Based in Haines, SEAK Expeditions offers immersive, multi-day kayak tours in Southeast Alaska, all led by passionate locals who truly know and love the area.
SEAK provides everything you need: high-performance tandem or single kayaks, paddles, and accessories (dry or semi-dry suits), along with all camping equipment and food (with custom menus that accommodate dietary restrictions). Guides do the cooking!
The Tours
- Fjord Exploration. This three-day sea kayaking expedition explores the northern segment of Alaska’s Inside Passage, along the longest fjord in North America, the Lynn Canal. Paddle through glacially carved valleys surrounded by towering mountains and coastal temperate rainforest, keeping an eye out for humpback and orca whales, Steller sea lions, harbor seals, bears, eagles, and other wildlife.
- Chilkat Islands Paddle. The five-day sea kayaking journey explores the meeting point of the Chilkat River and the Lynn Canal, where freshwater and ocean tides create a wildlife-rich coastal environment. You’ll set out from a protected cove on the Chilkat Peninsula and paddle past rocky shores, black-sand beaches, and forested coastline, with opportunities for short hikes, glacier views, and the chance to spot wildlife like porpoises, harbor seals, Steller sea lions, whales, and coastal brown bears.
- Alaska’s Inside Passage. Travel between Juneau and Haines on this seven-day sea kayaking trip through the northern Inside Passage, covering roughly 80 miles of glacial fjords, remote islands, and wildlife-rich shoreline. Explore the mountain-filled coastline, looking for humpback and killer whales, sea lions, seals, and coastal brown and black bears. The trip includes 5½ days of paddling, plus a day for hiking and exploration.
- Glacier Bay – West Arm Exploration. This five-day collaborative expedition with Spirit Walker Expeditions ventures deep into the West Arm of Glacier Bay National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for its tidewater glaciers and floating icebergs. Beginning and ending in Gustavus, you’ll travel between 5 and 15 miles each day, paddling among calving glaciers, exploring inlets, and camping on pristine beaches. Along the way, you’ll have the chance to see seals, sea birds, and whales.
- Custom Trips. Work with the SEAK team to build your dream trip—a specialty of the company’s. You could design a wilderness camping trip (where you’ll set up camp each night on a new beach) or a mothership trip, where you’ll sleep and enjoy meals onboard a chartered yacht in true wilderness luxury. Create your own itinerary or take a trip with a rough itinerary already set—for example, paddling from Sitka to Glacier Bay to Juneau.
About SEAK
Founded by husband-and-wife team Joe Oesterling and Tracy Mikowski, SEAK offers immersive, small-group wilderness adventures that connect travelers to the area. Joe, who started traveling to Alaska in the 1990s and moved to Haines in 2010, brings extensive mountaineering and paddling experience that includes search-and-rescue dog handling, Wilderness First Responder certification, and a U.S. Coast Guard 50-Ton Captain’s license. Tracy keeps operations running smoothly alongside her roles as a children’s author and manager at a local animal shelter.
