Hoonah, Alaska Part 2 Icy Strait Cruise Port

Is Icy Strait Point on your Alaskan cruise itinerary? Read this post before you go. 

And read this post - 10 Father's Day Gift Ideas For The Traveling Dad - if you are taking this cruise with your dad and want to surprise him with a gift.

When we were in Hoonah the first time, during Part 1 of our back to back Alaskan cruise, we went whale watching and walked into the town of Hoonah. On our return here we knew we wanted to explore Icy Strait Point as we didn't see much of it when we were here just about a week ago.

Icy Strait Point is a cruise destination and is only open when a ship is in port. Then it is open to locals as well. There is so much to do that you could spend at least half a day here. It was a short walk down a pier from our cruise ship to get to here. The first thing you see is the Duck Point Smokehouse restaurant. 

I wanted to try their crab tater-tots but we wound up not stopping in on our way back to the ship like we thought we would. We did do a ton of other fun things. The first thing we did here, or I did, was take a peek in the gift shop. Soko waited for me by the firepit just outside the store. He wasn't the only hubby who had the same idea.

To Soko's surprise, I didn't buy anything. Our next stop was to the Transporter.

There are two docking ports at Icy Strait Point. You can hop into a gondola and it will transport you to the other port or you can take a 15 minute walk on the Nature Trail.

We took the gondola ride to get from Wilderness Landing, where our ship was, to Ocean Landing.

On the Ocean Landing side we found the Information & Tours building where you can book a number of excursions. I'm sure there must have been a number of people buying tickets for a ride on the world's largest Zip Rider. 

On this side, we found a gift shop that I did look in but again didn't buy anything which again surprised Soko and even surprised myself.

That was all there was on this side to see so we took the Nature Trail back to the Wilderness Landing side. 

We came across this warning sign. "Stay calm" and "Don't run" was the advice this sign gives you when you see a bear. I was pretty sure that I would not be able to stay calm and not run. Luckily, we didn't have to find out how we would react to seeing a bear.

We saw our ship behind some trees. We left the trail and headed toward it.

We landed up on the beach where we read we would find a tide pool. 

We explored the tide pool very slowly, cautiously and carefully. The rocks were not that easy to walk on and we definitely didn't want to hurt any of the creatures on them.

We had never seen a tide pool before. We concluded that it is one of nature's most unique and amazing sights and one we were thankful that we got to experience.

Then we headed to the boardwalk and past The Cookhouse Restaurant where they serve fresh local seafood among other things. We might have stopped in here for their famous Alaskan halibut & chips if we didn't just finish having a late and huge breakfast at the ship's buffet.

At the end of the boardwalk we found the cannery museum. Icy Strait Point was built as a salmon cannery in the early 1900's and was one until 1953. In 2001 it became the tourist attraction it is today.

You learn about the process of changing from fresh salmon to canned. I bought a can of salmon on our first trip here.

Good To Know: If you buy canned salmon, do not try to take it on the plane in your carry on. It will be confiscated like mine was. Put it in your checked-in suitcase.

Just behind the museum you can find a venue for performances featuring Tlingit dancers. You can book an excursion with your cruise line to see the show which we didn't do but once we were here we wished we had.

Another thing I wanted to do was buy and eat some of these donuts. I had read about them while I was researching things to do in Hoonah. Both times we were here the line to buy donuts was very long and slow moving. We did stand on the line for them twice and left the line twice.

Behind the donut kiosk we found the ticket booth that you can buy tickets for the bus that takes you into downtown Hoonah if you don't want to walk the mile and a half to town. The cost of a round trip ticket was $5 in May of 2024. We went into town on our first trip here so we didn't need to go this time.

After checking out everything Icy Strait Point had to offer, we headed back to the ship.We saw an orca,  on our first visit, at this port. We took one last look before we boarded the ship but it was very quiet in the waters of Port Frederick and Icy Strait. 

This was the only picture of a whale we got this time!

We spent half a day at Icy Strait Point and were very entertained and we wound up not even spending a penny here. Although I would have loved to have bought some donuts. Oh well. That gives us an excuse to come back!

Read about our first visit to Hoonah here.

Hoonah, Alaska

Have you been to Alaska? Was Hoonah one of your favorite cities? Did you visit Icy Strait Point? We would love to hear all about your trip!

Hoonah, Alaska-Icy Strait Point And More

 Is Icy Strait Point on your Alaskan cruise itinerary? Read this post before you go.

If you are still on the fence about whether you want to try cruising, read this post - Cruising - A Budget Friendly Vacation.

This was the first look we got of Icy Strait Point and we were ready to leave the ship to explore another beautiful part of Alaska.

We cruise a lot. I have taken many selfies and group shots of us standing in front of our cruise ship. It is usually bright and sunny and we are wearing bathing suits and cover ups. This was not the case in Alaska. I look at this picture and somehow it doesn't look right to me lol!

This life-sized statue of an orca at the port got us excited for the Whale Watching Excursion we were doing this day. 

pic of whale

It was so cold on the boat and it was drizzling. We were very glad we wore our raincoats.

pic of boys

We saw a good number of whales. Mostly we just got a glimpse of a fin or back after we looked in the direction of a spout coming out of a blowhole.

whale pic 1

But it was definitely fun and we did get treated to watching one whale closer up who stayed near the ship coming up a few times. JT got a great video of it. This was the best shot I got of a whale that day.

whale pic 2

When we got back from our excursion we still had enough time to walk into the town of Hoonah.

We passed     

Juneau, Alaska Part 2

 Is Juneau, Alaska on your Alaskan cruise itinerary? Read this post before you go.

Is Mom traveling with you? Read this post - 10 Perfect Gifts For The Traveling Mom - to find the perfect gift to surprise her with before your trip. 

After we booked the Alaskan cruise we took with my sister, brother-in-law and two friends,

Soko saw that we could take a return cruise from the last stop of our first cruise, Seward, back to Vancouver where we started. The rest of the group we started the first half of the cruise with thought it would be too much cruising for them so me and Soko did Part 2 of our Alaskan cruise by ourselves.

Because this was our second time in Juneau we knew how to get to town. We took a short ride on the shuttle bus at the pier where our ship was docked.

It was Sunday and we had researched to find a Catholic church in Juneau that we could easily get to so that we could attend mass. We found one and used google maps to find directions to it from where the shuttle would drop us off in town. It was only a relatively short walk. We walked past this great mural, on our way, that depicted life in this area.

Google maps told us that it was not a long walk to church. It didn't tell us that the blocks we had to walk were very long and very steep. It was a strenuous trek but we finally made it to Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 

The church was so small that people noticed that we were not members of the congregation. Everyone was so welcoming and friendly. One of the parishioners stopped to talk to us on our way out of church and mentioned a nice hike we might like if we had some time. We didn't have any plans besides walking around the city and downtown so we took his suggestion and headed to Mt. Roberts Trailhead.

It was going to be a walk up another 5 steep blocks but we took it slow and enjoyed walking through the quiet and colorful neighborhood.

I hesitated a little when I saw this sign. I had never seen an "Avalanche Area" sign before. We just crossed our fingers and continued on.

Before we got to the trail, we passed by this waterfall. I didn't know where the water came from or where it was going and although it was not a natural waterfall it still caught my eye.

When we got to the trail, we were happy to see a level, wooden trail as we were not really prepared to do a hike. We didn't have our hiking sticks with us and Soko wasn't wearing his hiking boots.

When we got higher up the mountain, there were railings on the trail which we also appreciated.

The view we had from up above was breathtaking. I have noticed that in Alaska the most beautiful views have the snow capped mountains in the background somewhere.

Soko was ahead of me and stopped to take a picture. He quietly pointed in the direction of one of the trees and I caught a glimpse of an animal on one of the trees. It seemed to be looking at us as intently as we were looking at it. Neither of us could tell what kind of animal we were looking at and it didn't give us enough time to get a good shot of it.

Any idea of what this animal is? I cropped the photo but can you even see anything lol?

I didn't notice until we were heading back to the start of the trail that we the wooden trail was missing and we were walking over the sight of an avalanche. I guess that's why that sign was posted. I'm so glad we weren't in the area when this was happening!

After the fun hike, we headed back towards downtown. The steep walk down was a little easier than the walk up.

We took a different route on the way down and passed a few office buildings and spotted the Alaska flag here.

We were excited and surprised to see the Alaska State Capitol building as we were not looking for it. It should have been on our list of things to do as we were in Juneau, the states capital, and very easy to get to from the cruise port.

This William Seward statue was erected in 2017 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Treaty of Cession. Seward negotiated with Russia for the transfer of Alaska to the USA.

When we got downtown we headed straight for the Red Dog Saloon. We didn't get a chance to go inside on our first visit to Juneau.

One of the reasons Red Dog Saloon is famous is that Wyatt Earp's gun is among their huge collection of animal heads and memorabilia on display at the saloon. But it is questionable by some as to whether or not the gun on display was ever owned by Wyatt Earp. It doesn't change the fact that the saloon is a very popular and fun place to spend some time in when in Juneau.

We ordered nachos along with a couple of drinks to be able to extend our time in the packed saloon. We definitely weren't encouraged to linger after eating and drinking as there were an endless number of people waiting to have their turn to visit.

Part of the fun of the Red Dog Saloon is the entertainment. On the day we were here one of the regular performers played his piano, sang some old classics and told jokes in between each song. 

After doing some souvenir shopping downtown, it was time for us to head back to the ship. 

We had a fantastic time in Juneau and were happy we got a chance to visit for a second time.

Read Part 1 of our stop in Juneau here.

Juneau, Alaska - First Stop Of Our Alaskan Cruise

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Have you ever been to Juneau, Alaska? Was it part of your cruise itinerary? Let us know what you enjoyed most when you were there.