The Northern Wilderness (Great Bear-Part III)
- nwriversphotograph
- Nov 25, 2025
- 5 min read
“I’m not sure I can quite describe the feeling of being with these bears, of being so close. But close isn’t the point. Intimacy is. It’s this feeling of being given permission, by the bears, to be there, and to share in the moment.”
When drafting my Thoughts and Images From the Field postings, I am always on the lookout for a quote that sums up my most recent experience, a passage that describes my feelings in a way far more eloquent than I can do on my own. The quote above is the closest I have found that really communicates my love and reverence for wilderness and wild creatures. It is a profound statement for illustrating almost any adventure into British Columbia’s (BC’s) Great Bear Rainforest, and perfect to tell of those early mornings sitting, camera in hand, waiting (and hoping) for the world to invite you into her beauty, solitude, and mystery.
My first trip to the Great Bear was back in 2008. After moving to Bellingham, I wasted little time in exploring BC by kayaking the Wild West Coast, backpacking the West Coast Trail, and taking my family by car to camp and look for bears in Wells Grey Provincial Park and Canada’s Rocky Mountain Parks (Banff, Jasper, Kootenay, and Yoho National Parks, and Hamber, Mount Assiniboine, and Mount Robson Provincial Parks).
As I fell more and more in love with the Pacific Northwest, I heard tales of a wilderness to the north, filled with bears and wolves, and of a misty, elusive, and hard to get to area called the Great Bear … and I had to go!
With my wife Stephanie, we planned our travels over that summer and loaded all of our camping gear in (and on) our Subaru, and once the salmon spawn had begun, we headed north to BC, west to Vancouver Island and then north again to Port Hardy. From there, a ferry up the southern Inside Passage to Bella Bella and then back east to Bella Coola, and then eventually, in a few weeks, driving back home.
Once off the ferry in Bella Coola and back on dry land, my wife commented on the amazing amount of bear poo in and alongside the road. We weren’t novices, we had seen scat before… but these piles were just enormous and overflowing with berries, and they were everywhere. “I know there are bears here,” my wife asked, “but how many?” After months of planning and logistics to visit the bear coast, this remains a joke we tell every time we see bear sign. Our worries came to naught as we only saw one black bear on the entire trip… but the camping gear never came out of the car. Quaint cabins and backcountry motels seemed much safer for that initial trip.
Since then, we have tried to go back as often as possible. We have taken a small plane into Bella Bella, near the southern end of the Great Bear, another plane ride into the Khutzeymateen Sanctuary (on another trip I drove to Bella Coola and Stephanie flew in to meet me), and many trips beating around the edges of the area by car in Bella Coola, Kitimat and Prince Rupert. And now, two trips by ferry. No matter how you get there, it is definitely worth it!
On this most recent trip, we went by boat with Ocean Light Adventures, and it was everything we could have hoped for. Our first morning, soon after arriving at a rocky, moss-covered mountain stream, we saw our first spirit bear. This bear, along with coastal wolves, was the primary reason why Stephanie and I had come.
The Spirit Bear, or moskgm’ol (white bear) in the Kitasoo/Xai’xais language, was, in oral tradition, created by the Raven (“Goo-wee) to remind people of a time when glaciers covered this land, and about the hardships that ancestors faced during that earlier time. In 1905, when this bear was first formally described by Western science (Ursus americanus kermodei), it was named for Frank Kermode, a former director of the Royal B.C. Museum in Victoria. By whatever name, the spirit bear is culturally important and symbolizes peace and harmony for the local Kitasoo//Xai’xais, Gitga’at, Heiltsuk, and Wuikinuxv tribes (and I suspect, anyone lucky enough to visit this special region).
If you really want to get close to the true mystery of the wild, to connect with indigenous people and rare species that many will never encounter, to test your camera skills and patience, and to enjoy that intimacy that only comes in close proximity to those elusive ursine and canine predators on the coast, then spend your time in the Great Bear.
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Wherever you are with your camera, it is always wise to have a clear understanding of your strengths and weaknesses. For me, as a photographer, being twenty- or thirty-years younger would allow me to go further and dig deeper into the wild, to be nimbler, and more likely to get that special image. And by my own assessment, I do not feel that I am always patient enough to ever be a great photographer. What I do have (still figuring out if this is really positive or a negative?) is the willingness to spend entire days sitting streamside waiting for that special light or species (different than patience, I just love it!), to maybe be happier communing with birds and bears than crowds of people, more at home in the woods than civilization. In considering that, I came across the following quote, perhaps more harsh than eloquent, but definitely on the mark:
Me – “We like companionship, see, but we can’t stand to be around people for very long. So we go get ourselves lost, come back for a while, then get the hell out again.”
ENDNOTE
If you follow my blogs and photography, you know that Bella Coola in BC is one of my favorite destinations. A wild, remote, and wonderful place at the very end of the road. I have friends there after so many trips, and it is such a wonderful community. So my heart and prayers go out to everyone up there after last week’s bear attack that sent at least three school children and a teacher to the hospital. No insight yet on why the bear (maybe with cubs?) did an unprovoked attack on so large a group. Rare, and a reminder that wild animals are – wild. Best wishes for a speedy recovery, both to the children and teachers’ hurt and for the community at large. Much love to Bella Coola!
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