British Columbia: Bella Coola and the Grizzlies of the Great Bear Rainforest

1. Day 1: Arrive in Vancouver

   Vancouver International Airport to your hotel in downtown Vancouver

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Vancouver
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Vancouver International Airport (YVR), where a driver meets you in the arrivals hall for the drive into the city, about 14 km and half an hour, to a central hotel. The group meets in the early evening, so landing by mid-afternoon leaves time to settle in. If you arrive early, walk the seawall around Coal Harbour, where floatplanes land below the North Shore mountains, or wander the brick streets of Gastown. At about 6 pm your See Sight Tours guide gathers everyone for a briefing on the week: why the two long road days come early, what the Hill on Highway 20 is like, how the bear-viewing platform works and what not to bring to it, and how the luggage limit on the small plane home from Bella Coola affects your packing. Then we walk to a restaurant nearby for a welcome dinner together, a first chance to meet the people you will share the road and the riverbank with.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Vancouver International Airport (YVR)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner

   Free time: Free until the early-evening briefing

   Activity: Plan to land by about 3 pm; the exact meeting time comes with your final itinerary.

   

2. Day 2: The Sea to Sky Highway to Whistler

   Vancouver to Squamish on the Sea to Sky Highway, then Whistler

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Whistler
   Day 2 details

   We leave at about 9:30 am, after the commuter traffic, and follow the Sea to Sky Highway north along the cliffs above Howe Sound, a fjord where the Coast Mountains drop into the sea. First stop is Shannon Falls, a few minutes' walk from the car park to a waterfall of about 335 metres. Further on, Brandywine Falls drops about 70 metres into a basalt canyon. We reach Whistler around midday, about 125 km and two hours of driving in all, and after lunch on your own in the village we visit the Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre with a local guide. It introduces the two Nations who share this valley through carved canoes, weaving, a pit house and a longhouse, and it is a good first step for the week, which ends with Nuxalk carvings in Bella Coola. The rest of the afternoon and the evening are free in the car-free village: a walk around Lost Lake, a patio, or an early night before tomorrow's long drive.

   Included

   • Shannon Falls
   • Brandywine Falls
   • Guided visit to the Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre in Whistler

   Optional experiences

   • Whistler Village Gondola and PEAK 2 PEAK
   • Audain Art Museum

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free in Whistler

   Activity: Short walks only, about 1.5 hours on foot in total.

3. Day 3: Over the Duffey Lake Road to a Cariboo ranch

   Whistler to Pemberton and the Duffey Lake Road, Lillooet and Marble Canyon, then Clinton and the Cariboo Highway to the Williams Lake area

   • Drive about 5.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Williams Lake
   Day 3 details

   The first of two long road days back to back, about 420 km and five and a half hours of driving, and over our four-hour cap because there is no shorter road north: we break it into stretches of under two hours. We leave Whistler at about 8:30 am, pass Pemberton and climb the steep, winding Duffey Lake Road, stopping on the lakeshore. Near Lillooet we look down on Seton Lake, then sit down to lunch in Lillooet, Mile 0 of the gold-rush Cariboo Wagon Road. After lunch the country turns dry: sagebrush, benchlands and the limestone cliffs of Marble Canyon, where we stretch our legs at Crown Lake. We join the Cariboo Highway past Clinton and 100 Mile House, through ranch country of lakes, aspen and open grassland, and arrive in the Williams Lake area in the late afternoon. The evening is at a ranch: time to walk out to the corrals or sit on the porch, then dinner together.

   Included

   • Stops at Duffey Lake and the Seton Lake lookout
   • Sit-down lunch in Lillooet
   • Walk at Crown Lake in Marble Canyon Provincial Park
   • Evening and dinner at a Cariboo ranch

   Optional experiences

   • Horseback ride at the ranch, if offered (paid there)

   Free time: Early evening free at the ranch

   Activity: One of two long road days, about 5.5 hours of driving with four stops and no stretch over about 2 hours. The Duffey Lake Road is steep; tell us if you get carsick and we will seat you up front.

4. Day 4: Highway 20 and the Hill to Bella Coola

   Williams Lake across the Fraser River and the Chilcotin Plateau to Anahim Lake, then down the Hill into the Bella Coola Valley

   • Drive about 7 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Bella Coola
   Day 4 details

   This is the trip's longest day and the reason it exists: about 456 km and seven hours of driving on Highway 20, the only road to Bella Coola, inside a day of about nine and a half hours. We leave at 8 am so the Hill is driven in good light. The road crosses the Fraser River and climbs onto the Chilcotin Plateau, a high country of grassland, pine and lakes; we stop at Bull Canyon on the Chilcotin River, at Tatla Lake, and for a sit-down lunch in the Nimpo Lake and Anahim Lake area. Then Heckman Pass, at about 1,500 metres, and the Hill: built by valley residents in 1953 after the government declined, it drops from about 1,500 metres to the valley floor, with roughly 10 km of steep gravel switchbacks at grades up to 18 percent and single-lane stretches. We stop at the top and halfway, and our professional driver takes it slowly. At the bottom the forest closes in, cedar and fir of the Great Bear Rainforest, and we reach the valley by about 5:30 pm for dinner.

   Included

   • Bull Canyon on the Chilcotin River
   • Tatla Lake stop
   • Sit-down lunch in the Nimpo Lake and Anahim Lake area
   • Heckman Pass and stops on the Hill
   • Dinner in the Bella Coola Valley

   Activity: The longest day: about 7 hours of driving with five stops and a sit-down lunch. The Hill is a steep gravel descent; tell us if you dislike heights and we will seat you on the mountain side. Mobile coverage is patchy on the plateau.

5. Day 5: Nuxalk petroglyphs and the bear platform

   Bella Coola to Thorsen Creek, then up the valley to the Belarko platform on the Atnarko River

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Bella Coola
   Day 5 details

   A slow morning after yesterday's drive. At about 9:30 am we meet a Nuxalk guide at Thorsen Creek, near Bella Coola, and walk a short forest trail beside the creek to the petroglyphs: faces and figures carved into the boulders beside the creek by Nuxalk ancestors. Your guide explains what they record and what the Nuxalk Nation is doing to protect them, and the walk back passes old cedars hung with moss. Lunch is in the valley, then the afternoon is free to rest, see Bella Coola's wharf, or visit Hagensborg, settled by Norwegian families in 1894. In the late afternoon we drive about an hour up the valley into Tweedsmuir South Provincial Park to the Belarko bear-viewing platform, a raised walkway over the Atnarko River managed by BC Parks and the Nuxalk Nation. In September grizzlies come down to fish salmon in the shallows, often later in the day. We stay into the early evening, quietly, until the platform closes (times subject to BC Parks platform hours), then come back for dinner together.

   Included

   • Thorsen Creek petroglyphs with a Nuxalk guide
   • Lunch in the Bella Coola Valley
   • Late afternoon and early evening on the Belarko bear-viewing platform on the Atnarko River
   • Dinner in the Bella Coola Valley

   Easier option: Skip the petroglyph trail and rest in the morning; the platform is a short level walk from the van.

   Free time: Afternoon free in the Bella Coola Valley

   Activity: The petroglyph trail is short, roughly 500 metres each way, on uneven, rooty ground; the guided visit takes about 2 hours. Bears are never guaranteed. Dress warmly for the platform and leave scented products behind.

6. Day 6: A river drift for grizzlies

   Bella Coola Valley to the river put-in and back, with an optional early-morning platform visit

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Bella Coola
   Day 6 details

   If you want a second chance at the platform, your guide drives out early to be there when it opens for the day (subject to BC Parks platform hours, usually around 7 am in peak season), the one early start of the trip, with a packed breakfast; everyone else sleeps in. Bears often fish in the cool of the morning, and the platform is quieter before the day visitors arrive. Mid-morning we meet a licensed local river guide for a drift-boat trip of about three hours on the river: no motor, just the guide rowing quietly downstream, which lets the boat slip past gravel bars where bears fish and eagles wait. The river and the put-in depend on water levels and the operator's permit, so the exact stretch is set on the day. Lunch together afterwards, then the afternoon is free: walk the short trail to Clayton Falls near the Bella Coola wharf, browse the valley's small galleries, or rest. Dinner is together tonight, and your guide goes over what the group saw.

   Included

   • Guided drift-boat trip on the river with a licensed local operator
   • Optional first-opening session on the Belarko platform
   • Lunch in the Bella Coola Valley
   • Dinner in the Bella Coola Valley

   Optional experiences

   • A second river drift (paid locally)
   • Flightseeing over the Coast Mountains (paid locally)

   Easier option: Skip the early platform visit and take the afternoon off after the drift.

   More active option: Join the early platform session, then in the afternoon walk a forest trail with your guide where BC Parks has it open in bear season.

   Free time: Afternoon free in the Bella Coola Valley

   Activity: Seated in an open drift boat for about 3 hours; it is cold on the water in the morning, so bring a warm layer, gloves and a rain shell. Life jackets are supplied.

7. Day 7: Fly to Vancouver and the Museum of Anthropology

   Bella Coola Airport to Vancouver International Airport by scheduled flight, then the University of British Columbia and downtown

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Vancouver
   Day 7 details

   The road in took two days; the way out takes about an hour and a quarter. After breakfast we drive the short way to Bella Coola Airport for the scheduled flight to Vancouver on a small aircraft, with the Coast Mountains and inlets below on a clear day; the flight time is set by the airline's schedule and we confirm it with your booking. Our vehicle and driver head back by road. In Vancouver, the guide meets you off the plane and we go straight to the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, about 15 minutes from the airport. Its Great Hall holds carved poles, canoes and house posts from First Nations of the Northwest Coast, and you can trace what you saw at Thorsen Creek and in Whistler. We reach the downtown hotel in the late afternoon. In the evening we sit down together for a farewell dinner.

   Included

   • Scheduled flight from Bella Coola to Vancouver
   • Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia
   • Farewell dinner

   Free time: Late afternoon free in Vancouver

   Activity: Small aircraft: one soft bag of about 20 kg; we confirm the limit with your booking.

   

8. Day 8: Depart from Vancouver

   Downtown Vancouver to Vancouver International Airport

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast
   Day 8 details

   A free morning after breakfast. Walk the Stanley Park seawall to the totem poles at Brockton Point, browse the Granville Island Public Market, or take a last coffee by the harbour, where floatplanes come and go below the North Shore mountains. Your guide is around to help with directions and last questions and to say goodbye. At the time we agree with you, a driver takes you from the hotel to Vancouver International Airport (YVR), about 14 km and half an hour; we plan the transfer so you reach the airport two to three hours before an international flight. Please book a flight home leaving after about 1 pm. If you would like more time in Vancouver, we can add hotel nights before or after the trip; ask when you request to book, and we will tell you what the hotels cost on your dates.

   Included

   • Drop-off at Vancouver International Airport (YVR)

   Free time: Morning free in Vancouver

   Activity: Book a flight leaving Vancouver after about 1 pm.

   

Wildlife and weather: September and early October in the Bella Coola Valley are often 10 to 18°C with rain likely on some days; mornings on the platform and on the river are cold, and the Chilcotin Plateau can see frost by late September. Wildfire smoke can haze early-September views. Grizzly and black bears come to the Atnarko for the salmon run: pink and chum salmon arrive from late August, which is early in the run, and coho continue into October. BC Parks gives the platform's peak season as September 1 to October 30, so we run September to mid-October. Sightings are never guaranteed. Bald eagles gather on the river at the same time.

• Vancouver1 night
• Whistler1 night
• Williams Lake1 night
• Bella Coola3 nights
• Vancouver1 night