Bear watching in Haines/Chilkoot Lake?

[andant]

Hi all, I have a question about our stop at Haines. We were thinking of going by ourselves to Chilkoot Lake in hopes to see some bears. We arrive there on August 6th. Is it doable in the morning, right after we dock at 6:30am, or our chances of seeing bears increase in the evening? Also, if it's worth it, what would be the best way to get there? A cab?

 

Thank you!

[karatemom2]

I would suggest renting a car. We did this on our last visit to Haines and it was nice to be able to explore outside of town at our leisure. There is an Avis at the Halsingland Hotel which is an easy, if somewhat uphill walk from the dock. We drove out to Chilkoot Lake where we have seen bears in Haines before, but we were bit too early. It was a pretty warm afternoon. We heard that several bears were spotted later that evening on the Evening Wildlife excursion. And we talked with one of the shop owners in town who had been seeing bears regularly during his evening fishing excursions out at the lake. So late afternoon into the evening may be your best bet.

Edited July 13, 2014 by karatemom2

[fleckle]

I would suggest renting a car. We did this on our last visit to Haines and it was nice to be able to explore outside of town at our leisure. There is an Avis at the Halsingland Hotel which is an easy, if somewhat uphill walk from the dock. We drove out to Chilkoot Lake where we have seen bears in Haines before, but we were bit too early. It was a pretty warm afternoon. We heard that several bears were spotted later that evening on the Evening Wildlife excursion. And we talked with one of the shop owners in town who had been seeing bears regularly during his evening fishing excursions out at the lake. So late afternoon into the evening may be your best bet.

We rented a car too and saw bears at dusk along the Chilcoot River by the weir, as well as out at Chilkoot Lake.

 

It is easier to do if you are on a cruise ship that docks in Haines instead of needing to rush to catch the last fast ferry of the day back to Skagway, the way we did.

Fortunately for us, our ship that day was docked in Skagway at the Railroad dock, right beside the dock the fast ferry uses.

 

[andant]

Thank you all for your advice!

 

Anybody has any experience with bear watching on Chilkoot Lake in the mornings, say 7am?

 

And one more question: how long should we allocate for this? Of course, we can probably spend the entire day there, but is it doable in, say, 2 hours -- go to CL, spend an hour there, and come back to Haines? We were planning to also go to Skagway, and trying to decide on how to organize the day and which ferries to take...