Skagway to Haines nature IE: bear tours

We will be on the Nieuw Amsterdam for a 3 day cruise and then 11 day land tour. I have looked at several tours that take the fast ferry to Haines and then do some nature watching. Our first interest would be bears and salmon. We will be there on August 22nd so that seems to be a good time. This will be a free day in Skagway as well so we will go to sleep there the night before and night after and have all day so no worries about catching a ship. I thought about putting something together myself as we will be staying a 5 minute walk from the fast ferry in Skagway but I think a tour might be better. Any help would be greatly appreciated if anyone has done something like this.

We took the ferry from Skagway to Haines to do the Eagle Preserve Float trip when we did our first Yukon cruisetour several years ago. We did not have an overnight on that trip and we did it as an excursion with HAL. We caught the ferry on a very foggy early mid-August morning. We could see nothing as we sailed down the foggy Lynn Canal. The Chilkat guides picked us up at the dock and we boarded an old school bus and headed out to the preserve. They gave us boots to wear in the small raft (it did get wet) and our guide pushed the raft (5 people) with a pole along the sand bars of the river. We saw a few eagles and some salmon were still in the river. I think there were three rafts in total. They fed us a sandwich lunch on the banks of the river before heading back to the dock. The skies were clear by the time we headed back to Skagway.

We have really enjoyed being in Skagway after all the ships were gone. We saw a bear eating dandelions along the side of the road when we rented a car to drive up to Emerald Lake on another trip. You will be taking the White Pass railroad and bus up to Whitehorse but you might enjoy renting a car and driving to Emerald Lake and back if you have all day. Different scenery and you can stop along the way. There is a lot to do in Skagway with National Park exhibits and great hiking trails for which you can get a map at the visitor’s center.

Last year we docked in Haines and did the Kroschel Wildlife Center excursion. Steve is an amazing character and his wildlife center is his passion. The problem with that ship excursion was too many in our group and he gave a guided tour so we needed to stay together.

Chilkat Guides is a great company with all local guides and they run a nature tour in Haines that focuses on bears and the Ckilkoot River in August. It is a great tour and the chance of seeing a brown bear is pretty good (I am 2 out of 3 for the last few years). They also use a spotting scope for an eagle's nest and look for other wildlife such as seals and birds.

Thank you for the suggestions. I think we will go with this company and tour. Skagway shore tours wildlife safari and bear viewing. If the weather is good we have a decent chance of seeing some bears. If not this will be day 3 of 14 and maybe we will splurge on a flight or something.