Alaska - accessible excursions to see salmon run?

[LindaKE]

Are there any accessible places in Alaska to see the salmon run, or, even better, the bears catching the salmon? We're thinking Alaska will be our next cruise, so I'm doing preliminary research. Fares are a lot higher in July and

August when the salmon run. If we're not going to be able to see that we may as well go earlier when it is cheaper.

 

I posted this question earlier on the Alaska forum, but realized that this would be the better place to get an realistic answer.

[katisdale]

We went to Alaska last September. We were on the last southbound cruise of the Island Princess. In Skagway we took the "Evening Wildlife Excursion". This is a semi-accessible tour. There was a long walk with steep ramps from the ship to the boat that transferred us to Haines. In Haines I was provided with a golf cart for the walk from the boat to the bus. The bus was a school type bus and I have great difficulty with steps but with lots of help made it on. The tour itself was fabulous. We saw over 100 eagles, lots of harbor seals, one whale and were within 20 feet of 5 fishing bears. We had our grandchildren with us and they are still talking about the bears. You have the option to get off the bus at a state park for a short walk to see a peat bog. I along with several others did not get off the bus.

[kitty9]

Unless you have some foot mobility, I've not found a bear watching excursion that's accessible. Many of the tours require quite a bit of walking over rocky/dirt surfaces and some can be steep. The same for the salmon runs.

[allentownahoy]

I would think you could see the salmon runs at Creek Street if someone could push your wheelchair. Don't expect to see bear there though.

 

I was recently in Ketchikan (no salmon yet) and was able to use my rollator to get from the ship to Creek St. with no problem.

[kyriecat]

The salmon are still running in September and the fares are usually a little more reasonable. I was there the first week in September of 2006 and saw plenty of salmon. However, the only bear I saw (outside of Denali) was on a rafting tour that was definitely not accessible. I know the national park in Sitka is accessible because my mom went there with us. We walked from the tender pier to the park, which was less than 1/4 mile away. There were some sidewalks but they were rough in places (might be repaired since) so we ended up walking along the side of the street. There wasn't much traffic so we felt safe doing this. The park has several trails that are accessible and has a bridge over the Indian River. I remember standing on the bridge and seeing salmon practically overflowing from the banks because they were so plentiful. The park trails are hard-packed dirt and rough in a few places but we didn't have much trouble getting mom's wheelchair through. The rangers told us that bears occasionally come by for fishing, but we didn't see them.

 

Here's a link to the Sitka park with maps and information.

http://www.nps.gov/sitk/planyourvisit/maps.htm

 

I know there was a bear watching tour available in Icy Strait but I didn't look into the accessibility. It was available through Royal Caribbean but I assume all the ships that dock at Icy Strait have something similar. If that is one of your stops, try calling the cruiseline to ask about accessibility.