Spirit Bear Lodge

Dining Area

Bear-viewing Tour Overview

A Eco-Cultural Wildlife Tour with Spirit Bear Lodge is a Unique Experience Each day we travel by boat into the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest from our base at the Spirit Bear Lodge in Klemtu, BC. Our guides lead guests in search of Spirit bears, grizzlies, eagles and a host of other wildlife.

Heli-Research Tour

Spirit Bear Lodge, in partnership with the Spirit Bear Research Foundation is offering an exclusive and unique, once-in-lifetime opportunity to make a contribution to the important scientific understanding of the bears of the Great Bear Rainforest. With the use of a private helicopter, guests will move between high alpine research sites in the traditional territory of the Kitasoo/Xaix’ais people, flying over snow-capped peaks, thundering waterfalls and glacier carved granite bowls. Guests will engage in a hands-on research approach that honours the cultural importance and sensitivity of the bears. Grizzly, black and spirit bears – as well as wolverine, cougar and wolf – visit our non-invasive hair snagging stations. Caught on remote camera, these animals visit the sites and leave tiny amounts of their hair on a barbed-wire corral they must cross over. From a few hairs, leading-edge molecular techniques can reveal the species, gender and even individual identity of the visiting animal. Chemical signatures in hair can reveal diet and even hormone levels – all without harassment of these special animals. Come join us in making scientific history on the first research project of its kind.

Who Takes Our Tours?

Spirit Bear Lodge has hosted people in Klemtu from all over the world. Our guests come from countries such as Britain, Germany, France, Ireland, Australia, Japan, the US and Canada. A diverse background of clients such as bear and wildlife enthusiasts, professional and amateur photographers, wildlife biologists and people interested in an authentic cultural experience in the ancestral lands of a West Coast First Nation make each trip a wonderfully enlightening and educating experience, both for the clients and the staff. Each person who has visited our village has had different motivations for visiting and taking an eco-cultural tour. Many of our guests come to see Grizzly Bear or the rare Spirit Bear, many come to rejuvenate their souls in the wilderness and solitude of the Great Bear Rainforest and some guests are here to learn more about the unique ecological and cultural knowledge has been passed down through the millennia by the Tsimshian people. Some of the mental attributes of happy guests are a sense of wonder, a sense of adventure, patience and an understanding that wild creatures don't always move according to our schedules. As for physical attributes - our daily bearviewing adventures take us to hidden rivers and broad, braided estuaries. Trails can be overgrown, uneven and sometimes we make our own. Guests should be physically active and good mobility is essential for travel on the trails and for embarking and disembarking our vessels onto rocky shorelines and beaches. The rewards are often intimate encounters with some of nature's most charismatic creatures in some of nature's most awe-inspiring places.