Grizzly bears thrive here and the viewing opportunities are spectacular. We have operated our Grizzly Bear Lodge for decades and know the prime spots for bear watching. The ultimate grizzly bear photo opportunities.
Lindy Taylor from Great Britain provided this great photo of a grizzly bear that “just” caught a salmon below the viewing stands on Knight Inlet’s Glendale River. If you take time to enlarge this photo you will see that the pink salmon is still bleeding. This bear had just come to feed and had not been splashing in the water because it still has litter from a daybed on its back…fishing eating tomorrow.
Steller sealions migrate along the coast of British Columbia in the summer, going north in the spring and returning in the fall. Several dozen large males have started to stay with in our viewing area all summer due to the abundance of food. Singapore’s Luwen and Liwen took this photo of a branded Sealion in late September. It was on a small island in Johnstone Strait near Telegraph Cove on Vancouver Island.
The western (Pacific Ocean) stock of Steller sealions is listed as endangered. In 2000 researchers begin branding and marking Steller sea lion pups throughout their range as a means to help estimate future population. The number 322R means this Sealion was branded on the Southern coast of Oregon at Rogue Reef in 2003 with 190 other Steller sealions.
One of the most often asked question whether a lone grizzly is a male or female? A male is usually bigger than the female and his head appears to be smaller in comparison to his body. Females appear to have shorter legs and are a bit squatter in appearance. Luwen and Liwen from Singapore provide the photo showing the tried and true way to tell the males from the females, which is to watch them urinate. The males urinate forward, and the females backward! If you are lucky enough to see or photograph that, then you will know without a doubt whether the bear you are seeing is a male or female grizzly.
These are probably the most photographed pilings in the area of the lodge. They are located in the Glendale River estuary about an hour and fifteen minutes from Grizzly Bear Lodge on Minstrel Island BC. This is also the location of you tour day with the grizzly bears. The pilings are what remain of an old logging camp and next to the float that is used for the day’s base. The base being where we tie the boat to move to a large skiff used for viewing the bear along the shore in the spring or to transport guests to the shore in the fall to drive to the viewing stands up river. The float is also a comfortable place to have the afternoon picnic. The pilings are used as perches for gulls, eagles and in this case a blue heron. Lynn Morris from Great Britain has captured the heron with an excellent “mystic” background.
It is harder to get a good picture of a bald eagle than one would think. Not because there are few eagles because eagles are found on the grizzly bear tours, the whale safari and the extra day at the wild river. First is that eagle tend to sit near the tops of trees making their back ground either a blue or a cloudy sky. Second is to position the boat far enough away from the eagle so the photo seems on the same level as the eagle but close enough for a good photo. It all comes down to finding a eagle low in a tree close to the water and wildlife in not always cooperative and eagles will often fly further down the shore or higher if approached to closely. The answer in the digital age is many photos and a little luck and you will have one like Lynn Morris’s “Eagle in a Tree”.
This photo form one stand toward the other shows an interesting occurrence. The mother grizzly with two two-year old cubs had passed our viewing platform and walked down the road toward the other stand only to come face to face with another bear walking out of the spawning channel area to the natural river on the other side of the road. What happened? Nothing, the bears passed and went on their way. The abundance of food in the area means that there is little aggression between grizzlies as long each respects the other’s comfort zone. A large male may dominate the viewing area for a while but it just means that the other bears wait until it leaves before coming to feed.
From August 25th to early October the grizzly bear tour from Grizzly Bear Lodge goes to the Glendale River on Knight Inlet on uses one of two viewing platforms located near a man made salmon spawning channel. The two stands are less than seventy-five meters (yards) apart and each provide excellent opportunities for close up bear viewing. The above photo provided by UK’s Lynn Morris shows a grizzly bear walking beneath the viewing stand. It does show how close the bears come to the stand but not the “grandeur” of the bear….. view of other stand tomorrow
This photo provided by Lynn Morris is one most guest want to capture. The grizzly with a salmon in it’s mouth the other being a video of a grizzly bear catching the salmon. If you enlarge the photo you will notice many salmon in the water in front of the bear and yesterday’s post shows the abundance of salmon in this section of the river.
A great photo by Lynn Morris showing the numbers of salmon in Knight Inlet’s Glendale River. From late August to early October it is these salmon that bring the grizzly bears to our viewing area. This area is about an hour and fifteen minutes by boat from the lodge on Minstrel Island. At this time of the year the grizzly bear tours use a viewing platform which overlooks the entrance to a manmade spawning channel and for the bears this is like “fishing in a barrel”. The spring and early summer viewing occurs along the shore and in the estuary of the Glendale Cove which attracts the bears because of the abundance of high protein sedge grass, the tidal flats and rocky shore with their animal protein.
After some time in the water the mother grizzly and cub moved up the beach toward the river mouth. One can see that the tide has started to rise and the beach is disappearing and this means that the bears will move up toward the shallower estuary and river mouth. Fortunately once we arrive by boat from the lodge we switch to a large flat bottom skiff which permits us to follow the bears as they move into this shallow area. This enables good close up pictures from a stable boat, which allows guests to move about without fear of tipping or rocking. Yesterdays posted photo and today’s are just two of the many provide by Marc & Solange
Just like that our season has come to an end. I would like to thank all of our wonderful guests and staff who made this year a huge success. I am happy to stay that all of our team is planning to return next season. We are actively taking bookings, with dates starting June 1 2025. Hope to see many of you next season.
The wildlife viewing this season was awesome. A couple highlights that come to mind was the shear number of salmon in our local rivers, as well as the abundance of Resident Orca. With salmon returns being so strong this year, we were happy to see bears in excellent condition. By the end of our season most of the bears had packed on a lot of weight and were getting very “picky” about what parts of the salmon they would eat. Hopefully this will translate into more cubs being born this winter. Another positive was the weather conditions. We had enough rain to keep our fire risks low and it made for some excellent wild berries. The bears took full advantage of this, with the berry season extending far past its normal conclusion. This did mean that we had to work hard to find bears during our summer season, (as they were often feeding on the berries deep into the forest), but moving forward it is excellent that they had such an abundant food supply. The Humpbacks also didn’t disappoint, with great numbers and a few new calves returning with their mothers to feed. After a slower year for resident Orca sightings, this season was one of the best that I can remember. In fact as Im writing this the A62 and A23’s are still being spotted in the area by dedicated biologists. Strong numbers of Chinook and Chum salmon are providing them with a steady food source. There are a lot of positive signs and we are hopeful that 2025 will be another great season.
Over the winter and spring we will be doing some repairs and maintenance. We plan on having a new cedar front deck built in time for the 2025 season, as well as new ceilings and paint in parts of the lodge and rooms. Theres always projects on the go.
Felix, Julien, Ryan, Zack and Myself all look forward to welcoming guest in June. See everyone soon.
Angus Reid
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