Reaching Great Bear Lodge on Canada's west coast isn't easy. It's tucked into a remote mist-wreathed inlet in the Great Bear Rainforest, a spectacular ecosystem sprawled over 400 kilometres of British Columbia's central and northern coast. Operating on the lands of the Gwa'sala-'Nakwaxda'xw Nations, Great Bear Lodge lies at the intersection of the past and the present, and a stay here is the perfect example of how the power of British Columbia's nature connects visitors to something deeply transformative, something bigger than themselves, and something that Indigenous Peoples here have worked hard to protect for millennia.
To reach the floating cedar-clad lodge, guests must head to Port Hardy on Northern Vancouver Island and take a floatplane. As they disembark, they are greeted by host Marg Leehane's Australian accent, which is a welcoming sound for many.
"My family in Australia knock it out of me if I develop any twang," says Marg, speaking from her off-season base on Vancouver Island, as she prepares to return to her beloved lodge after two years of closures. "I'm incredibly excited to welcome guests back. Not being able to share this amazing wilderness for two years has been excruciating."
While many animals roam this juncture of temperate rainforest and Pacific ocean – including black bears, wolves, bald eagles and harbour seals –for most guests the biggest lure is the majestic grizzly bear. "It's hard for people to imagine they could be sitting 20 metres away from a bear who's just going about their day," Leehane says. "Seeing bears in the Great Bear Rainforest shows us there are still large swathes of the world that have intact and awe-inspiring wilderness - and these wilderness areas support viable populations of large animals. Seeing that gives our guests renewed energy for conservation because it's easy to focus on what we're losing instead of what we still have."
Nature dictates the schedule here as bears follow an ever-changing food supply - from snacking on estuary grass and sedges in Canada's spring to hunting early salmon in their summer. Late August is peak bear-viewing season, thanks to the salmon that swarm up their rivers of origin to spawn. They make easy pickings for bears, which need to fatten to survive winter hibernation. It's an up-close view of the circle of life and how everything in nature is interconnected.
A river winds its way beneath the mountain ranges in the Great Bear Rainforest. Photo: Destination BC
Wildlife guides, who are also biologists, lead guests on two daily bear-viewing sessions during their stay. In salmon season, this means donning warm camouflage gear and travelling to timber hides tucked into rainforest thick with Western redcedar, Sitka spruce and hemlock. Visitors contemplate the sounds – water trickling over rocks, birdsong wafting through trees - while waiting for bears to amble into view. Leehane says it's not uncommon for visitors to cry at their first bear sighting. "People often have their heart in their mouths when they see these large animals" she says. "Seeing a wild animal in its natural habitat is not an everyday experience for most people."
This is a long way from Leehane's former career in IT, in Melbourne, London and Silicon Valley. "I was thinking, I really want some more adventure in my life," she says. "I thought I'd step out of my corporate life for a year and then go back, but that was 20 years ago. I got an opportunity to volunteer at the bear lodge and I thought, I'm in a National Geographic documentary".
Turns out, both National Geographic and the BBC (Secrets of Our Living Planet) have filmed here, and National Geographic Adventure has named Great Bear Nature Tours, which runs the lodge, one of the best adventure travel companies on Earth.
Leehane's fellow Australians are also dazzled. "It's so different to everything we have at home," she says. "For people to sit quietly in that rainforest, it's an amazing experience even before you get the bears. There's also something special about being able to quietly enjoy a cup of tea on the dock in the mornings while watching the forest and ocean come to life."
The transformative power of BC's nature is referred to as The British Columbia Effect. Experience it firsthand with these selected packages from Destination BC's tour partners: Grizzly Bears of Knight Inlet (Adventure World), Great Bear Experience (APT) and Reflections of the Rockies and Alaska Cruise (Travelmarvel).
To learn more visit HelloBC.com/BCeffect
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