Canada terrain is prime bear viewing territory. Whether you’re perched on an elevated viewing platform, floating on a boat surrounded by pristine wilderness, or on-board a Tundra buggy getting up-close-and-personal with magnificent polar bears – you’ll find endless ways to view bears in their natural habitat in Canada. Here are just some of the best places to find them.
Polar Bears of Churchill
Churchill is one of the few human settlements where polar bears can be observed in the wild. Thousands of visitors from around the world visit each autumn for the excitement of seeing these magnificent animals. Prime viewing times are in October and November, when the bears begin their move from their summer habitat on the tundra back to seal-hunting territory – the pack ice that forms every winter over Hudson Bay.
There are many different ways to see Churchill’s polar bears. Unique local tundra vehicles, designed to move smoothly over snow and ice, protect passengers from curious or hungry bears. You can also stay at a wilderness lodge (complete with protective fence) built on the bears’ migration route, canoe Seal River, or take guided walks to areas the bears frequent.
Grizzly Bears of Knight Inlet
There are few places in the world where so much magnificent wildlife, scenery and native culture can be experienced from one location. Knight Inlet is such a place; in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest, Knight Inlet Lodge offers guests spectacular scenery and wildlife amidst tree-lined shores and snow-capped mountains.
The floating lodge is tucked into Glendale Cove, home to one of the largest concentrations of Grizzly bears in British Columbia. There are often up to 50 bears within 10 kilometres of the lodge in the autumn, when the salmon are returning to the river. Although they are abundant in the fall, it is not the only season that grizzly bears can be found in Glendale Cove. Located 80 kilometres by air north of Campbell River, British Columbia, is a wild and remote area of the Pacific Northwest known as Knight Inlet.
As the longest fjord on the B.C. coast, Knight Inlet offers visitors spectacular scenery set against a backdrop of dramatic mountain peaks plunging into the Pacific Ocean. Situated 60 kilometres from the mouth of the Inlet is Knight Inlet Lodge. The floating lodge, tucked into Glendale Cove, offers one of the few protected anchorages in the inlet, and it is here that you will begin each day’s adventure.
Farewell Harbour Lodge
Owned and operated by the Brockway and McGrady families, the mission at Farewell Harbour Lodge is simple: To help guests experience the profound beauty of the Broughton Archipelago and the Great Bear Rainforest. With west coast style ocean-side accommodations, sumptuous meals and engaging, passionate guides who will lead you on daily adventures deep into the heart of this wild and beautiful part of the planet, Farewell Harbour Lodge is a wilderness wonderland.
Farewell Harbour Lodge is located in a place blessed with some of nature’s most charismatic wildlife, where wild Orca skip over the blue Pacific waves, where mighty Grizzlies forage in lush coastal estuaries and where the towering evergreen forest seems endless. And let’s not forget the wild Salmon upon whose foundation all this richness rests
The bear viewing excursions available can take you deep into one of several different river systems in search of wild bears. You may travel 90 minutes to a system by a covered water taxi before disembarking onto one or two smaller zodiacs. In some systems you will even get to disembark the zodiacs and proceed on foot or on small motorized vehicle and explore the lush rainforest in search of bears. Farewell Harbour Lodge doesn’t use viewing platforms; they prefer to seek out bears in their natural environment and view from small zodiac or from land on the same eye level as the wildlife around you.
Frontier’s North Tundra Buggy® Adventure
The official Tundra Buggy® Adventure offers the most access to the Churchill Wildlife Management Area, one of the best locations in the world to view and photograph polar bears in the wild. A Tundra Buggy® Adventure with Frontiers North is about more than just the buggy; specially designed, these all-terrain vehicles enable them to take guests out onto the tundra and safely view wildlife in their natural environment.
Tundra Buggy® drivers are experienced tour leaders and passionate adventurers who are knowledgeable about the tundra ecosystem and are skilled at positioning the buggy for optimal photography opportunities and wildlife viewing. There is also the unique chance for guests to stay overnight in the Churchill Wildlife Management Area. This option offers guests the opportunity to spend their nights in the Tundra Buggy Lodge, which is situated in the heart of polar bear country.
The Tundra Buggy Lodge offers a unique, immersive experience where guests can fall asleep and wake up with polar bears right outside the window, with viewing platforms allowing for outdoor photography. Situated far from the lights of town, the Tundra Buggy Lodge is the perfect place to view bears all day long and have optimum northern lights viewing at night (weather permitting).
