Haines- Bald Eagle Preserve tour suggestions?

[dkata]

Cruising Alaska in August. Our ship docks in Haines (not Skagway). Any suggestions on local tours/outfitters to see the Bald Eagle Preserve. Don't really need a jet boat ride that the ship offers, but if that's all that's available.... Land (bus) tour a possibility, but is it as fun as the boat ride through the Chilkat Bald Eagle preserve?

[Budget Queen]

In my opinion, the "best" way is via raft, not the noisy jet boats. I've also driven with a rental car twice. Add to the mix, if you haven't toured Skagway, with a long port day, options there too. Do not expect any more eagles here, than other areas of Alaska- IF you care to make the effort and look everywhere.

[Trailblazer99]

If you're expecting to see lots of eagles, don't bother. You'll see more eagles in downtown Ketchikan than in the preserve - except in late Fall when the eagles arrive by the thousands.

[oaktreerb]

We had a great time on the float adventure in mid August four years ago. We were to be in Skagway and a friend suggested we take a ferry over to Haines to do the Eagle Preserve Float rafting adventure. Lynn Canal was totally fogged in as we sailed down to Haines. We arrived in Hanes and the tour operators bus picked us up along with a few other people. Then we made a stop at the Hammer Museum to pick up a seasonal worker (college intern) who wanted to take the excursion.

 

We headed out to the preserve which was pretty far outside of Haines. It was still pretty overcast but we got ourselves into the raft with a great bearded mountain man who was our guide and another guide who assisted . We saw a few eagles and learned to tell a young eagle from a fully developed eagle. It takes a couple of years for eagles to mature. There were eagles on the sandbars and in the trees but not a lot of them. The water was not deep. Our fearless bearded leader saw a salmon in the water and decided that he was going to catch it barehanded and take it home for dinner. He was leaning out of the raft trying to catch the salmon, I was yelling (no! no!). I did not want that salmon in our raft. Well, the fearless leader fell into the freezing shallow water, lost the salmon, and we ended up stuck on a sand bar. It took three men - our guide, his helper, and our hammer museum intern to pull us off the sandbar.

 

We got back to shore. They fed us sandwiches and we laughed about our adventure. Then we were taken back to Haines on the bus and to Skagway on the ferry (clear sailing). This was a ship excursion and we had a great time!