Wildlife View Blog

This was another wildlife Highlight of my 2025 Canada trip for me! I saw Grizzlys!

We went from Telegraph Cove notheast to Knight Inlet, which has great chances for bears supposedly. And this worked out perfectly! Our destination was the curve of the inlet, where a big curve is, where they seem to hang out a lot. On the way there and also again on the way back we saw a mother with 2 cups turning rocks. And at the spot in the curve we saw another mother with a cup. In both cases we got very close, probably around 80-120m.

16.07.2025 Google Pixel 6a, 4k Photo, different zooms

Location: Telegraph Cove, Knight Inlet

Grizzly watching tipps, that i can safely recommend:

1.) Go with boat. First of all u are fast and can scout much area. Second the guides know where to look and have their 5-6 spots that might be far away but still reachable by boat. Third comes safety: You do not wanna come close to Grizzlys on foot! And forth respect of nature: The Grizzly seemed not to have noticed us, except for one time – but more on that further down.

2.) This is more a note, than an advice: As far as i know, u basically have to go far and take a lot of time, if u wanna do this from Vancouver Island. That means: Day Trips. Those are of course more expensive, but totally worth it. If I compare price with the whale watching tours, the experience is worth the money because u definetly get more time with the animals. If I would hgave went just 3 hours, i would probably have had just 1 hour for watching the animals, which doesnt seem efficient.

3.) Knight Inlet is a very good location. The 2 guides I went with told us, that (I think they ment this year) they only 1 time didnt see the bears. In every other case they saw at least, mostly more than one bear. Also they were constantly watching the coasts left and right, which makes me think they expect them to show up there. Knight inlet has a boat docking station just in the corner half way where supposedly pretty much always are bears. Because of that it gets a little busy there. We saw a floatation plane, another boat, and a kayaking group – u even have to “book” watching hours when u are there – crazy right? It didnt seem to bother the bears much though. They were pretty busy looking for tide leftovers under the stones, whoich brings me to the next advice:

4.) Watch the tides. When tide is very low or its getting there, bears go out and look for leftovers, crabbs, fish under the rocks. I beliebe we went 8-16 (day trip) and low tide was around 12 – so perfect conditions. If i remember correctly high tide is also good if you are near rivers, because then the rivers get full of salmon, which the bears try to catch. But this happens more later in the season (when its salmon time) and mostly at small rivers.

5.) In non tidal areas with bears: Try to go in the morning or evening. I did a lot of research and pretty much every one with experience (i dont have much) says that, so its probably true.

6.) Season: For seasons look further down at my post about black bear watching.

7.) From boat u dont neccissarily need a good camera in my opinion. Im not sure the 300m distances still count because its on water, but we definetly went closer. I would say we went around 80-120m from the bears.

8.) Other locations: I know that u can take also boat trips out of Campbell River. But if I remember correctly, they are a little more expensive and go further away, so you pay more money for less time. I also know, that there are several good spots inland on the west coast. The Nemaiah Valley got recommended to me and I would imagine there are alot more good locations alongside the coastal mountains – just do some research. And then of course there is the great bear rainforest. For exact locations: I know Simon d’Entremont did a video where he and Jaworsky spent time near Gill island i think.

Good advice in general is: Look out when you are driving. If you drive certain parts of the coastal mountain region it is supposed to happen evntually – just be carefull then. From a car its safe too, the bears dont recognize you as a person in some cases, so they wont get bothered as much, just in general a good idea in my opinion. On Vancouver Island many people told me they would see a lot of black bears there from car.

9.) I went with the boat “grizzly girl” (dont remember the company), which i can totally recommend. They packed wraps for lunch, offered coffee and drinks, and they told us a lot about bears and grizzlys especially – it was just great!