Great Bear Lodge

Nestled at the mouth of a pristine river within First Nations territory, the floating Great Bear Lodge has a spectacular location for watching grizzly bears as well as black bears, wolves, otters, mink and bald eagles.

Featuring in BBC series Secrets of Our Living Planet, the lodge is reachable only by seaplane, 50 miles north-east of Port Hardy (flight included in your tour). This charming, intimate lodge has natural wood decks and a small cluster of bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms and showers, using wind and solar power for minimal impact.

The Great Bear Rainforest stretches over eight million acres, twice the size of Africa’s Serengeti. This coastal ecosystem revolves around the annual return of five species of Pacific salmon each autumn, offering unforgettable opportunities to watch bears catching their dinner in the vicinity of the lodge.

There is nothing quite like seeing your first grizzly emerge from the forest. The bears are generally most active in the morning and late afternoon, so viewing sessions focus on these times. As part of your tour, there are two grizzly bear viewing sessions per day with a wildlife biologist as a guide (arrival and departure days have one session each).

Estuary sites are reached by boat, while river sites are reached by a wilderness track. While the local bear population reaches its peak in the salmon season in late summer and autumn, during the spring and summer bears are seen feeding on sedges, succulents and grasses of the river estuary.

Other popular activities from the lodge are interpretive rainforest walks to examine bear signs and boat excursions to explore the glacier-carved inlet. In the evening, enjoy a dinner of traditional dishes such as salmon baked on a cedar plank with a marinade of maple syrup, mustard seeds and balsamic vinegar, then enjoy some incredible star-gazing under dark skies free of light pollution.

Great Bear Lodge is open from May to October, with tours usually lasting four nights (three nights at the lodge and one night in Port Hardy).