Wildlife View Blog

In summer 2025 ive been doing a trip to the Vancouver area. For land animal wildlife watching in the Vancouver area in summer Whistler is pretty much the place to go.

You can do a day trip from Vancouver. If thats what you want, you should have accomodation in North Vancouver or get up early because of traffic.

I much rather recommend to stay at least 1 night in Whistler – there is a lot to do there in the summer: mountainbiking, taking the gondola up the mountain (worth it), suspension bridge up on the mountain, hiking.

From a wildlife view perspective i recommend the gondola, because you can see black bears from there sometimes, and mountain biking, where you will also might see a bear.

One of the activities I did was going offroad with a 4×4 with a guide to some more distant bear watching spots. We looked at the trees and the grass, but couldnt see any bear. In the end we went to creek valley mountain area where we saw a cinnamon bear / brown black bear with a cup.

11.07.2025 – Google Pixel 6a, Full HD Video, full zoom.

Location: Whistler Creekside (drive with car to Fairmont heritage and then go on foot or with bike on the FSR up).

The interaction with the two bears took about 15min. We had to be very quiet but one of us had to cough and the bear noticed us. It immediately looked at us and stood up. Then we had to stay quiet and not move. Then the cup flew to the woods (but came back later) and the mother approached a little, but in a relatively chilling mood – probably to check out if we are a danger. We started to move more togerher to represent a bigger threat to them. Then the bear turned around to its cup. A little later they both came back out together and ate berries – interesting behaviour, it was amazing to witness!

Here are some tips I can give you for black bear watching in Whistler:

1.) Inform yourself about recent sightings if possible. There are close to 60 bears between the two mountains (whistler mountain+blackcomb mountain+creek valley).

2.) July is a great time to go because its berry season and many bears come out of the forest to the berry bushes which are mostly in better visible areas. Also their cups are still very small and cute. From what I heard and researched Mai-July is excellent for bears in general, since they come out from hibernation and look for food. The females with cups usually hibernate longer (End of April like).

3.) Be very careful if you go alone. Black bears usually are afraid of you, but they will attack if you come to close and they have cups. Our guide always made sure to keep a 100m distance to the cinnamon bear with cup. I also recommend a bell or clapping with hands. That way the bears wont be surprised by you.

4.) Bring a scope or a good camera, since you will probably maintain that 100-150m distance.

5.) Time of day: Early morning or evening

6.) You can go on the FSR (Forest Service roads) on foot or with bike (but not with car) here.

7.) I can recommend whistler creek for lodging, especially “foreside lodge”. There were bears regulary coming out in the evening and jumped on cars or ran threw the backyard – people told me.