All posts by Lodge Guide

Grizzly Bear Tour Seasons

Grizzlt in Glendale Estuary

The grizzly bears tours from our lodge have one important date and that is August 24th.  After to the 24th we are permitted to travel up the Glendale River valley and use the viewing platforms, which overlook the manmade spawning channel (October 24th posting an example). Prior to the 24th we use a 5.5 meter (yard) skiff to view grizzlies in the river estuary and along the banks of the river (October 23rd posting an example). Today’s post could be from either viewing time because going up to the viewing platform does not mean that we abandoned a tour up the river, if time permits.

 

Moon over Knight Inlet

Moonrise

On a rare night when the sky is clear we have the moon from the front deck of Grizzly Bear Lodge.  The length and size of Knight Inlet has an effect on the marine weather in the area of the lodge.  Most evenings a high marine overcast rolls up Knight Inlet to block out the moonrise. Fortunately this marine cloud covering burns off by ten in the morning to produce a clear day.

 

Grizzly bear at the gate

Grizzly wanting INThe viewing stands Grizzly Bear Lodge uses in the fall are located on Knight Inlet’s Glendale River. The stands are large enough to accommodate twelve guests but we only take a maximum of five per tour. The approach ramp to the to the viewing platform is a gated steel cage for a reason. The reason is the subadult bear (that equates to teenage human male) who are curious and like to investigate their surroundings. If this were a zoo we would be the ones in a cage.

 

Extra Lodge Day

walk to TrappersFrom the scenic walk along the edge of the river to the view from the deck of Trapper Rick’s cabin the extra day at the lodge with the Trapper is hard to explain. The best explanation was one I got this summer from a guest. He said it is what city people idealized it would be like to live in the woods and enjoy nature without the interruption of job and neighbours.  Maybe a little of Thoreau’s walden pond was part of the explanation.

Trappers deck

Waiting for Salmon

Grizzly Sitting

The viewing stands we use after August 24 offer some interesting photo opportunities.  In the case it is a grizzly taking advantage of a strategically placed rock to rest while it waits for salmon to move up river into the spawning channel. The height provides a better view of the approaching salmon and a good position to launch an attack.

Humpback Whales Feeding

Lunge feeding whale

 

 

Humpback whales over the past seven years have become a common sight in our viewing area. Rather than traveling to the Alaskan waters to feed they are spending their summers along the southern coast of British Columbia. The colder, coastal waters attract the humpbacks because in the summer months the area is rich in prey, including small schooling fish such as herring, capelin, and pilchard, as well as krill. The whale will lunge through a shoal of prey with mouth gaping open often exploding at the surface with both food and water. They may eat up to 1,400 kg (3,000 lbs) of food a day.

Late Afternoon at the Lodge

Grizzly Bear Lodge

Most of the day trips from the Lodge return by 4:30, which leaves a couple of hours of down time before dinner. Guests congregate on the front deck, walk the beach, hike the trails behind the lodge or read in the sunshine. The other and for most the more important activity is to check their days photos. It is also the time guests exchange e-mails so they can trade pictures if they are not able to do that on their laptops.

 

 

Grizzly on Whale Watching Tour

Grizzly on Tour

The grizzly bear population of Knight Inlet is healthy and growing. Over the past five years the number of sightings in the lower portion of the inlet near our lodge has increased. This past summer a grizzly visited our island for about a week before it moved on down the inlet. This photo was taken coming back from a whale watching day when we found a grizzly swimming between islands. It was working its way to Johnstone Strait, which separated the mainland from Vancouver Island that now has a small population of grizzlies. Historically there have never been grizzly bears on the Island but that changed six years ago when the first bear appeared near Kelsey Bay and more have arrived every year.

 

 

Black Bear Tours

Black Bear

The idea of a black bear tour is a little misleading as every tour could end up with a black bear sighting. However on your first evening at the lodge we spend an hour or more going for an evening tour to find black bear. The success of the trip depends mostly on the tide because if the tide is high there is no beach and therefore no bears. But this photo shows that some evenings are successful and the reason that part of the bear is cut off is I was trying to show the location of the bear to the boat by getting the bow search light in the picture (that white arc in the lower left corner).

 

 

Steller Sea Lions at Rest

Steller Sealions

Steller sea lions range throughout the Pacific Rim (from northern California to Northern Honshu in Japan, and to the Bering Strait). Steller sea lions are highly gregarious and they use traditional haul out sites (an area used for resting) on remote and exposed islands. These sites can be rock shelves, ledges, boulders, and gravel or sand beaches. Adult Steller sea lions eat a wide variety of fishes, including Pacific herring, pollock, salmon, cod, and rockfishes. They also eat octopus and some squids. Over the past five years more of these sea lions are spending their summers in our viewing area rather than traveling to more northern waters.