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I’m feeling a full confession coming on here.

I’m a planner - I think that anyone who knows me or has read a few editions of this blog will know that. I mean I have an app with photos of all my clothes which I use to make detailed packing lists for trips - as I said I’m a planner.

This trip - I was not a planner - in fact I was so out of sync with my usual approach that when asked where we were going a few days before our vacation - I struggled to articulate anything beyond Northern British Columbia and inland passage. Our friends actually pointed out to us where we were going. This is sooooo not like either Kory or me.

We’ve just been so busy with house stuff, moving and renos as well as me with the New Brunswick trip (New Brunswick photography retreat blog post) that we didn’t have time to fully research the trip. It was planned a year ago on the recommendation of our friends who ended up not being able to go - we like travelling with them and the trip sounded good, so we said let’s book it!

Our trip on the Afterglow I was called North Coast Explorer and the description of the itinerary on the website is very flexible and vague (on purpose as it was focused on going where the wildlife was and that can be unpredictable). Well much to my surprise we headed to Prince Rupert and from there north to the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary - I will admit that I was aware of the Great Bear Rainforest and the Spirit Bear Conservancy, but I wasn’t aware of Khutzeymateen - much to my embarrassment as a Canadian. The park was established in 1994 to protect critical habitat for grizzly bears and it is home to the largest contiguous stand of sitka spruce trees in the world.

What an amazing place to have access to and help to preserve the land. (Note to self: sometimes not planning ends up being soooooo much more amazing!).

How we travelled

We spent seven days aboard the Afterglow I which is a 60ft first class retrofitted vessel with kayaks and a 19ft zodiac (power boat) which enabled us to view wildlife from the boat, zodiac (for a closer view in less accessible locations) or kayaks (for those evening paddles). We also managed to get off the boat for walks every couple of days which was also a nice change of pace as beach combing is a great pastime.

There were six guests and two crew (owners Jenn and Chris) on this trip since two guests couldn't make it. I was the most serious photographer (i.e., I had the longest lens), but Jenn and Chris are well experienced running photography tours. I had an email exchange with David DuChemin just before the trip started and he mentioned that he runs photography tours aboard the Afterglow as does other notable wildlife photographers. Chris kept repositioning us (especially when we were in the zodiac) to get optimal lighting conditions on the subject - I really appreciated this.

The food was healthy, delicious and plentiful with hot cookies at 4 pm on most days.

What made the trip even more special was that we caught our own dinners on several days - crabbing the first day led to amazing boiled crab dinner with leftovers becoming crab salad (yum!).

After a few false starts and failed attempts the team got it together and caught 4 healthy sized pink salmon which was then barbecued on the top deck - so delicious and probably more so because the guests made the catch.

Five of the six guests had fishing licenses with salmon and crab tags which made it fun and flexible to try and catch dinner each day.

What did we see for scenery

I was the nicknamed the worm because I was the first to rise each day and spend time on deck watching the sunrise and surveying wildlife and bird activity (this proved to be a good thing as I was the first to see the pod of orcas that came to see us at Welcome Bay on the first morning).

The sunrises were spectacular and even when the sky didn’t burst into colour there were such subtle shades and layers of mountains and hills to see. The early morning light (sunrise was just before 6 am) was soft and delicate providing a lovely glow to the scenes.

We had great weather for the trip with some rain overnight and some morning fog, but mostly clear and warm days. This may be good for vacations, but it is not good for the salmon run as the rivers and creeks are seriously low. We noted this especially at Mouse Creek near the Sanctuary where there was a backlog of salmon at the mouth of the creek waiting to make their way upstream to spawn. The grizzlies appreciated the easy pickings though.

On misty mornings there was so much mood and atmosphere to the scenes and I think I was likely the most excited about these conditions.

The first morning out I spent so much time on deck photographing the bald eagles that were plentiful.

This juvenile bald eagle was backlit by the subtle morning light. The soft colours just barely visible through the rising mist.

It was breathtaking and I was not sure where to focus my camera lens.

Sunsets were also quite colourful and lingered with the sky continually kicking off with bands of colour.

Even the zodiac benefited from the glorious colours that played across the sky. The reflections in the water lingered well after the sun dipped behind the hills.

The landscape was dotted with small islands and inlets - so much to see and explore. Most days we ventured out in kayaks for an afternoon or evening paddle.

Very early in the trip Chris recognized that it was better to give me the radio to stay in contact with the Afterglow - Kory’s question of what his handle should be and comments about Rubber Duckie (CB talk throwbacks) led to the radio being handed to me each time we got out in the kayak.

It was fun to stretch our limbs and get a bit of an upper body workout - plus the ability to explore inlets and bays was a real treat.

Being able to get up close and personal with the shoreline was a treat as we saw all sorts of shellfish and sea plants. A very rich and diverse ecosystem.

Wildife and Bird Photography

I was quite surprised with the amount and diversity of wildlife and birds that we saw - it seemed that each day had a surprise that was even more special than the previous day’s treasure. The first morning a pod of orcas came into the secluded bay where we anchored the first night and they stayed to swim around for several hours. I really liked that we could change our plans to suit the marine and wildlife that we saw. We spent an unplanned two hours with the orcas and at one point we were ready to lift anchor when they came back in close to the boat, so we hopped in the zodiac and got to see them at eye level.

In addition to orcas we saw a lot of humpback whales. Watching them break the surface and blow out became a routine experience, but no less appreciated - well that is until they came very close to the boat and we coined the phrase whale breath - a little stinky!

We all became quite excited when we saw their tails break the surface of the water in preparation for a deep dive. We became proficient in timing them between breaths (about 5 - 6 minutes), but it was always a guess as to where they would surface. it’s surprising how far they can travel.

The highlight of the humpback whale watching was when we got to witness bubble net feeding - this is when they gather in a tight group (we saw 8 whales doing this) and then one starts blowing bubbles below surface - different sizes of bubbles so that they will surface at different speeds and form a curtain or net around the school of fish or krill. If conditions are good you can see the ring of bubbles come to the surface and then you’ll see one whale surge up through the centre with mouth open followed by other whales surfacing and gathering all the food they can.

I have learned that this is not an instinctual behaviour, but one that is learned and requires quite a bit of coordination of the group using vocalizations.

Humpback whales can gather 15,000 gallons of water in their mouths and they have 14 - 35 throat grooves that expand to accommodate the water.

They squeeze the water out through their baleens as they eat the fish. In the image you can see two whales with their mouths open on their sides and the left most whale is straight up and just closed his mouth. He is squeezing water out through the baleens and the vertical lines are the bellows that allow him to expand to accommodate the water.

We were also fortunate to see seals, sea lions and a sea otter which were very animated and curious - exploring the coastline and one seal came right up to touch noses with our boat.

The sea otters are returning to the area as the kelp beds are rejuvenating and our sighting caused a lot of excitement with local operators as they have not been seen at this location for some time.

There is great cooperation and communication between operators in the area which aides in conservation efforts and wildlife sightings.

Once in the sanctuary we shifted our focus to bears - grizzly bears and we were fortunate to find a female fishing for salmon on our first afternoon in the sanctuary.

It was a definite challenge to photograph from a zodiac as it was rarely still - using a fast shutter speed was critical and there were times that this was difficult with low light conditions in the early morning and late evening trips.

We were treated to even more exciting scenes the next day when we spotted a mother and three cubs walking along the same section of shoreline. We headed to Mouse Creek and watched her feeding on salmon and surprisingly her year old cubs were also fishing.

Mama bear looked quite drained and thin, so the high fat salmon was not being shared readily with the cubs.

There were even a couple of discipline cuffs delivered to pushy cubs. It was fun to watch them scamper along and try to fish in the creek, but mostly they tried to snatch food from mama.

It will be no surprise that I was enthralled by the birds and saw a rich diversity of species dominated by bald eagles, but we also saw oyster catchers, harlequin ducks, three types of loons, grebes and kingfishers.

I’ve posted images in the gallery as there were too many amazing shots to put in this post.

There are also galleries with more bears, whales and other marine life as well as landscapes and seascapes too.

Would I do this again?

I would most definitely consider doing another trip like this again, however I think I would be more mindful of whether my focus was photography or just sightseeing.

With weight restrictions it’s a bit challenging to bring all the gear that you need - I brought my 600mm 1.4TC lens which was great for the whales and bears, but I also brought my 100-400mm lens to allow me to get more close up images. I used my phone for landscapes, but it would have been nice to have my 24-120mm for this, oh and a macro lens for beach combing and and and….(sheesh this trip really does feed GAS - Gas Acquisition Syndrome post). Having a second camera body is also a good idea so that you don’t have to change lenses (I did get some dust on my sensor which luckily came off easily with a sensor cleaning cycle). I also think that a faster lens would be better with the low light conditions in the morning and evening - some of my images have pretty high ISO values in order to get the shutter speed up so an f2.8 lens is an advantage.

I was just so amazed by the diversity of wildlife and the access to these amazing animals. I am in awe of the amazing sights we witnessed and it makes me even more passionate about helping to persevere these special places.

Are there any incredibly special places that you’ve visited or want to visit? What makes it so special for you and how do like to experience these amazing locations? Please share your thoughts in the comments below or drop me a note using the Connect with Me button.

I hope you’ll come back soon, share a cuppa, relax and enjoy more of my musings.