Grizzly Bears...Yes Bears...Whales and Eagles Too!!!!

The drive to Prince Rupert on Saturday was again really beautiful. We made our way along the Skeena River toward Port Edward and Prince Rupert beyond. There was more incredible scenery. It rained off and on with promise of more later in the day so it was no surprise that it was raining when we arrived at our RV park. Prince Rupert, although a good sized town it home to only 1 so we had little choice of where to stay. The Park itself is not one of the nicest that we have been in and the mud caused by all of the recent rain doesn’t make it any more attractive. That being said, the people are really nice and we seem to have crashed a family reunion of sorts being the 4th trailer assigned to 1 of 4 sites being occupied by 3 siblings with 2 more staying at a local motel. They have taken us in and we have been sharing dinners together along with a lot of great stories.
Sunday we got up at the crack of dawn….actually no…dawn was about 4 AM, we got up at 5:15 in order to catch the Prince Rupert Adventures charter boat at 6:30. We headed off with a full load of camera gear including by new wildlife lens, a Sigma 150-600mm zoom which by the way was not the largest lens on this cruise. It was amazing how many photography enthusiasts were on board including the Captain who was sporting a monstrous 1000mm ($10,000) lens. This was helpful because we got plenty of time to photograph because he was out there too. When we scheduled the trip we found out that it is the last Grizzly Bear tour that they are offering this season so we had concerns that there may not be a lot of Bear activity but I have been trying this entire trip to see and photograph Grizzly Bears so we decided to take the risk.
The tour was 7+ hours long and took us out of Prince Rupert, through the Metlakatla straight and into the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary. It was a 90 minute boat ride to the mouth of the preserve which would allow us up to 4 hours within the Sanctuary to look for Bears depending on how much wildlife we saw on the way in. There are starting to be whales in the area with this boat starting whale watching tours this week.
Well it wasn’t long before the party began. They were surprised that we ran into (not literally) 2 pods of Orcas before we even left the Metlakatla straight. They had obviously just fed because they were “goofing off” according to the crew. They were literally frolicking. They would jump out of the water, roll on their backs and slap their fins and tails on the water. Very cool to see…very hard to photograph. I did get a couple of nice shots but really just enjoyed being in the moment. The other thing that I didn’t anticipate was again the beautiful scenery. The sun was coming up behind the clouds and lighting the water beautifully.

We cruised for a while and headed up the arm that entered the protected area. We had a little lecture on bear etiquette that was interrupted by seeing our first bear. We weren’t even in the Sanctuary yet so we knew we were in for a great day. We were surprised to learn that these bears, since they essentially live on the ocean, do not eat Salmon for the most part. They eat a special kind of grass that is very high in protein that grows on the seashore and is most accessible to them at low tide…hence the early departure for us humans. What was also a surprise to us was that they also like clams apparently. It was a real testament to their sense of smell because you could see them sniff the ground then dig with their massive claws and they always found one. Then they would hook a claw in the shell, peel it open and eat the meat in one swift move. Very impressive really. It was great how close we were able to get and to witness them in the wild behaving as they always to. They were aware of our presence but unconcerned as long as we were quiet and moved slowly. These are wild bears that live in an area that has been set aside as a no kill zone and is accessible only by water and only by permit so very few get to witness what we did.

On the way back we were treated to a number of humpback whales. Although none breached for us we did get to see a lot of tail. The sun glistening off of their backs was really magical. As if that wasn’t enough we stopped before we entered the harbor and “called in some Eagles.” I think this ritual was a go-to for the Charter company, if they didn’t get to see much on the rest of the cruise. Although the Eagles are obviously accustomed to being fed (and recognized the boat incidentally) it was an amazing spectacle to witness. I got such incredible shots that I doubt that I could ever surpass them.

We have spent the rest of the time going to Museums, eating fish and chips and sampling local Beer. We have feelers out for a fishing charter but we don’t know if that will pan out yet. If not there is an old Cannery in Port Edward that is a National Historic Site that is supposed to be really interesting and a couple of hikes that we would like to do. We may also try fresh water fishing if the Charter doesn’t happen. Thursday we head to Smithers for 3 days. Hopefully during that time highway 97 will reopen so that we can stay on our planned route. It has been closed for 3 weeks due to fire. If not….we’ll punt. Stay tuned.