Grizzly Bears on the River 3 of 4

grizzly watches guideSuddenly she stops and looks toward us. The problem is that she is less than 25 meters (yards) from where I am sitting on the bow of the skiff and I had stood up and started to move the skiff backward to give her more room to fish. Wrong move on my part. She froze looking at me so I sat down and she…

Grizzly Bears on the River 2 of 4

grizzly cubs catch salmonthey suddenly turned and ran directly toward us. As the picture shows they did manage to flick a salmon on to the bar and proceeded to fight over it’s possession. One of the two year old cubs came up winner so mother continues to fish…

Grizzly Bears on the River 1 of 4

Grizzly mother and cubsI remember this day well. Prior to August 25 all grizzly bear watching is in the Glendale River estuary. It was a slow day with no bears and I was pulling the skiff up river in low water. If one waits for the water to rise with the tide it is much easier but then the water is too deep for the grizzlies to trying and catch the salmon as they try to move up over the shallow gravel bars. We had just reached an area below a gravel bar when these grizzlies appeared….

Grizzly Bear Lecture

grizzly cub turning rocksJuly and a mother grizzly bear and her cub of the year are on the beach working on a meal of mussels. The mother on scrapping them off a log while the cub was more into turning over rocks. The mother persisted on the log and was eventually join by her cub. Note: the mothers back upper leg has not regrown the fur that was rubbed off during hibernation.

Humpback in the Fog

In August and early September it is common to get some fog while whale watching in the early morning.  Usually by eleven this marine layer burns off and we enjoy a sunny afternoon.  It can make finding the whales a little more difficult in the early morning, but does make for some peaceful and dramatic scenes.  It is amazing how far the sounds of the whale’s blow travels on a calm foggy morning.

Who is Watching Who

One of the nice things about viewing the grizzly bears from the viewing platform is that they tend to ignore you entirely.  This is great as it is low impact viewing, allowing the bears to go about their business.  Once and a while a bear will glance up and check out the people.  Cubs are often especially curious and will give a stare to the lucky guests.

Into the Estuary

We use speedboats to get from the lodge to the bear viewing area.  They are fast and comfortable, but draw too much water to be effective for bear watching in the shallow estuary.  For that reason we transfer over into a small flat bottomed skiff.  Often the guide will use chest waders and just pull the boat along quietly in the shallow waters.  This lets us get good views of the bears, without disturbing their routine.

Grizzly Cub Peek-a-Boo

This photo was taken on our river trip.  We were lucky to have a mother bring her cub through the yard while we sat quietly and watched.  The mother was very relaxed as she stopped to forage on some grass.  They cub took a moment to do a bit of “people watching” before continuing to feed with her mother.