Around the World in as long as it takes.

Today we changed our plans quite a bit.

We'd been speaking to Claudia and she'd told us about a place near(ish) to Prince Rupert. It was on the border with Alaska and she showed us some pictures of the bears she’d seen there!

This got us excited as we’d not seen any Grizzly bears yet and would love to see some of these guys (in a safe environment also!)

So, in the morning I got on the phone with a few car hire agencies and found one (and only one) that did an unlimited Mieage rental (most of the cars up here work on Mileage)

It was a rainy day in Prince Rupert and by Lunch we’d arranged a car picked it up and were heading out of Prince Rupert and East towards prince George before shooting up North towards Stewart.

It was a journey of about 650k’s and we’d been told to look out for bears on the way.

Our first sighting was of a family of black bears crossing the road in the distance. There was a mother and two tiny cubs close behind, however, they were well in the bush by the time we pulled up to where they’d crossed.

We headed off and after another two hours or so we were on the outskirts of Stewart when Steph Spotted a little black dot on the side of the road.

I slowed down, put my hazard lights on and we pulled up slowly to the black object in the grass.

It was a small black bear eating grass on the side of the road. We pulled up slowely to the guy and he didn’t move…. Not an inch !

Steph was in charge of the camera and we got some brilliant Close up photos of the wee guy!

He was brilliant and after 10 minutes of watching him chomp away on the grass on the side of the road… we pulled away!

So we’d seen a bear close up and we’d not even reached Stewart yet!

We pulled in and went to our little hotel for the night. It was great little place and we decided that since it was only about 5 o’clock we’d head over the border to Hyder (Alaska)

This meant we’d have set foot in Alaska (which was originally one of the places we wanted to go, however price constraints stopped this!)

We crossed the border without going through customs (ensuring we had our passports with us for the return leg however) and headed up a dirt track towards the River Viewing Platform.

This was where (with a bit of luck) we’d maybe get to spot a Grizzly or two!

We arrived and found out we had to pay ($10 US) each for 24 hours at the viewing platform, however, we were told that at the other end there was a grizzle already there… eating fish!

WOW….. he was a small one…(so we were told) however he was cool and in his peak conditions (we were also told) as his fur hadn’t started to shed ready for his winter coat!

There were loads of Salmon in the river as we walked past and after about 5 minutes the grizzle left (having had his fill)

We thought we’d wait around for a while longer (since we’d paid the $10 entry fee)
and after half an hour a large Black Bear Strolled up the river.

This guy was big! However, he didn’t hang around as he strolled up the river… looked at the salmon in it… decided best not to bother fishing and then strolled away into the bushes!

After another half and hour another smaller black bear appeared under a bridge by the river. He popped his head up and then headed off as quickly as he’d appeared.

Then a larger Grizzle popped his head out by the side of the walkway overlooking the river.

The walkway was elevated to allow people to view the bears in comparative safety (for the bears and the people) however… in between getting on the walkway and getting to/from your car… you were in bear country.

This was quite funny as when the larger grizzle poked his head out of the bush it was right next to one of the wardens who was just about to walk to his car.

The Warden froze in his tracks…

The Grizzle looked him up and down….

Then walked down to the river to start feasting on the salmon

Very amusing (not so much for the warden!)

All the bears seemed really uninterested in their human watchers and acted normally.

It was a brilliant place and having seen a quick glimpse of a couple of small grizzle cubs and their mother behind some trees, we decided we’d head back to Stewart for tea.

We crossed the border and wre asked a few questions about where we'd been (which the guy seemed thoroughly used to tourists doing this day excursion) and popped back into Canada waving goodbye to Alaska after our 4 hour trip there!

We grabbed a pizza and eat it in bed whilst watching the TV which was in the room!

What a day trip and a diversion and thank you Claudia for making us detour over 1000k’s to see these guys.

They were brilliant !

The next day we headed back to Prince Rupert to get the car back for lunchtime and chilled for the remainder of the day.

We’d booked our ferry to Vancouver Island for the following day (along the Inside passage) and Claudia having returned from the Queen Charlottes offered us a lift to the ferry and to the hostel in Port Hardy.