Icy Strait Point

This is stop where cruise lines stop each day in the season. The pier and the facilities were originally a canning plant. The plant went bankrupt many years ago. This is an interesting case of how a bad thing was turned into a better thing. The cannery was gutted and remodeled into a large area where there are now stores selling tourist things to cruise line passengers who are brought ashore in the life boats. In addition, from this point, a number of land excursions are available and one of the world's longest zip lines has been built. The tours employ local people and the zip line charges US$ 100 for a 90 second ride down the hill. The village itself is cannot be more than 1000 people, most of then natives. We took off in a bus to see if we could find bears. The tour went about 10 miles inland to an area which had been developed for tourists consisting of a mile long walkway with 2 or 3 platforms to 0bserve. We actually saw a bear about a half mile away but it was a leap of faith to say we saw it. We returned to the pier area, got a tender back to the boat and were ready to head south to Victoria via the inland passage.