bursts of 30–35 mph. It would probably only take that bear 4-7 seconds to get to us. Of course, the rocky, wet tidal flat would slow it somewhat in real life, and the bear in the photo shows no interest in approaching—but pure speed-wise, it could close the gap very quickly.

Shhh. Be vewy, vewy quiet, I'm hunting wabbits salmon!

Watching a coastal brown bear work Kennel Creek was pure Alaska magic. Instead of chasing frantically after every fish, this clever grizzly simply stationed himself beside one of the shallow forks where the salmon eventually ran out of water. The moment a trapped fish started thrashing and flopping in the shallows, the bear’s head snapped up—he knew dinner had just announced itself. A few deliberate steps, a quick scoop, and the meal was his. It was an impressive display of patience and intelligence that left us in quiet awe of how perfectly these bears are tuned to their wild, salmon-rich world.

Check out Alaska's most iconic and widespread wildflowers - the fireweed in it's late-season "cotton" stage with its reddish-orange leaves and tall reddish stems. Gorgeous pop of color along the roadsides and stream banks.

We all piled back in the van as we were all getting pretty soggy but (very) satisfied on this Bear Search tour.

7:30pm returned safely back to Icy Strait Point.

Last-Minute Photo-Ops at Icy Strait Point

On the way back to the cruise terminal was the The Icy Strait Point Cannery Museum. It was a free, self-guided attraction housed in a restored 1912 salmon-packing facility. Easy to spot with its red wood exterior.

Alaska has 5 species of salmon.

1. Pink (Humpy / Humpies / Chaas')
The smallest species of Pacific salmon are often canned, dried and used in soups. 
2. Sockeye (Red / Gaat)
Highly treasured for smoking over alder wood... placed skin-down on grills or iron screens directly over glowing coals to crisp the skin while keeping the vibrant red meat tender. 
3. Coho (Silver / L'ook)
Often seen as salmon jerky to being used in casseroles or spreads. 
4. Chum (Dog / Keta “russian” / Téelʼ Tlingit)
Historically fed to sled dogs. Also, there's Kʼínkʼ - an acquired taste and traditional Tlingit food made from fermented salmon heads, often referred to as "stink heads." Would you try it?  
5. King (Chinook / T'á)
The largest of all Pacific salmon species, prized for its high fat content and rich, buttery flavor 

Bears primarily target the far more abundant pink and chum salmon although they'll eat any salmon they can catch.

A "Private Residence" at Icy Strait Point. How lovely.

Orca Dream – a striking sculpture created by celebrated marine artist and conservation advocate Wyland. The artwork stands in Keet Plaza, a name inspired by the Tlingit word for orca. The sculpture was presented to Huna Totem Corporation by Norwegian Cruise Line as a tribute connecting the area’s Indigenous Tlingit heritage with the importance of protecting Alaska’s marine environment.

Hoonah, Alaska's Extreme Tide Shifts

We witnessed Hoonah's extreme tide shifts today. The afternoon's high tide came at 4:31pm – 15.93 feet. Approaching low tide to hit around 10:55pm, the tide drops down to 1.16 feet. We now could see a beach which earlier we did not.

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