Amazing Wildlife Encounters in Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest

Rotting salmon attracts hungry grizzly bears

All photos by author.

The Great Bear Rainforest is a vast area of coastal rainforest in western Canada. It’s a pristine habitat for grizzly bears, and during the late summer and autumn, salmon come up the rivers to spawn, creating a feeding frenzy for the bears. That’s exactly why my boyfriend Craig and I wanted to visit.

An Unforgettable Journey

It’s a pretty remote area of Canada, so getting there wasn’t easy or cheap, resulting in a 10-hour ferry from Vancouver Island or a 500km drive along a notoriously dangerous mountain pass.

We decided to hedge our bets by taking the ferry there and driving the steep gravel road back out, creating a loop. The ferry was very expensive at $700, but it was still cheaper than paying for a half-day grizzly bear tour.

As far as ferry rides go, they don’t get much better than this one. Throughout the sailing, humpback whales were rising to the surface and blasting water into the air. As we moved northeast, we entered smaller inlets where sea otters lay on their backs and even more humpbacks were visible around us.