Day 5 – In the early AM, we cruised down Princess Royal Channel en route to Khutze Inlet where we soaked up the sunshine for an hour until we were soaked once again. The clouds caught up, mist enveloped the trees and it poured non stop for the next few days. We patrolled the coast for grizzly bears looking through conifers, bald eagles sat high above the forest canopy and finally we caught sight of a Grizzly bear asleep. We lingered around and saw another one camouflaged in between the trees, also asleep. According to our guides who’ve been seeing them since 2022 when they were cubs, they are sisters. It was so sweet, they were independent and away from their mom. More bears were supposed to be around Khutze River, a couple of miles away. We headed towards the river and were caught up in the stunning views despite the high tide and strong currents. We couldn’t go any further. From a distance, someone spotted a bear cross the river. It may have been a log. We turned back and went back out again at 4:30pm.

By that time, the paw sisters woke up and foraged for food, berries and salmon. We chased them along the coast as they swam towards Khutze River. The tide was lower, so we glided along on the zodiac and witnessed life in the heart of the rainforest under the mist. Eternal silence broken by calls of seagulls and rustling leaves. The rhythm of life carried on while we observed and were transported into another world. It felt timeless.

Goat Channel

Ursula Channel en route to Princess Royal Channel

Princess Royal Channel

Princess Royal Island

Butedale Passage

Khutze Inlet

Khutze Inlet

Khutze Inlet

Khutze Inlet

Khutze Inlet

Khutze River

Khutze River

Day 6 – All day –  Life was bustling at Khutze Inlet. Despite the unstable and wet weather, we didn’t want to miss out besides how often do you get to photograph wildlife in the rain? It added color to our journey and rawness to the atmospheric landscape which looked like a vintage oil painting. It was the “rain” forest after all, where we experienced the most spectacular grizzly bear(s) encounter. Later in the afternoon, they disappeared into the forest and we moved back to Bishop Bay to anchor, across Gribbell Island in pursuit of finding the Spirit Bear for one last time.

Day 7 – Gribble Island – We scanned the island for bears once we were loaded into the zodiac and headed towards the rocky shore. At a distance, silhouettes of humpback whale flukes and dorsal fins were seen breaking the surface. We spotted a large black bear feeding from one of the rocks across the island we were heading to, a bald eagle sat on another rock across it as if  they were in a “conversation”. We finally made it to shore and climbed kelp covered rocks to the top. We were led for a mile or two deep into the muddy forest towards the rippling stream where Spirit Bears frequently hunt. It’s also where salmon come to die.

They migrate back here after spending years in the ocean swimming against these wild currents to reach their birth place to “spawn” where females lay thousands of eggs, fertilized by males- both adults usually too exhausted to go back to the ocean so they die and their dead bodies fill the forest with nutrients. The conditions were insane, so I don’t know if any of them made it back alive. As for us, we climbed up a wooden observation platform that overlooked the turbulent stream too risky for a bear to cross. The platform shook intensly during the raging storm. We waited around for around two hours hoping the weather would get better as kingfishers landed on tree branches, a Glaucous gull was perched nearby and Steller Jays foraged by the river bank. “Can the wooden platform withstand the storm?”, I asked as the guides said they’ve been coming here for years and never seen anything like this rain. Uh-oh! They collectively agreed that our safety was a priority and maybe have better luck seeing the Spirit Bear from the boat. We soaked in the forest (pun intended) and followed a family of otters who were on the move, a short tail weasel and humpback whales that swam further away from us.

We anchored at Kitsaway Island for the night and began the journey up to Kimitat the next morning.