Traitors Cove Bear Viewing in Ketchikan booking from $499.00

Traitors Cove Bear Viewing

Overview

Island Wings Air Service is owned and operated by Alaska veteran pilot Michelle Masden, who started flying in 1977 and began her business in Ketchikan in 1993. Island Wings takes the time and makes the effort to help you realize your Alaskan dreams. Share our love of flying through our vast Alaskan wilderness. Experience the freedom of flight over the wild grandeur of the mountains, the islands and the endless sea. In business since 1993, Island Wings takes the time and makes the effort to help you realize your Alaskan dreams. Our focus is the quality of your experience. From the handling of your reservation, to the equipment we operate, to the places we visit; we don't compromise and neither should you. The total time for this tour is 4.25 hours including: the flight, three hours onsite at Traitors Cove Bear Viewing Observatory, and fifteen minutes for the pick-up and drop-off.

City: Ketchikan

Mon 04 Nov

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Starting at $499.00

Make a reservation

Mon 04 Nov

Starting at $499.00

Make a reservation

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What's Included

We operate well maintained six-passenger DeHavilland Beaver floatplanes

Guaranteed window seats for all passengers

Voice activated, noise cancelling headset for each passenger

Interactive narration with your Pilot

Pick-up and drop-off by Island WIngs van from the Ketchikan Visitors Bureau on Cruise Ship Berth 2

US Forest Service Special Use Permit for Bear Viewing within Tongss National Forest

All inclusive tour

Additional Info

Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
Infants are required to sit on an adult’s lap
Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Please wear layered clothing and comfortable walking shoes.
All passengers MUST provide us a contact phone number when booking or call us at (907) 225-2444 to confirm a tour time.
Passengers travelling via cruise ship MUST provide their cruise ship name to us so that appropriate arrangements can be made.

What To Expect

Tongass National Forest

Between July20th and September 30th you can visit the bear viewing observatory at Traitors Cove. Fly by floatplane along the beautiful waterways of the lush Tongass National Forest across Revillagegedo island to a US Forest Service maintained trail and the Margarete Creek Bear Viewing platform. Bears can be seen plunging into the rushing water to retrieve their meals of wiggling salmon. This is a perfect opportunity to photograph Alaska's real fisherman in action! In addition to bears feeding, you will also see bald eagles picking over the scraps left by the bears and of course, the real stars of the show, the salmon as they battle their way upstream to spawn. Your journey will be accompanied by the Island Wings bear guide who will provide information about the flora and fauna along the way. Combine a short hike, beautiful scenery and a magnificent wildlife experience in one trip. This is a four hour tour that includes a floatplane flight, a one mile drive by van on a US Forest Service road and a short hike along a boardwalk trail to the viewing platform. Be sure to wear comfortable walking shoes and bring plenty of camera batteries! The US Forest Service restricts access to Margarete Observatory by permit. As a result, only small numbers of people have the opportunity to visit this beautiful site, so book early! The four hour Traitors Cove bear viewing tour includes: a thirty minute flight each way and three hours at Traitors Cove. All tours include complimentary ground transportation to and from our dock which adds fifteen minutes to the beginning and the end of your tour. For this four hour tour you will need to budget four and a half hours total time. Season: July 20th through September 30th.

Cancellation Policy

All sales are final. No refund is available for cancellations.

Traveler Photos

Reviews (29)

Agalinmissouri

Aug 2016

This was the most expensive of all of the excursions which we booked, so we had high expectations. We paid $1460 for a party of four, or $365 per person). I do not feel it came close to being worth what we paid. Especially given that the experience was not as advertised or discussed. When reading the info regarding Traitors Cove Bear Watching, this is what I expected....a remote area which was described on the website as: "The US Forest Service restricts access to Margarete Observatory by permit. As a result, only small numbers of people have the opportunity to visit this beautiful site, so book early!" In reality, there were people at the Observatory (an overlook near a stream) when we arrived, and another tour group arrived after we got there. It is not as remote or as restricted as one would imagine by the description on the website. I had visions of bears fishing...as described on the website: "Bears can be seen plunging into the rushing water to retrieve their meals of wiggling salmon. This is a perfect opportunity to photograph Alaska's real fisherman in action!". Pay attention....Bears CAN be seen....we saw no bears at the Observatory. We were at the observatory for over an hour and saw nothing but mosquitos. Fortunately, our guide knew of another area where bears had been spotted, so he took us to this area. After a waiting a while, we did see a few bears in the distance....a mom with two cubs, and a couple of others. Our guide was a wonderful host and I have no ill will toward our guide who was kind, friendly, and tried his best to make sure we had the best possible experience. We tipped him to let him know he was appreciated. But when thinking about the overall experience, I have to say it was, at best, average. When reading on the website about the pilot the entire focus is on Michelle. The write ups about her and all of the great reviews about her are what convinced us to use this company. In fact, when I scheduled, I actually confirmed that Michelle would be our pilot (since we were a group of women, we thought it would be cool to have a woman pilot). During the planning, I was assured that she would definitely be our pilot. Unfortunately, that was not the case. On the day of our excursion, we were picked up near the cruise ship dock, and taken via van to the office of Island Wings Air Service. Once we arrived we were told by a staff person that Michelle would not be piloting us. We were told that her plane had been taken in for an inspection/service and was not available. They told us that someone else would be taking us....someone we knew nothing about.... but they assured us that he was a good pilot. The plane was small and we were crammed in. Front: Pilot and patron, Next row: two patrons with the Island Wings guide crammed between them. Next row: two patrons. In the very back: one patron. In other words, it was our group of four, the pilot, the guide, and two other people who were not in our group. Our pilot was nice and did a great job. The landing was very smooth, and by the time we landed we had built up our confidence in him. After our somewhat disappointing bear experience...we were told by our guide that the guy who flew us there would not be picking us up. It would be A DIFFERENT PILOT. Once again, we were asked to fly with someone we knew nothing about...and who looked like he had partied all night. (Not trying to be rude, just being honest). We were crammed in again for our flight back. This flight was a bit more bumpy and the landing was not as smooth. Pilot was nice enough, but the professional experience we expected based on how nice the website is. Ultimately, the experience was not what we expected or confirmed and was very disappointing for the $$ we paid. We deserved better. Please take this information to heart, and ask all of the questions you need to...if you decide to use this company. If I ever make it back to Ketchikan, I will look for a different company to travel with. The only reason I am giving it an average is because of our wonderful guide....otherwise it would be lower.

IN_Travelers47906

Jan 2014

We wanted to see bears feeding on salmon, so we elected to go to Traitor's Cove with Michelle Masden's Island Wings Air Service. The summer had been very dry, so the salmon were not running; however, we did see 8-10 bears as they passed through Traitor's Cove. Additionally, since there were no salmon, the bears came up the bank near the viewing stand, and we got up close and personal with a mama and her two cubs. This was all very nice, but it was the flight in and back that truly made the day. Michelle and her staff performed exactly as advertised. Her plane held 8 tourists, we all had headsets, and she gave us a beautiful view of the area from the air along with a running narrative and answers to our questions through the headsets/microphones. Flightseeing is one of the activities that make travel to Alaska so unique, and Islands Wings provided a superb experience.

she23

Aug 2013

Even though we didn't have the best experience when booking with Island Wings (put on hold for a LONG time by an employee who was not very friendly), we loved our float plane ride to Traitor's Cove for bear viewing. We actually ended up flying with Randy from Mountain Air Service. Not sure why. We checked in at Island Wings with some other folks from various other ships, and we were put on two planes, one from Island Wings and one from Mountain Air. One guy asked, "Mountain Air? I thought we were with Island Wings. Are we on the right plane?" One of the employees said, "Yeah, we share the dock." Didn't really like that we didn't know about this when we booked, but we had such a good time that I guess it doesn't matter. Randy was an excellent pilot, very smooth take-offs and landings, even if he wasn't as personable as it sounds like Michelle is. He's like a lot of men, not a big talker. In his defense, some of the people on our plane asked him a ton of questions, some of which were kinda dumb. Also, the headphones that you have to wear due to the noise of the plane had a LOT of static. Randy, if you're reading this, you need to fix this. It was very annoying. Couldn't hear the conversation due to static and voices going in and out. When we landed at Traitor's Cove, our guide Mike drove us in a van to the trailhead where we walked a short hike down to the viewing platform. Mike was great; we felt very safe with him and he was very knowledgeable. We saw a lot of bears fishing for salmon in the creek. It stinks, because there's a lot of dead fish on the banks of the stream, but you get used to it after a while. Binoculars help, especially when the bears are on the opposite side of the stream, but you can certainly enjoy the bears without binoculars. I had some but didn't use them all the time. Photo opportunities are terrific. We were on the platform a LONG time, maybe two hours? You get plenty of time to view the bears. We also saw a mother bear and her cub walk across the trail we had just come down. They climbed a tree near the trail and stayed there the entire time we were there. We also went on down the road to a bridge and very scenic area where we took some photos. Saw an eagle fly overhead and a few salmon in the creek. Very restful spot. I would definitely recommend this excursion.

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