Nestled far up a misty river inlet, with bald eagles standing as sentinels along its banks, live the Khutzeymateen grizzly bears.

I was lucky enough to visit these amazing creatures recently as I was turning 50 years of age. I’ve never been one for celebrating birthdays, so up until that point I had only planned to mark the occasion by getting the shingles vaccine and a colonoscopy. This was way better!

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, Glenn and I recently made a run for the Canadian border without much of a plan for where we’d go and what we’d do once we got across. Our first night in Canada, as we camped in Laverne on someone’s farmland (with permission!) outside of Vancouver, BC, I found myself zooming in and out on my iPad map trying to figure out where to go.

I happened upon a particularly winding road to the north and followed its twists and turns to the end – which was the town of Prince Rupert on the northern coast of British Columbia. Out of the corner of my eye I glanced a nearby map label ‘Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary’ and immediately thought, “I want to go there!”

I spent the next few hours scouring the internet trying to figure out how to visit the place. It seemed there were only 4 companies that were permitted access to the grizzly bear sanctuary and none of them were doing tours in 2021 (due to COVID) except one – the Khutzeymateen Wilderness Lodge. I saw on their website that they had an upcoming tour that had a few spots left. I reached out to them, sure they’d respond back that they were full and that their website just hadn’t been updated.

To my surprise Jamie, the owner, got back to me and said they had room for us. I sheepishly looked over at Glenn and said “Honey, I think I may have just booked us on a tour to go see grizzly bears.” True to his ever-easy-going nature, Glenn shrugged his shoulders, smiled, and said, “okay, sounds fun.”

So, we were off on a grand adventure!

Located in northern British Columbia, Canada, the Khutzeymateen Provincial Park is a protected grizzly bear sanctuary that was created in 1994. It’s the first and only park of its kind in Canada. The park, which supports approximately 50 grizzlies that are free to come and go, protects a large swath of land and shore in the drainage basin for the Khutzeymateen River.

The Khutzeymateen (sounded like “coots-ah-mah-teen” to me) takes its name from the Indigenous word for the area, K’tzim-a-deen. The area is important to the Tsimshain First Nations, in particular the Gitsi’iis Tribe, who have lived there for thousands of years. They work together with BC Parks (provincial government) to manage the protected area. I’m deeply grateful to the Tsimshain and Gitsi’iis peoples for their stewardship of this beautiful land, and the wildlife that rely on it like the grizzlies, since time immemorial.

Access to the sanctuary is limited. There are only a handful of businesses that hold permits to take paying guests in to see the bears. All viewing of the bears must be done by boat or floatplane, not on foot or from land. There is also no fishing, hunting, or camping allowed. 

The Khutzeymateen Inlet hosts some of the most stunningly beautiful scenery I’ve ever seen. Towering mountain ridges, mist-shrouded trees, water as smooth as glass (sometimes!), countless shades of green and more bald eagles than I could count. Even without the bears, the area is spectacular and I feel tremendously humbled to have been able to immerse myself in it.

We reached the area by floatplane, something I’ve always wanted to ride in. We had to fly under the low cloud deck to get from Prince Rupert to the Khutzeymateen Inlet – which meant we flew close to high tree-covered ridges and gigantic sheer rock cliffs on our journey. At times I felt like I could stick my hand out the plane window to tickle the tops of the trees as we flew past.

We stayed for three nights at the Khutzeymateen Wilderness Lodge, which is a floating lodge nestled into a calm little bay in the inlet. From gracious and knowledgeable guides to amazing food, our visit to the lodge was outstanding.

One of my favorite memories was trying to sleep while harbor seals (or harbour, if your Canadian!) flopped up onto the decking of the lodge – causing our bedroom to rock back and forth – all while yelling at each other in voices that sounded like a bunch of zombies and college fraternity guys were having a belching contest.

Our routine consisted of getting out of bed (thankfully the seals were early risers) – drinking coffee and eating breakfast – riding in the boat to find and watch some bears – returning to the lodge for a hot lunch – heading back out in the boat for more bears (or whales) – returning for an amazing dinner – then off to bed to be serenaded by our seal neighbors.

Wash, rinse, repeat…for three days.

The first time I was lucky enough to see large bears in the wild was when we walked among the polar bears gathering outside of Churchill, Manitoba. It was interesting to compare the two experiences. While they are both impressive sights to behold — with decidedly big teeth and claws — their behavior during our visits was remarkably different.

In the case of the polar bears, it was October and they were just emerging from their state of energy-conserving summer lethargy (they don’t really hibernate like grizzlies), preparing to spend the winter hunting seals on the ice of Hudson Bay. They don’t eat during this time, so they sort of hang out waiting for the ice to form on the bay in a languid state that seemed to alternate between sleepiness and bored curiosity. They were often interested in checking us out for lack of anything better to do and would meander in our direction (which resulted in an amazing encounter with a curious mom and her two cubs!) or would curl up to sleep outside our lodge windows.  

In the case of the grizzly bears, it was September and they were 100% focused on finding food (salmon, mussels, clams, berries) to fatten up for the coming winter hibernation. Unlike the curiosity of the polar bears, the grizzlies were completely oblivious to our existence. It was as if we were nothing more significant than a passing raven. If you watch the video(s) below, you will see the bears are constantly searching and scanning for food (with their eyes and noses), even when traversing from one feeding location to another. They had no time to take an interest in us as they needed to keep packing in the calories while they still could.

It was fascinating to have such distinct experiences…one where the bears where oblivious to our existence (the grizzlies) and one where the bears were curious and inquisitive about us (the polar bears). As for me, it seems purple is still my favorite color!

Because the grizzlies were so busy going about their business, we were able to spend a considerable amount of time observing them. This allowed us to really settle in and observe their behavior – like how they’d put their heads underwater to look for fish or how delicately they would use their claws to manipulate the food they were eating.

I was amazed at the vast distances they could cover walking and swimming along the shoreline and how they’d twist their paws to gain a better grip on the slippery rocks. I could have watched them for hours and feel so lucky to have gotten the chance to do so.

As we were sitting at breakfast the final morning, waiting for the floatplane to come pick us up and return us to Prince Rupert, I looked at Glenn and said “can we come back again next year?” Once again he shrugged his shoulder, grinned widely and said “okay, sounds FUN!!!”

So, we plan to return again – this time in June when we’ll be able to see the bears engaged in different feeding and social behavior. I truly can’t wait to go back again…but next up is that colonoscopy and the shingles vaccine!

The video above is a compilation of just a fraction of the video footage I captured of the bears and scenery we got to experience on our trip. There are several photos below, as well as a much longer version of the video with more footage of the bears if, like me, you find you just can’t get enough!

“Scout” was the first bear we encountered and over the coming days we were able to spend quite a bit of time observing him. He is a four-year-old male and this was his first summer away from his mother “Blondie” (see her below). He was super cute.

Although he’s starting to look more like an adult bear in many ways, he still had a very young face and mannerisms. In the video above you’ll see him playing with a stick and with a cockle shell in the water, as well as stopping to scratch his hind end. We were able to watch Scout dig for clams, catch fish, and walk and swim along the shore.

He was a such a sweetie and I loved his sly smirk, fuzzy ears and the mixture of blondes and browns in his coat.

“Samuel” is a six-year-old male that definitely seemed to be coming into his own. Most of the time we were with Samuel he was traveling along the shore moving into another area of the inlet to feed. It was so much fun to tag along with him. At times he would be up in the trees and you could only track him by seeing the vegetation moving or hearing him breaking branches along his walk. Other times he would emerge from the bushes to walk along the edge of the water or swim along the bank.

We saw Samuel jump logs and climb cliff faces (see this in the compilation videos). It seemed nothing could get in his way. He even stopped to eat berries, which was a wonder to behold – seeing such a large bear, with such big teeth, eating tiny little berries. The water was very calm, so during much of Samuel’s journey his image was reflected in the water which was so stunning to behold.

“Blondie” is a female estimated to be about 15-years-old. She is Scout’s mom and she’s successfully raised several cubs, including Scout’s siblings. She was big and gorgeous! She gets her name from her lighter colored hair, although this time of year her hair turns a darker shade of brown due to the high concentrations of salmon in her diet.

We had gone out in the afternoon to see if we could locate some bears and weren’t having any luck, even after moving further up into the estuary (which is occasionally possible due to the rising tide). Glenn and I had given up scanning the shore for bears and began watching a large group of salmon swimming near the boat. After a bit I happened to glance up and found myself staring at Blondie’s fluffy behind.

A thrill shot through me and all I could manage to stammer out was “B…B…Bear!”

Blondie was very busy fishing and would often carry her catch further up onto shore and into the bushes for a bit of privacy. Blondie gave us quite a show just before she departed by diving headfirst into the river with her hind legs sticking up and kicking in the air. A moment later she emerged with a fish. In the video you’ll see some footage of her coming up with the fish just after the dive.

Blondie was beautiful and there are great hopes that she is pregnant as she was seen mating this season and she is fat and healthy going into hibernation (which is key to having a viable pregnancy). It will be exciting to see if next spring she emerges from her den with some cubs in tow.

The Khutzeymateen is one of the most spectacular settings I’ve ever had the opportunity to visit. It was absolutely breathtaking in every direction. It was raining on and off while we were there so the towering ridges and rock faces would spring to life with ephemeral waterfalls.

It was also home to more bald eagles than I have ever seen in my life…dozens and dozens and dozens of them. Their white heads glistened in the misty trees and their watchful eyes tracked us as we motored along in the boat in search of grizzlies.

One afternoon we traveled out of the inlet into the Work Channel in search of humpback whales. The seas were rough, but we eventually found a pod of about 10 whales feeding on herring. At one point the whales surfaced quite close to us and the mist from them blowing air out of their spouts wafted over us…which was amazing, but quite smelly. You definitely didn’t want to lick your lips after that!

Staying at the floating lodge was a wonderful experience. From the accommodations, to the staff, to the food, to the other guests…everything was amazing. Several of our meals were made from foods gathered by the staff, including foraged mushrooms, halibut, salmon and crab. Everyone was knowledgeable, gracious and fun to be around. Glenn and I were sad to leave and can’t wait to go back again!

Just in case you didn’t get enough of the bears from the compilation video above, you can view the longer video linked below. It is very similar, just contains more videos of the bears walking, swimming and eating. I find watching them to be very mesmerizing.