Heading off the beach to the top of the tidal zone in search of berries. Climbing over barnacle and seaweed covered rocks is avoided by using a strategy placed log.

Not hard to tell that this mother has a cub that needs to be nursed. We watched this mother and her cub eating berries at the top of the beach for about a half-hour, on one of the whale watching trips, before the cub moved into the bush and the mother on to the beach. The cub likely wanted to nurse but the mother was after more food while the tide was still low enough for her to turn over rocks.

This is a closer visit from orca. The white in the bottom of the photo is the stern corner of our boat, which puts the orca about five meters (yards) and closing. Sometimes the best way to watch wildlife is to stop and let them watch. Killer whales are members of the dolphin family and are curious. It is not uncommon to have them go off course and swim near the boat.

This past summer was excellent for the number of eagles feeding on the schools of herring and for the number of days we viewed the activity on the wildlife safaris. The larger the schools of herring in our viewing area mean many more humpback whales, more salmon to attract killer whales and more eagles feeding. The base of marine activity is the abundance of herring.

The viewing stands we use on Knight Inlet’s Glendale River provide excellent opportunities for photos. The March 25th and 26th postings are from this location as is today’s photo. This grizzly bear is less than 15 meters (yards) from the camera lens as it makes a meal of the salmon it just caught below our viewing platform. This grizzly is sitting on the bottom and enjoying its meal.
Humpback whale lunge feeding on a school of herring. As the years pass more and more humpback whales are remaining all summer in our viewing area. Ten years ago it was one or maybe two now a dozen whales on a whale watching trip is the norm. More whales increase the opportunity for photos of lunge feeding and…
The opposite of yesterdays post is a killer whales going some place. This orca a member of a pod that was passing through Blackfish Sound towards Johnstone Strait (both part of the Inside Passage). The bow wake tells us that this orca was not wasting time as it came toward and passed beneath our boat.

That’s a wrap on the 2026 season at Sailcone’s Grizzly Bear Lodge. It has been an amazing year. We welcomed guests from all over the world and witnessed one of the best salmon runs in decades.
I would like to thank our crew who looked after our guests from May until October. We are very fortunate that they are all planning on returning next season.
On the wildlife side it was truly an epic year. We saw a number of bears with new cubs and had an amazing salmon run. With these conditions the survival rate for these cubs is high. On the water the Humpbacks were abundant, with a large numbers hanging out in Knight Inlet in the early season and lots in our whale watching area throughout the year. The resident Orca were abundant and we also had a lot of Biggs Orca sightings.
For 2027 we are continuing to refresh the rooms, with new ceilings and paint. We will also have our floating sauna operational for the start of the season. More information on that to come.
Thank you again to everyone who visited us in 2026, to our staff and our travel partners. We are booking quickly for 2027 so if you want to visit us next season inquire soon.
Looking forward to seeing you next year
Angus Reid (Owner/Operator)
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