Haines - Chilkoot Lake Kayaking

[ussminnow]

Hello! Has anyone done Princess' Alaska shore excursion to Haines, AK for kayaking on Chilkoot Lake? If so, how was it? Would you recommend it? Thank you!

[Treven]

I did a photo excursion that included Chilcoot Lake. I don't recall that there was a kayaking excursion - there certainly may have been one. At my age/size I wouldn't have been able to get in/out of one of their little boats. If I can manage it I'll try to post a couple pix I took at the lake.

[Treven]

http://treven.smugmug.com/Haines-AK/i-99cx89v/0/M/DSC00251-M.jpg

http://treven.smugmug.com/Haines-AK/i-6fmjrfn/0/L/DSC00252-L.jpg

http://treven.smugmug.com/Haines-AK/i-98T7hxf/0/L/DSC00262-L.jpg

 

Hope this works - well I guess it sort of did!

Edited July 19, 2015 by Treven

[iceleven]

We rented a car and drove over to the river and watched a group of kayaks come in. Just a little bit further up the river, where the kayaks don't go, we saw a mother grizzly and her baby catching salmon. They were no more than 50-60 feet away. You might ask your guide if you can get out at that location just to stretch your legs. It's a really beautiful part of Alaska and lots of wildlife to see.

Edited July 19, 2015 by iceleven

[iceleven]

http://treven.smugmug.com/Haines-AK/i-99cx89v/0/M/DSC00251-M.jpg

http://treven.smugmug.com/Haines-AK/i-6fmjrfn/0/L/DSC00252-L.jpg

http://treven.smugmug.com/Haines-AK/i-98T7hxf/0/L/DSC00262-L.jpg

 

Hope this works - well I guess it sort of did!

 

Those are beautiful pics, Treven. When we were there it was warm and sunny but your pics with the low clouds is actually quite beautiful.

[Treven]

Those are beautiful pics, Treven. When we were there it was warm and sunny but your pics with the low clouds is actually quite beautiful.

Actually we did stop back up the Chilcoot River for a "photo op". Our tour guide is/was a local professional photographer who does these tours. He was very knowledgable about the locale and took us to places in the area where he liked to photograph.

 

Glad you liked the pix.

Edited July 20, 2015 by Treven

[ussminnow]

Thank you for the feedback and for the photos! Very beautiful and inspirational! I read some comments that Chilkoot Lake wasn't that exciting but based on your photos, it looks really scenic. Thanks again!

[Thrak]

I looked up the Princess excursion. The description is located HERE. It sounds pretty good actually with the tour of Fort Seward, etc. My wife and I may well look into this one if time allows when we hit Skagway next June. Of course, being a Princess excursion, it is overpriced but sometimes one just feels like ignoring that fact and doing the excursion anyway.

Edited July 20, 2015 by Thrak

[iceleven]

I looked up the Princess excursion. The description is located HERE. It sounds pretty good actually with the tour of Fort Seward, etc. My wife and I may well look into this one if time allows when we hit Skagway next June. Of course, being a Princess excursion, it is overpriced but sometimes one just feels like ignoring that fact and doing the excursion anyway.

 

The R/T ferry ride from Skagway to Haines is around $36 per person and is quite beautiful. If you are not necessarily 100% interested in the kayaking you could rent a car for less than $100 and tour the area on your own. You must book the rental ahead of time as they do get booked early. We didn't find the town of Haines at all interesting but if you are a real history buff, you probably would. We are more interested in seeing the wildlife and there is an abundance of it in Haines. I guess most of this info can be found in the Alaska forum.

Edited July 20, 2015 by iceleven

[Treven]

Thank you for the feedback and for the photos! Very beautiful and inspirational! I read some comments that Chilkoot Lake wasn't that exciting but based on your photos, it looks really scenic. Thanks again!

The lake was one of our guide's favorite photo stops, he said he takes every group there. It was very impressive.

[Treven]

I looked up the Princess excursion. The description is located HERE. It sounds pretty good actually with the tour of Fort Seward, etc. My wife and I may well look into this one if time allows when we hit Skagway next June. Of course, being a Princess excursion, it is overpriced but sometimes one just feels like ignoring that fact and doing the excursion anyway.

That may very well why I didn't see anything about a kayaking excursion. The cruise I was on didn't go to Skagway, but instead stopped at Haines. We did stop at the old fort, with a lot of the buildings (housing in particular) still in use.

 

If anyone is interested, all my photos of the Alaska cruise can be found at

Edited July 20, 2015 by Treven

[geoherb]

We booked an independent kayaking excursion to Chilkoot Lake on our first cruise to Alaska. It was great. We met a rep from the excursion company at the fast ferry in Skagway. The ride to Haines is very scenic. The ferry captain had to stop at one point because a whale surface right next to the ferry.

 

Once in Haines, we rode a bus to Chilkoot Lake. The excursion company had other passengers on the bus (many of them from the World cruise ship) doing other excursions, such as riding ATVs. We were the only ones kayaking. We ended up with a private guide and individual kayaks. It was great. We saw Royal Caribbean passengers doing an excursion. They were in tandem and triple kayaks with around seven or eight kayaks per guide. We were able to go farther, see more, and spend more time on the lake than they did.

 

Our excursion did not include lunch, but the bus driver dropped us off at the Bamboo Room. I had Dungeness crab. Then we walked back to catch the ferry back to Skagway. We still had a little bit of time to walk around there before heading back to the ship.