Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest Is Home to the Rarest Bear in the World — Here’s How to See One

A 90-minute flight from Vancouver, the Great Bear Rainforest is the largest coastal temperate rainforest left on Earth.

“Hey, you two — ready?” Marven Robinson, a member of the Gitga'at First Nation and owner of Gitga'at Spirit Tours, asked as we lashed our dinghy to a log in a forested cove.  We were 90 miles south of the Alaska border, the morning sky was steel blue, and the water we’d just crossed was cold, dark, and deep.

Marven gathered his things:  a radio, a thermos, extra socks.  He pulled on his muck boots. “Let’s go find the white bear, then.”

We hurried behind him through the dense woods. The three of us were on an uninhabited island off the coast of British Columbia, in the middle of the Great Bear Rainforest. I’d long dreamed of seeing a spirit bear, also known as a Kermode bear, a subspecies of black bear whose white fur is the result of a double-recessive gene. But I had no idea how wild our adventure — and misadventures — would turn out to be.

My husband and I had spent weeks navigating ourselves by boat from Seattle to this remote stretch of wilderness, researching my book, "Uncharted:  A Couple's Epic Empty-Nest Adventure Sailing from One Life to Another." On this far-west coast of Canada there are no roads, but it’s possible to join one of several outfitters and explore the Great Bear Rainforest in the company of  knowledgeable local guides, which I highly recommend.

Seeing bears is all about waiting, we were learning.  And quiet. Spirit bears are extremely rare; recent population estimates put their numbers at between 100 and 500. By comparison, population estimates for wild pandas are just over 1,800. Hours crept past. We saw a black bear trailed by two cubs approach the river. We saw a second black bear. Another cub.

Marven grabbed my elbow.  All of a sudden, there it was! A giant. He was thickset, probably weighing at least 400 pounds, alabaster-pale.  At the sight of him, I was paralyzed with happiness; it was the white bear, not 30 feet from us, down to the cinnamon-fur stripe tracing its spine, its thick, cream-colored coat seeming to glow.

He was so close we could hear him huffing slightly as he crossed a log in slow motion.  Then he was past, and we watched him amble up the river, paws crunching gravel, until the forest swallowed him.

I’ve been wildlife-watching everywhere from Africa to the Arctic to Antarctica, but witnessing a white spirit bear in its dark-green forest habitat, remains one of the most extraordinary days of my life.

A 90-minute flight from Vancouver, B.C., the Great Bear Rainforest is the largest coastal temperate rainforest left on Earth. Grizzlies, black bears, white bears, wolves, whales, salmon, and bald eagles thrive here as they have for thousands of years.  These are the traditional lands of Coastal First Nations and you will learn about their rich culture while exploring fjords, islands, and river estuaries teeming with wildlife.  Here, read about the best ways to experience the magnificent Great Bear Rainforest.

Maple Leaf Adventures leads lovely ship-based journeys – including fall spirit bear trips – in coastal British Columbia aboard three small expedition yachts, May through October.

Tim Irvin's Wildlife Journeys, in collaboration with Marven Robinson of the Gitga’at First Nation, are designed for people passionate about wildlife, photography, and First Nation’s culture.  Traveling with Tim you will be in the heart of spirit bear country, staying in the small, friendly village of Hartley Bay, B.C.

Spirit Bear Lodge, owned and operated by the Kitasoo Xai'xais First Nation, offers terrific lodge-based tours out of Klemtu, B.C.  Local First Nations guides share knowledge of their traditional territory and the wildlife that calls it home.

Pacific Yellowfin is a beautifully restored 1943 motor yacht that offers six-day “rainforest safaris,” accompanied by a local Gitga’at spirit bear guide, September and October.

Excerpted from "Uncharted: A Couple’s Epic Empty-Nest Adventure Sailing from one Life to Another" (Sasquatch Books), by Lowell Thomas award-winning author and former Travel + Leisure senior editor Kim Brown Seely. Also available on audiobook, narrated by the author.

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