Tag Archives: Bears

Grizzly bear watchers from the viewing stands on the Glendale River often see a number of bears together in a small area. The abundance of easily caught salmon means that it is not necessary to fight for the best fishing hole. The grizzlies are more tolerant of each other as this photo shows to different mothers with their cubs sharing the same set of rapids. They may keep as eye on each other but rarely are protective of their “spot”.

Grizzly bear tours in the fall, after August 24th, use the viewing platforms on Knight Inlet’s Glendale River. This is an hour and quarter boat ride from the lodge and then a fifteen-minute van ride along the river to the viewing area. The platforms are located near the entrance to a man-made spawning channel that has a holding area for the salmon before they enter the channel. This holding area is the main attractions for the grizzly bears because of the abundance of easily caught salmon. In this case the grizzly decided to just sit and wait to see what might swim by to provide the next meal. Not all fishing grizzlies are aggressive or action bears.

The grizzly bear trips from the lodge travel up Knight Inlet to the Glendale River estuary. The bears come to this area in the spring because of the protein rich sedge grass, which keeps them going until the salmon arrive in late August. The grazing rights are shared with British Columbia’s black tailed deer. The upper beach along the shore of the river estuary is more or less rock free which gives the deer an advantage for a quick escape. The grizzly have come to accept their grazing partners and realize the chance of catching a deer is not worth the calories wasted. 

Mid July on a grizzly bear tour up Knight Inlet to the Glendale River estuary and a family of grizzly bears grazing on the breach. A family with first year triplets. One to the left of the large rock, one on the rock and one just behind the right edge of the rock. Sorry the best I could do while maneuvering the boat so we would not get to close and scare them into the high sedge grass. Twins are common in the area; triplets’ not that unusual and this past summer there was even as set of quadruplets a first for the lodge viewing records. On this day the guests got some great pictures much better than mine but that is the most important part of being a guide to ensure the guest photos a better than the guides.

The Glendale River, which flows into Knight Inlet, is a tidal river located about an hour and fifteen-minute boat ride from the lodge. As tide rise we can go up river in a shallow draft eighteen-foot skiff and follow the bears.  On this day a mother and cubs were slowly grazing in the sedge grass along the riverbank as they made their way up river. The orange arm in the photo belongs to a guest and provides some perspective of the closeness of the bears. We followed this family for about thirty minutes before they wandered into the forest.

The grizzly bear tours from the lodge after August 24th as permitted up the Glendale River to watch the grizzlies catch and eat the spawning salmon. In this case the two year old cubs wants a share of mother’s salmon but mother thinks that at this age it should be catching it’s own food. Grizzly cubs have been known to stay with their mother three or four years if she does not become pregnant but they could also be denning on their own after the second summer.